It happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. They came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

She went forth out of 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.

Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give you of this young woman."