Naomi Loses Her Family in Moab and Sets Out for Home
1In the days when the judges governed, a famine struck the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 2The man was named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion — Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They arrived in the country of Moab and settled there. 3Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, and they lived there about ten years. 5Then Mahlon and Chilion also died, both of them, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband. 6So she set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab, for she had heard there that Yahweh had come to the aid of his people and given them bread. 7She left the place where she had been living, her two daughters-in-law with her, and they took the road back to the land of Judah. 8Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house. May Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. 9May Yahweh grant that each of you find rest in the home of a new husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10They said to her, “No — we will return with you to your people.” 11But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could become your husbands? 12Turn back, my daughters, go — I am too old to have a husband. Even if I said there was hope for me, even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons, 13would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you shut yourselves off from marrying for their sake? No, my daughters — this is far more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has struck me.” 14Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and left; but Ruth clung to her. 15Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Go back after her.” 16But Ruth said, “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you. Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will 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, if anything but death separates me from you.” 18When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said no more to her about it. 19So the two of them went on until they reached Bethlehem. And when they arrived, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Can this be Naomi?” 20“Do not call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made my life very bitter.” 21“I went away full, and Yahweh has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when Yahweh has testified against me and the Almighty has brought misfortune on me?” 22So Naomi returned from the country of Moab, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, came with her. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
