Ruth 1:1–22

¹Now it came about in the days when the judges administered justice that a famine arose in the land, and a man proceeded to go from Beth′le‧hem in Judah to reside as an alien in the fields of Mo′ab, he with his wife and his two sons.²And the man’s name was E‧lim′e‧lech, and his wife’s name Na′o‧mi, and the names of his two sons were Mah′lon and Chil′i‧on, Eph′rath‧ites from Beth′le‧hem in Judah. Eventually they came to the fields of Mo′ab and continued there.

³In time E‧lim′e‧lech the husband of Na′o‧mi died, so that she remained with her two sons.⁴Later the men took wives for themselves, Mo′ab‧ite women. The name of the one was Or′pah, and the name of the other Ruth. And they went on dwelling there for about ten years.⁵In time the two of them, Mah′lon and Chil′i‧on, also died, so that the woman remained without her two children and her husband.⁶And she proceeded to get up with her daughters‐in‐law and to return from the fields of Mo′ab, for she had heard in the field of Mo′ab that Jehovah had turned his attention to his people by giving them bread.

⁷And she went her way out from the place where she had continued, and both of her daughters‐in‐law were with her, and they kept walking on the road to return to the land of Judah.⁸Finally Na′o‧mi said to both of her daughters‐in‐law: “Go, return, each one to the house of her mother. May Jehovah exercise loving‐kindness toward ​YOU, just as ​YOU​ have exercised it toward the men now dead and toward me.⁹May Jehovah make a gift to ​YOU, and do ​YOU​ find a resting‐place each one in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they began to raise their voices and weep.¹⁰And they kept saying to her: “No, but with you we shall return to your people.”¹¹But Na′o‧mi said: “Return, my daughters. Why should ​YOU​ go with me? Do I still have sons in my inward parts, and will they have to become ​YOUR​ husbands?¹²Return, my daughters, go, for I have grown too old to get to belong to a husband. If I had said I had hope also that I should certainly become a husband’s tonight and also should certainly bear sons,¹³would ​YOU​ keep waiting for them until they could grow up? Would ​YOU​ keep yourselves secluded for them so as not to become a husband’s? No, my daughters, for it is very bitter to me because of ​YOU, that the hand of Jehovah has gone out against me.”

¹⁴At that they raised their voices and wept some more, after which Or′pah kissed her mother‐in‐law. As for Ruth, she stuck with her.¹⁵So she said: “Look! Your widowed sister‐in‐law has returned to her people and her gods. Return with your widowed sister‐in‐law.”

¹⁶And Ruth proceeded to say: “Do not plead with me to abandon you, to turn back from accompanying you; for where you go I shall go, and where you spend the night I shall spend the night. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.¹⁷Where you die I shall die, and there is where I shall be buried. May Jehovah do so to me and add to it if anything but death should make a separation between me and you.”

¹⁸When she got to see that she was persistent about going with her, then she left off speaking to her.¹⁹And they both continued on their way until they came to Beth′le‧hem. And it came about that as soon as they came to Beth′le‧hem, all the city became stirred up over them, and the women kept saying: “Is this Na′o‧mi?”²⁰And she would say to the women: “Do not call me Na′o‧mi. Call me Ma′ra, for the Almighty has made it very bitter for me.²¹I was full when I went, and it is empty‐handed that Jehovah has made me return. Why should ​YOU​ call me Na′o‧mi, when it is Jehovah that has humiliated me and the Almighty that has caused me calamity?”

²²Thus Na′o‧mi made her return, Ruth the Mo′ab‧ite woman, her daughter‐in‐law, being with her when returning from the fields of Mo′ab; and they came to Beth′le‧hem at the commencement of barley harvest.