Ruth 1

¹ In the days of the Judges famine came to the land and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went – he, his wife and his two sons – to live in the country of Moab.

² The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons, Mahion and Chilion;[*a] they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. They came to the country of Moab and settled there.

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

⁴ These married Moabite women: one was named Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years.

⁵ Then both Mahion and Chilion also died and the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.

⁶ So she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard that Yahweh had visited his people and given them food.

⁷ So, with her daughters-in-law, she came away from the place where she was living and they took the road back to the land of Judah.

⁸ Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you to her mother’s house. May Yahweh be kind to you as you have been to those who have died and to me.

⁹ Yahweh grant that you find rest, each of you, in the house of a husband.’ And she kissed them. But they wept aloud

¹⁰ and said to her, ‘No, we will go back with you to your people’.

¹¹ And Naomi said, ‘You must return, my daughters; why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands for you?[*b]

¹² Return my daughters, go, for I am too old now to marry again. Even if I said there is still hope for me, even if I were to have a husband this very night and bear sons,

¹³ would you be prepared to wait until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for this? No, my daughters, I should then be deeply grieved for you, for the hand of Yahweh has been raised against me.’

¹⁴ And once more they started to weep aloud. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and went back to her people. But Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ Naomi said to her, ‘Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. You must return too; follow your sister-in-law.’

¹⁶ But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you and to turn back from your company, for ‘wherever you go, I will go, wherever you live, I will live.Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do this thing to me and more also,[*c] if even death should come between us!’

¹⁸ Seeing that she was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more.

¹⁹ The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival there set the whole town astir, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’

²⁰ But she said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara,[*d] for Shaddai has marred me bitterly.

²¹ ‘Filled full I departed, Yahweh brings me back empty. Why call me Naomi, then, since Yahweh has given witness against me and Shaddai has afflicted me?’

²² This was how Naomi, she who returned from the country of Moab, came back with Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.