Study Desk

During the time^[a] of the judges,^(a) there was a famine in the land.^(b) A man left Bethlehem^[b](c) in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.

The man's name was Elimelech,^[c] and his wife's name was Naomi.^[d] The names of his two sons were Mahlon^[e] and Chilion.^[f] They were Ephrathites^(d) from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there.

Naomi's husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons.

Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years,

both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people's need by providing them food.^(e)

She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

She said to them, "Each of you go back to your mother's home.^(f) May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.

May the Lord enable each of you to find security^(g) in the house of your new husband." She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

"No," they said to her. "We will go with you to your people."

But Naomi replied, "Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons^[g] who could become your husbands?^(h)

Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying?^[h] No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share,^[i] because the Lord 's hand has turned against me."⁽ⁱ⁾

Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god.^[j](j) Follow your sister-in-law."

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh punish me,^[k](k) and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival^[l](l) and the local women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?"

"Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara,"^[m] she answered,^[n] "for the Almighty^(m) has made me very bitter.⁽ⁿ⁾

I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.^(o) Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on^[o] me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"

So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.^(p)

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character^(a) from Elimelech's family.

Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, "Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain^(b) behind someone who allows me to?" Naomi answered her, "Go ahead, my daughter."

So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened^(c) to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech's family.

Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, "The Lord be with you."^(d) "The Lord bless you,"^(e) they replied.

Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, "Whose young woman is this?"

The servant answered, "She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.

She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?' She came and has remained from early morning until now, except that she rested a little in the shelter."^[a]

Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter.^[b] Don't go and gather grain in another field, and don't leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants.

See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven't I ordered the young men not to touch you?^[c] When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled."

She bowed with her face to the ground^(f) and said to him, "Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?"

Boaz answered her, "Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn't previously know.

May the Lord reward you for what you have done,^(g) and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge."^(h)

"My lord," she said, "you have been so kind to me, for you have comforted and encouraged^[d] your slave, although I am not like one of your female servants."