RuthChapter 1

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¹This happened back when the judges ruled. There was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live for a while in the land of Moab. He took his wife and his two sons with him. ²The man's name was Elimelech. His wife's name was Naomi. His two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the land of Moab and settled there. ³Then Naomi's husband Elimelech died. She was left with her two sons. ⁴Her sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. They lived in Moab about ten years. ⁵Then Mahlon and Chilion both died too. Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband. ⁶While she was in Moab, Naomi heard that the LORD had come to help his people. He had given them food again. So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab. ⁷Her two daughters-in-law went with her. She left the place where she had been living. They started down the road that led back to the land of Judah. ⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back. Each of you go home to your mother. You have been kind to your husbands who died, and to me. May the LORD show you faithful love in the same way. ⁹May the LORD let each of you find rest in the home of a new husband." Then she kissed them goodbye. They cried out loud ¹⁰and said to her, "No! We will go back with you to your people." ¹¹But Naomi said, "Go home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Can I still have more sons who could grow up to be your husbands? ¹²Go home, my daughters. Go on. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to get a husband tonight and to have sons, ¹³would you wait for them to grow up? Would you stay unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, because the LORD's hand has turned against me." ¹⁴Again they cried out loud. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth held on tight to her. ¹⁵"Look," Naomi said. "Your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Go back home with her." ¹⁶But Ruth said, "Don't beg me to leave you. Don't ask me to stop following you. Where you go, I will go. Where 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 that is where I will be buried. May the LORD punish me, and punish me hard, if anything but death pulls you and me apart." ¹⁸Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her. So she stopped trying to talk her out of it. ¹⁹So the two women traveled on until they came to Bethlehem. When they got there, the whole town was stirred up about them. The women of the town cried out, "Can this really be Naomi?" ²⁰"Don't call me Naomi," she told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.a ²¹I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. So why call me Naomi? The LORD has spoken against me. The Almighty has brought trouble on me." ²²So Naomi came back from the land of Moab. Her daughter-in-law Ruth, the woman from Moab, came with her. They arrived in Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was starting.