Naomi Becomes a Widow
And it was in the days when the judges judged that there was a famine in the land; and a man went from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab — he, and his wife, and his two sons.
And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion — Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. And they came to the fields of Moab and remained there.
And Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left, she and her two sons.
And they took for themselves Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
And the two of them, Mahlon and Chilion, also died; and the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.
Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi
And she rose, she and her daughters-in-law, and turned back from the fields of Moab — for she had heard in the field of Moab that the LORD had visited his people to give them bread.
And 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.
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law: “Go, turn back, each to her mother’s house. May the LORD do loyal love with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.
May the LORD grant you to find rest, each in the house of her husband.” And she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice and wept.
And they said to her, “No — with you we will return to your people.”
And Naomi said: “Turn back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they could become your husbands?
Turn back, my daughters; go — for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I said, ‘There is hope for me,’ even if I had a husband tonight, and even bore sons —
would you wait for them until they grew up? Would you shut yourselves off for them, without having a husband? No, my daughters — for it is far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”
And they lifted up their voice and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth held fast to her.
And she said, “Look — your sister-in-law has turned back to her people and to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.”
And Ruth said: “Do not press me to leave you, to turn back from following you. For where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people is my people, and your God is my God.
Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and thus may he add — for only death will separate between me and you.”
And she saw that she was determined to go with her; and she stopped speaking to her about it.
The Return to Bethlehem
And the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it was, when they came to Bethlehem, that all the city stirred over them; and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
And she said to them: “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara — for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
I went away full, and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has done me evil?”
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, with her, returning from the fields of Moab; and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.