1 It happened in the days when the judges were judging that a famine came upon the land, and a man went from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he with his wife and his two sons.
2 The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. They came into the fields of Moab and stayed there.
3 Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left, she and her two sons.
4 These took wives for themselves from the women of Moab; one was named Orpah and the second Ruth. And they lived there for about ten years.
5 Then the two of them, Mahlon and Chilion, died as well, and the woman was left bereft of her two boys and of her husband.
6 So she rose up with her daughters-in-law and turned back from the fields of Moab, because she had heard in the fields of Moab that the LORD had visited his people and given them bread.
7 She set out from the place where she had been living, her two daughters-in-law along with her, and they took the road back to the land of Judah.
8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each one to her mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, just as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9 May the LORD give it to you to find rest, each in the house of her husband." And she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept.
10 They said to her, "No; with you we will go back to your people."
11 Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters; why should you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb, that they might be husbands for you?
12 Go back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to belong to a husband. If I were to say, 'There is hope for me,' if I were even to have a husband tonight and bear sons as well,
13 would you wait for them until they grew up? Would you hold yourselves back for them and not be married to a man? No, my daughters; it is much more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the LORD has gone out against me."
14 They raised their voices and wept once more. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth held fast to her.
15 Naomi said, "See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; go back after your sister-in-law."
16 But Ruth said, "Do not urge me to abandon you, to turn back from following after you. Wherever you go I will go, and wherever you spend the night I will spend the night. 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. Thus may the LORD do to me, and more besides, if anything except death separates me from you."
18 When Naomi saw that she was set on going with her, she said no more to her.
19 The two of them walked on until they reached Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was in an uproar over them, and the women said, "Can this be Naomi?"
20 She told them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
21 Full I went out, and empty the LORD has brought me back. Why call me Naomi, when the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has done me harm?"
22 Thus Naomi came back, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who came back from the fields of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.