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Ruth 1
Ruth
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Chapter 1
I.
RUTH AND NAOMI
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.
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Yahweh grant that you find rest, each of you, in the house of a husband.’ And she kissed them. But they wept aloud
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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,
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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.’
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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.
Chapters of Ruth
1
2
3
4
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