Ruth 1–2

Naomi’s Family in Moab

1During the time ^aof the judges, ^bthere was a famine in the land. ^cA man left Bethlehem ^dein Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while. ²The man’s name was Elimelech, ^fand his wife’s name was Naomi. ^gThe names of his two sons were Mahlon ^hand Chilion. ⁱThey were Ephrathites ^jfrom Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there. ³Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, ⁵both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.

Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi

⁶She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food. ^k7She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

⁸She said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. ^lMay the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. ⁹May the Lord enable each of you to find security ^min the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

¹⁰“No,” they said to her. “We will go with you to your people.”

¹¹But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons ⁿwho could become your husbands? ^o12Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, ¹³would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? ^pNo, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, ^qbecause the Lord’s hand has turned against me.” ^r14Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. ^stFollow your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶But Ruth replied:

Do not persuade me to leave you

or go back and not follow you.

For wherever you go, I will go,

and wherever you live, I will live;

your people will be my people,

and your God will be my God.

¹⁷Where you die, I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May Yahweh punish me, ^uv

and do so severely,

if anything but death separates you and me.

¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

¹⁹The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival ^wxand the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” ^yshe answered, ^z“for the Almighty ^ahas made me very bitter. ^b21I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. ^cWhy do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on ^dme, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

²²So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. ^e

Ruth and Boaz Meet

2Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character ^ffrom Elimelech’s family.

²Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain ^gbehind someone who allows me to?”

Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened ^hto be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

⁴Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” ⁱ

“The Lord bless you,” ^jthey replied.

⁵Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?’ She came and has remained from early morning until now, except that she rested a little in the shelter.” ^k

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. ^lDon’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. ⁹See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? ^mWhen you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”

¹⁰She bowed with her face to the ground ⁿand said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?”

¹¹Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. ¹²May the Lord reward you for what you have done, ^oand may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.” ^p

¹³“My lord,” she said, “you have been so kind to me, for you have comforted and encouraged ^qyour slave, although I am not like one of your female servants.”

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz told her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce.” So she sat beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over.

¹⁵When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. ¹⁶Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her.” ¹⁷So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about 26 quarts ^rof barley. ¹⁸She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.

¹⁹Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.” ^s

Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”

²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, ^twho has not forsaken his ^ukindness to the living or the dead.” ^vNaomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.” ^w

²¹Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.’ ”

²²So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work ^xwith his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.” ²³Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished. ^yAnd she lived with ^zher mother-in-law.