But Ruth said, "{Do not urge} me to leave you [or] to return from {following you}! For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people [will be] my people and your God [will be] my God.

And it happened in the days [when] {the judges ruled}, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem [of] Judah went {to reside} in the countryside of Moab--he and his wife and his two sons.

But Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left behind [with] {her two sons}.

And she got up, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the countryside of Moab, because she had heard in the countryside of Moab that Yahweh had {come to the aid of} his people to give food to them.

But {both} Mahlon and Kilion died, and the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.

And {they took} for themselves Moabite wives. The name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the other [was] Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.

And they said to her, "[No,] we want to return with you to your people."

So she set out from the place {where she was} and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, each [of you] return to her mother's house. May Yahweh {show kindness to you} [just] as you did with the dead and with me.

May Yahweh {grant that you} find a resting place, each [in] the house of her husband." And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and cried.

And they lifted up their voices and cried again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law [goodbye], but Ruth clung to her.

Turn back, my daughters! Go, for {I am too old to have a husband}. If I should think there is hope for me, even if I should have a husband [this] night, and even if I should bear sons,

And Naomi said, "Return, my daughters. {Why do you still want to go with me}? [Are there] sons {in my womb} that may be husbands for you?

[When Naomi] saw that she was determined to go with her, {she said no more}.

would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore {refrain from marrying}? No, my daughters, for it is far more bitter to me than [to] you. For the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me."

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, returning from the countryside of Moab. And they came [to] Bethlehem at [the] beginning of [the] harvest of barley.

Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. So may Yahweh do to me, {and even more, unless} death {separates you and me}!"

And she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law [too]."

[So] the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. {And when they came} to Bethlehem, all of the town was stirred because of them. And they said, "[Is] this Naomi?"

I went [away] full, but Yahweh brought me back empty-handed! Why call me Naomi {when Yahweh has testified against me} and Shaddai has brought calamity upon me?"

And the name of the man [was] Elimelech, and the name of his wife [was] Naomi, and the name of his two sons [were] Mahlon and Kilion. [They were] Ephraimites from Bethlehem [in] Judah. And they went [to] the countryside of Moab and remained there.

And she said to them, "You should not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for Shaddai has {caused me to be very bitter}.