The setting is the time of the Judges (1) “in the days when the judges ruled.” The Judges were deliverers appointed by God for special tasks. This is the period between the death of Joshua and the time that Saul began to rule as king. The story begins with a funeral and ends with a wedding. The time of the Judges is summed up by Judges 21:23, “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” The book of Ruth is a love story on many levels.