A Jewish family tragedy
1
📚Now it came about in the days when the judges ruled 📖, that there was a famine in the land 📖. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live for a time in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 📚And the man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi 📖, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites 📖 of Bethlehem in Judah, and they came into the country of Moab 📖 and stayed there.3 📚And Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she and her two sons were left. 4 📚And they married two of the women of Moab. The name of one was Orpah and the name of the other was Ruth. And they stayed there about ten years. 5 📚And both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Ruth chooses Naomi and Naomi’s God
6 📚Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return home from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab 📖 that the LORD had visited his people by providing food 📖 for them. 7 📚Therefore she, and her two daughters-in-law with her, left the place where she was and set out on the road to return to the land of Judah.
8 📚And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go. Each of you return to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, just as you have dealt with those now dead, and with me 📖. 9 📚May the LORD grant that each of you find rest in the house of her husband”. Then she kissed them; and they raised their voice and wept.
10 📚And they said to her, “We will certainly return with you to your people”.
11 📚And Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Are there any more sons still in my womb, that they may become your husbands 📖? 12 📚Turn back, my daughters. Go on your way. For I am too old to get a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope’, if even tonight I would have a husband and would also bear sons, 13 📚would you wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refrain from marrying for them? No, my daughters; for I am very much grieved for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me 📖”.
14 📚And they raised their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law but Ruth clung to her.
15 📚And Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods 📖. Go back after your sister-in-law”.
16 📚And Ruth said, “Do not ask me to leave you or to go back from following 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 📖. 17 📚Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal harshly with me, and worse also, if anything but death parts you and me”. 18 📚When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, then she said no more to her.
Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem
19 📚So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they arrived in Bethlehem, it came about that the whole city was stirred concerning them and they said, “Is this Naomi 📖?”
20 📚And she said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara 📖, for the Almighty 📖 has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 📚I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty 📖. So why should you call me Naomi, seeing the LORD has testified against me and the Almighty has afflicted 📖 me?”
22 📚So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, coming back from the country of Moab. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest 📖.