Ruth 1
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a foreigner in the fields of Moab, with his wife and two sons.
2 The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the fields of Moab and stayed there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4 They married Moabite women. One was named Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years.
5 Then both sons, Mahlon and Chilion, also died, and the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
6 Then she set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the fields of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the LORD had cared for his people by giving them food.
7 She left the place where she had been living, with her two daughters-in-law, and they set out on the road back to the land of Judah.
8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show you faithful love, as you have shown to those who died and to me.
9 May the LORD grant each of you a home and rest in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept.
10 They said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could become your husbands?”
12 “Go back, my daughters. Leave, for I am too old to marry. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I married tonight and gave birth to sons,
13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you keep yourselves from marrying for their sake? No, my daughters! My lot is far more bitter than yours, because the LORD's hand has turned against me.”
14 They raised their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Go back after your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go; 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 more as well, if anything but death separates me from you.”
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped arguing with her.
19 The two of them traveled on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 She said to them, “Don't call me Naomi; call me Mara, because the Almighty has filled me with bitterness.
21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
22 So Naomi returned, with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who had come back with her from the fields of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
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