- In the days when the judges ruled, there 
      was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with 
      his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
 
    - The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's 
      name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were 
      Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.
 
    - Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and 
      she was left with her two sons.
 
    - They married Moabite women, one named Orpah 
      and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years,
 
    - both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi 
      was left without her two sons and her husband.
 
    - When she heard in Moab that the LORD had 
      come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her 
      daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
 
    - With her two daughters-in-law she left 
      the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take 
      them back to the land of Judah.
 
    - Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, 
      "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness 
      to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.
 
    - May the LORD grant that each of you will 
      find rest in the home of another husband." Then she kissed them and 
      they wept aloud
 
    - and said to her, "We will go back 
      with you to your people."
 
    - But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. 
      Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could 
      become your husbands ?
 
    - Return home, my daughters; I am too old 
      to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me 
      -- even if I had a husband tonight and 
      then gave birth to sons --
 
    - would you wait until they grew up? Would 
      you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me 
      than for you, because the LORD'S hand has gone out against me 
      !"
 
    - At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed 
      her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.
 
    - "Look," said Naomi, "your 
      sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."
 
    - But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to 
      leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you 
      stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.
 
    - Where you die I will die, and there I will 
      be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything 
      but death separates you and me."
 
    - When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined 
      to go with her, she stopped urging her.
 
    - So the two women went on until they came 
      to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred 
      because of them, and the women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi 
      ?"
 
    - "Don't call me Naomi," she told 
      them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.
 
    - I went away full, but the LORD has brought 
      me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty 
      has brought misfortune upon me."
 
    - So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied 
      by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the 
      barley harvest was beginning. 
        
  
 
 
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