Naomi Loses Everything and Everyone

¹In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live for a while in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

²The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons’ names were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they entered the land of Moab and lived there.

³Then Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons.

⁴They took for themselves wives from the women of Moab, one named Orpah, and the other named Ruth. After they lived there about ten years,

⁵both Mahlon and Chilion died, and the woman was left without her two children and her husband.

Ruth Returns With Naomi to Bethlehem

⁶Then she arose to return from the country of Moab with her daughters-in-law, because she heard that YHWH had attended to ʜɪꜱ people by providing them food.

⁷So she and her two daughters-in-law left the place where they had been living, and they went on the road returning to the land of Judah.

⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Y’all should go back—return to y’all’s mother’s house. May YHWH show y’all the same kindness that y’all have shown to your dead husbands and to me.

⁹May YHWH grant that each of y’all find rest in the house of a new husband.”

Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud.

¹⁰They said to her, “No! We will return with you to your people.”

¹¹But Naomi replied, “Y’all go back, my daughters. Why do y’all want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb who could become y’all’s husbands?

¹²Y’all should return home, my daughters. Go, because I am too old to have a husband. Even if I said, ‘I have hope,’ and even if I had a husband tonight and conceived sons,

¹³would y’all wait until they were grown? Would y’all then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, my life is too bitter for y’all, because YHWH’s hand has gone out against me.”

¹⁴Again, they wept aloud. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. You should follow her.”

¹⁶Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you or turn back from you.

For where you go,

I will go,

and where you stay,

I will stay.

Your people will be my people,

and your God my God.

¹⁷Where you die,

I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May YHWH deal with me severely if anything but death parts you and me.”

¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

¹⁹So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was excited about them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰She said to them, “Y’all must no longer call me Naomi. Y’all must call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.[#1:20 “Naomi” means “pleasant”.; #1:20 “Mara” means “bitter”.]

²¹I left here full, but YHWH has brought me home again empty. Why do y’all call me Naomi, since YHWH has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

²²So Naomi returned accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who returned with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.