Thematic Bible
Ruth 1:1 (show verse)
During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.
Ruth 1:2 (show verse)
The man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife’s name was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there.
Ruth 1:3 (show verse)
Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons.
Ruth 1:4 (show verse)
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,
Ruth 1:5 (show verse)
both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.
Ruth 1:6 (show verse)
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.
Ruth 1:7 (show verse)
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.
Ruth 1:8 (show verse)
She said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.
Ruth 1:9 (show verse)
May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
Ruth 1:10 (show verse)
“No,” they said to her. “We will go with you to your people.”
Ruth 1:11 (show verse)
But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?
Ruth 1:12 (show verse)
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,
Ruth 1:13 (show verse)
would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”
Ruth 1:14 (show verse)
Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
Ruth 1:15 (show verse)
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”
Ruth 1:16 (show verse)
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.
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.
Ruth 1:17 (show verse)
and there I will be buried.
May Yahweh punish me,
and do so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.
Ruth 1:18 (show verse)
When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.
Ruth 1:19 (show verse)
The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
Ruth 1:20 (show verse)
“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter.
Ruth 1:21 (show verse)
I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
Ruth 1:22 (show verse)
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.