Ruth 1

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