Ruth 1

Back in the days when the judges were running things, there was a famine in the land. And a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab for a while, with his wife and his two sons.

The man's name was Elimelek, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to Moab and stayed there.

And Elimelek, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.

They married Moabite women, one called Orpah and the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.

Then Mahlon and Kilion died too, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.

So she got up, she and her daughters-in-law, to go back home from Moab, because she'd heard there that the Lord had come to the aid of His people and given them food.

So she left the place where she'd been living, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they set out on the road back to Judah.

And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go on back, both of you. Go home to your mothers. May the Lord be as kind to you as you've been to the dead and to me.

May the Lord grant that each of you finds rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

“No,” they said to her. “We'll go back with you to your people.”

But Naomi said, “Go home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could be husbands for you?

Go home, my daughters. I'm too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me — even if I had a husband tonight and had sons —

would you wait for them to grow up? Would you stay unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It's more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's hand has gone out against me.”

And they lifted up their voices and wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth held on to her.

“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

But Ruth said, “Don't ask me to leave you, or to turn back from following you. Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.

Where you die, I'll die, and there I'll be buried. May the Lord deal with me, ever so harshly, if anything but death separates you and me.”

When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to talk her out of it.

So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they got to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up over them, and the women said, “Can this be Naomi?”

“Don't call me Naomi,” she said. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.

I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has spoken against me. The Almighty has brought trouble on me.”

So Naomi came back from Moab, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her. And they arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was starting.