1In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehemjudah went to live for a while in the country of Moab. He took his wife and his two sons with him.
2The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehemjudah. They came into the country of Moab and stayed there.
3Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died. She was left with her two sons.
4They married women of Moab. One was named Orpah and the other was named Ruth. They lived there about ten years.
5Then Mahlon and Chilion also died, both of them. So the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.
6Then she set out with her two daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab. For while she was in Moab she had heard that the LORD had come to help his people by giving them bread.
7So she left the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law went with her. They set out on the road back to the land of Judah.
8Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, each of you go back to your mother's house. May the LORD be kind to you, as you have been kind to the dead and to me."
9"May the LORD grant that each of you find rest in the house of a husband." Then she kissed them, and they wept out loud.
10They said to her, "No, we will return with you to your people."
11But Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I have any more sons in my womb who could be your husbands?"
12"Go back, my daughters, go your way. I am too old to have a husband. Even if I said, 'I have hope,' and even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons,"
13"would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you keep yourselves from having husbands for them? No, my daughters. It grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me."
15Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go back after your sister-in-law."
16But Ruth said, "Do not beg me to leave you, or to turn back from following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God."
17"Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD do the same to me, and more, if anything but death parts you and me."
19So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred up about them, and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
20She said to them, "Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me."
21"I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why then do you call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"