In the days when the judges governed [Israel], there was a famine in the land [of Canaan]. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live temporarily in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the country of Moab and stayed there.

So she left the place where she was living, her two daughters-in-law with her, and they started on the way back to the land of Judah.

Further, may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the offspring which the Lord will give you by this young woman.”