1 Naomi’s Husband and Sons Die Now it happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the fields of Moab 1:1 Lit he, and with his wife and his two sons.
2 The name of the manwasElimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sonswereMahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they came to the fields of Moab and remained there.
3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
4 They took for themselves Moabite womenaswives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
5 Then 1:5 Lit both of them both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and her husband.Ruth Is Determined to Go with Naomi
6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law and returned from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that 1:6The personal covenant name of God, a form of I AM WHO I AM, cf. Ex 3:14-15 Yahweh had visited His people to give them 1:6Lit bread, cf. Bethlehem (house of bread), Ruth 1:19 food.
7 So she went forth from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May Yahweh 1:8 Lit do, cf.1:17; 2:11, 19 show lovingkindness with you as you have 1:8 Lit done, cf.1:17; 2:11, 19 shown with the dead and with me.
9 May Yahweh grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12 Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons,
13 would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has gone forth against me.”
14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth said, “Do not press me to forsake you in turning back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your peopleshall bemy people, and your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may Yahweh do to me, and more, ifanything butdeath separates you and me.”
18 So she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she 1:18 Lit ceased to speak said no more to her.
19 Then they both went until they came to Bethlehem. Now it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and 1:19 Lit they the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
20 She said to them, “Do not call me 1:20 Lit pleasant Naomi; call me 1:20 Lit bitter Mara, for 1:20 Heb Shaddai the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
21 I went out full, but Yahweh has caused me to return empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Yahweh has answered against me, and 1:21Heb Shaddai the Almighty has brought calamity against me.”
22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the fields of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.