Naomi Becomes a Widow
(1 Timothy 5:3–16)

1And it came to pass in the days of the judging of the judges, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man went from Bethlehem in Judah to dwell in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went out into the fields of Moab and were there.

3And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died, and she was left, and her two sons. 4And they took for them wives of the Moabitesses: The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth.

And they dwelt there about ten years. 5And the two of them also died, Mahlon and Chilion. And the woman was left from her two sons and from her husband.

Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi

6And she rose, she and her daughters-in-law, and she returned from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in a field of Moab that YHWH had attended to His people, to give bread to them. 7And she went out from the place where she was there, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went in the way to return to the land of Judah.

8And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, turn back, each woman to the house of her mother. May YHWH do with you⁺ loving devotion,† as you⁺ have done with the dead and with me. 9May YHWH give to you⁺, and may you find rest, each woman in the house of her husband.”

And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and they wept. 10And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

11And Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you⁺ go with me? Are there still unto me sons in my bowels, that they may be your⁺ husbands? 12Turn back, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say there is to me hope, and if I should have tonight a husband and also should bear sons, 13would you⁺ wait for them until that they were grown? Would you⁺ shut yourselves off from being wife to a man? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter for me from you⁺, for the hand of YHWH has gone out against me.”

14And they lifted up their voice and they wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and Ruth clung to her.

15And she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

16And Ruth said,

“Do not urge me to leave you,

to turn back from following after you.

For to wherever you go, I will go,

and wherever you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people are my people,

and your God my God.

17Where you die, I will die,

and there will I be buried.

And may YHWH do to me,

and ever so more,

if death does part

between you and between me.”

18And she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she stopped speaking to her.

The Return to Bethlehem

19And the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, as they came to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

20And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi;† call me Mara,† for Shaddai† has dealt exceedingly bitterly with me. 21I went out full, and YHWH has brought me back empty. Why do you⁺ call me Naomi, since YHWH has testified against me, and Shaddai has afflicted me?”

22And Naomi turned back, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who turned back from the fields of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.