CHAPTER 1
In the days
when the judges
ruled,
there was
a famine
in the land.
And a certain man
from
Bethlehem
in Judah,
with his wife
and two
sons,
went
to reside
in the land
of Moab.
The man’s
name
was Elimelech,
his wife’s
name
was Naomi,
and the names
of his two
sons
were Mahlon
and Chilion.
They were Ephrathites
from
Bethlehem
in Judah,
and they entered
the land
of Moab
and settled
there.
who took
Moabite
women as their wives,
one
named
Orpah
and the other
named
Ruth.
And after they had lived
in Moab
about ten
years,
both
Mahlon
and Chilion
also
died,
and Naomi
was left
without her two
sons
and without her husband.
When
Naomi heard
in Moab
that
the LORD
had attended to
His people
by providing
them
with food,
she
and her daughters-in-law
prepared
to leave
the land
of Moab.
So she left
the place
where
she was,
accompanied
by her two
daughters-in-law,
and set out
on the road
leading back
to
the land
of Judah.
Then Naomi
said
to her two
daughters-in-law,
“Go
back,
each of you
to your mother’s
home.
May the LORD
show
you
loving devotion,
as
you have shown
to
your dead
and to me.
May the LORD
enable
each of you
to find
security
in the home
of your new husband.”
And she kissed
them
as they wept
aloud
But Naomi
replied,
“Return home,
my daughters.
Why
would you go
with me?
Are there still
sons
in my womb
to become
your husbands?
Return home,
my daughters.
Go on,
for
I am too old
to have
another husband.
Even if
I thought
there was
hope
for me
to have
a husband
tonight
and
to bear
sons,
would you wait
for them
to
grow up?
Would you refrain
from
having
husbands?
No,
my daughters,
it grieves
me
very much
for
your sakes that
the hand
of the LORD
has gone out
against me.”
“Look,”
said Naomi,
“your sister-in-law
has gone back
to
her people
and
her gods;
follow
her back home.”
But Ruth
replied:
“Do not
urge
me
to leave you
or to turn
from following 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.
Where
you die,
I will die,
and there
I will be buried.
May the LORD
punish
me,
and ever so
severely,
if
anything but death
separates
you
and me.”
So Naomi and Ruth
traveled
until
they came
to
Bethlehem.
When they
entered
Bethlehem,
the whole
city
was stirred
because of them,
and the women of the city exclaimed,
“Can this
be Naomi?”
“Do not
call
me Naomi,”
she replied.
“Call
me Mara,
because
the Almighty
has dealt quite bitterly
with me.
I
went away
full,
but the LORD
has brought me back
empty.
Why
call
me Naomi,
since the LORD
has testified
against me,
and the Almighty
has afflicted
me?”
So Naomi
returned
from the land
of Moab
with
her daughter-in-law
Ruth
the Moabitess.
And they
arrived
in Bethlehem
at the beginning
of the barley
harvest.