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the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab with his wife and two sons. 2 The man’s was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephraimites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the land of Moab and settled there.
3 Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They took wives for themselves from the women of Moab: one was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. After they had lived there for about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had helped His people by giving them food, she made preparations to leave the land of Moab with her daughters-in-law. 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, and accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she travelled along the road to go back to the land of Judah.
8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have shown kindness to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that you each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them, and they wept loudly, 10 and said to her, “No, we will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters! Why would you come with me? Am I able to bear more sons, who would become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters; I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me – even if I could have a husband tonight and also bear sons— 13 would you wait for them until they had grown up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying for them? No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!”
14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell, but Ruth clung to her.
15 Then she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Go back with your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth said, “Don’t persuade me to leave you, or to turn back from following you! For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do this to me, and even more so, if anything but death separates me from you.” 18 When Naomi realised that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.
19 So the two of them continued on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,” she said. “Call me Mara, for the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi then, seeing the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
22 So Naomi returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess, from the land of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.