Ruth 1:1-22

1 Now it came about in the days when the judges administered justice that a famine arose in the land, and a man proceeded to go from Beth´le·hem in Judah to reside as an alien in the fields of Mo´ab, he with his wife and his two sons. 2 And the man’s name was E·lim´e·lech, and his wife’s name Na´o·mi, and the names of his two sons were Mah´lon and Chil´i·on, Eph´rath·ites from Beth´le·hem in Judah. Eventually they came to the fields of Mo´ab and continued there.

3 In time E·lim´e·lech the husband of Na´o·mi died, so that she remained with her two sons. 4 Later the men took wives for themselves, Mo´ab·ite women. The name of the one was Or´pah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they went on dwelling there for about ten years. 5 In time the two of them, Mah´lon and Chil´i·on, also died, so that the woman remained without her two children and her husband. 6 And she proceeded to get up with her daughters-in-law and to return from the fields of Mo´ab, for she had heard in the field of Mo´ab that Yehowah had turned his attention to his people by giving them bread.

7 And she went her way out from the place where she had continued, and both of her daughters-in-law were with her, and they kept walking on the road to return to the land of Judah. 8 Finally Na´o·mi said to both of her daughters-in-law: “Go, return, each one to the house of her mother. May Yehowah exercise loving-kindness toward you, just as you have exercised it toward the men now dead and toward me. 9 May Yehowah make a gift to you, and do you find a resting-place each one in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they began to raise their voices and weep. 10 And they kept saying to her: “No, but with you we shall return to your people.” 11 But Na´o·mi said: “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my inward parts, and will they have to become your husbands? 12 Return, my daughters, go, for I have grown too old to get to belong to a husband. If I had said I had hope also that I should certainly become a husband’s tonight and also should certainly bear sons, 13 would you keep waiting for them until they could grow up? Would you keep yourselves secluded for them so as not to become a husband’s? No, my daughters, for it is very bitter to me because of you, that the hand of Yehowah has gone out against me.”

14 At that they raised their voices and wept some more, after which Or´pah kissed her mother-in-law. As for Ruth, she stuck with her. 15 So she said: “Look! Your widowed sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Return with your widowed sister-in-law.”

16 And Ruth proceeded to say: “Do not plead with me to abandon you, to turn back from accompanying you; for where you go I shall go, and where you spend the night I shall spend the night. Your people will be my people, and your God my God. 17 Where you die I shall die, and there is where I shall be buried. May Yehowah do so to me and add to it if anything but death should make a separation between me and you.”

18 When she got to see that she was persistent about going with her, then she left off speaking to her. 19 And they both continued on their way until they came to Beth´le·hem. And it came about that as soon as they came to Beth´le·hem, all the city became stirred up over them, and the women kept saying: “Is this Na´o·mi?” 20 And she would say to the women: “Do not call me Na´o·mi. Call me Ma´ra, for the Almighty has made it very bitter for me. 21 I was full when I went, and it is empty-handed that Yehowah has made me return. Why should you call me Na´o·mi, when it is Yehowah that has humiliated me and the Almighty that has caused me calamity?”

22 Thus Na´o·mi made her return, Ruth the Mo´ab·ite woman, her daughter-in-law, being with her when returning from the fields of Mo´ab; and they came to Beth´le·hem at the commencement of barley harvest.