Ruth 1:1-22
1 Now 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 Bethʹle·hem+ in Judah to reside as an alien in the fields of Moʹab,+ he with his wife and his two sons.
2 And the man’s name was E·limʹe·lech,* and his wife’s name Naʹo·mi, and the names of his two sons were Mahʹlon and Chilʹi·on, Ephʹrath·ites*+ from Bethʹle·hem in Judah. Eventually they came to the fields of Moʹab and continued there.
3 In time E·limʹe·lech the husband of Naʹo·mi died, so that she remained with her two sons.
4 Later the men took wives for themselves, Moʹab·ite women.+ The name of the one was Orʹpah, and the name of the other Ruth.+ And they went on dwelling there for about ten years.
5 In time the two of them, Mahʹlon* and Chilʹi·on,* also died, so that the woman remained without her two children and her husband.
6 And she proceeded to get up with her daughters-in-law and to return from the fields of Moʹab, for she had heard in the field of Moʹab that Jehovah had turned his attention to* his people+ by giving them bread.+
7 And 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.
8 Finally Naʹo·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.+
9 May 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.
10 And they kept saying to her: “No, but with you we shall return to your people.”+
11 But Naʹo·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?+
12 Return, 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,+
13 would 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.”+
14 At that they raised their voices and wept some more, after which Orʹpah kissed her mother-in-law. As for Ruth, she stuck with her.+
15 So she said: “Look! Your widowed sister-in-law* has returned to her people and her gods.+ Return with your widowed sister-in-law.”+
16 And 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.+
17 Where 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.”
18 When she got to see that she was persistent about going with her,+ then she left off speaking to her.
19 And they both continued on their way until they came to Bethʹle·hem.+ And it came about that as soon as they came to Bethʹle·hem, all the city became stirred up over them,+ and the women kept saying: “Is this Naʹo·mi?”+
20 And she would say to the women: “Do not call me Naʹo·mi.* Call me Maʹra,* for the Almighty*+ has made it very bitter for me.+
21 I was full when I went,+ and it is empty-handed that Jehovah has made me return.+ Why should YOU call me Naʹo·mi, when it is Jehovah that has humiliated me+ and the Almighty that has caused me calamity?”+
22 Thus Naʹo·mi made her return, Ruth the Moʹab·ite woman, her daughter-in-law, being with her when returning from the fields of Moʹab;+ and they came to Bethʹle·hem+ at the commencement of barley harvest.+
Footnotes
^ Meaning “God Is King.”
^ Meaning “Sickly; Invalid.”
^ Meaning “Frailty.”
^ Or, “had visited.”
^ Or, “loyal love.”
^ “Them,” masc., LXXSyVg.
^ Or, “from following you.” Lit., “from after you.” Heb., me·ʼa·charaʹyikh. Compare Ge 16:13 ftn, “Him”; Jg 13:11 ftn.
^ Meaning “My Pleasantness.”
^ Meaning “Bitter.”
