1:1 Now it came about in the days when the judges ①governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to reside in the land of Moab ②with his wife and his two sons.
▷ ①Or judged ②Lit he, and
1:2 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. So they entered the land of Moab and remained there.
1:3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
1:4 And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other, Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.
1:5 Then ①both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
▷ ①Lit both of them
1:6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, because she had heard in the land of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them food.
1:7 So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
1:8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to ①your mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
▷ ①Lit her
1:9 May the LORD grant that you may find a place of rest, each one in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept.
1:10 However, they said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”
1:11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
1:12 Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I were even to have a husband tonight and also give birth to sons,
1:13 would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has come out against me.”
1:14 And they raised their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
1:15 Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”
1:16 But Ruth said, “Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.
1:17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD do so to me, and worse, if anything but death separates ①me from you.”
▷ ①Lit between me and you
1:18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it.
1:19 So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and ①the women said, “Is this Naomi?”
▷ ①Lit they
1:20 But she said to them, “Do not call me ①Naomi; call me ②Mara, for ③the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
▷ ①I.e., pleasant ②I.e., bitter ③Heb Shaddai
1:21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me and ①the Almighty has afflicted me?”
▷ ①Heb Shaddai
1:22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the land of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.