1In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem in Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.
2The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the fields of Moab and remained there.
3Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4They took Moabite wives for themselves; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the second was Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years.
5Then the two of them also died, Mahlon and Chilion, and the woman was left bereft of her two children and of her husband.
6Then she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in the field of Moab that Yahweh had visited his people to give them bread.
7So she went out from the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return, each woman to her mother’s house. May Yahweh deal loyal love with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9May Yahweh grant that you find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.
10And they said to her, “No, but with you we will return to your people.”
11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they could become husbands for you?
12Turn back, my daughters, go; for I am too old to belong to a husband. Even if I said I have hope, even if I were to belong to a husband tonight and even bear sons—
13would you therefore wait until they grew up? Would you therefore refrain yourselves from belonging to a husband? No, my daughters, for it is far more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me.”
14Then they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you; for wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
17Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death separates you and me.”
18When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she ceased speaking to her.
19So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred over them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
20But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for Shaddai has dealt very bitterly with me.
21I went out full, but Yahweh has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, when Yahweh has testified against me and Shaddai has brought disaster upon me?”
22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, she who returned from the fields of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
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