Ruth 1

1It happened in the days when the judges judged that there was a famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab—he and his wife and his two sons.

2The man's name was Elimelech, and his wife's name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the fields of Moab and were there.

3Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left, and her two sons.

4And they took for themselves Moabite wives. The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.

5Then both of them also died, Mahlon and Chilion, and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.

6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law and returned from the fields of Moab, because in the field of Moab she had heard that Yahweh had visited his people to give them food.

7So she went out from the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

8And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return, each to her mother’s house. May Yahweh show you kindness, as you have shown it to the dead and to me.”

9May Yahweh grant that you find rest, each of you in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

10But they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”

11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may become husbands for you?”

12Turn back, my daughters; go on, for I am too old to belong to a husband. Even if I were to say, ‘There is still hope for me’—even if I were with a husband tonight and even bore sons—

13Would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you refrain from belonging to a man for them? No, my daughters, for it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.

14Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go back after your sister-in-law.”

16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following after you. For where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.”

17Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death separates me from you.

18When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.

19So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

20But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has made me very bitter.”

21I went away full, but Yahweh has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, when Yahweh has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity on me?

22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the fields of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.