During a famine in the days of the judges, Elimelech of Bethlehem takes his wife Naomi and sons Mahlon and Chilion to sojourn in Moab, where both sons marry Moabite women—Orpah and Ruth—before all three men die within ten years. When Naomi resolves to return to Judah upon hearing the famine has ended, Ruth refuses to abandon her mother-in-law, making her famous declaration of covenant loyalty: 'thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.' The two widows arrive in Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest, with Naomi bitterly renaming herself Mara ('bitter') because the Almighty has dealt harshly with her.
Naomi loses her husband and sons in Moab; Ruth commits to return with Naomi to Bethlehem.
