DURING the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land which made a man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons for a brief stay in Moab [the country of the descendants of Lot, the nephew of Abraham, through his elder daughter].

The man’s name was Elimelech; his wife’s name was Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites [citizens of Ephrath] residing in Bethlehem in the region of Judah. They came to the land of Moab and continued life there. 

Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. 

Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: One was named Orpah, the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years, 

both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and her husband.

Having heard in Moab that the Self-existent had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave Moab.

She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and journeyed along the road leading back to the land of Judah.

On the way, Naomi said to them, “Each of you should go back to your mother’s home. May the Self-existent show mercy to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 

May the Self-existent enable each of you to find security in the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

“No;” they said to her, “we will not go back. We will go with you to your people.”

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? 

Return home, my daughters; 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, 

would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, you wouldn’t. As the hand of the Self-existent has turned against me, I feel very much for you.” 

Again, they wept loudly, then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; Ruth, however, clung to her. 

Naomi then said to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her god. Return with her.”

Ruth was resolute; she said: “Do not persuade me to leave you or go back from following you. Wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will remain my people, and your God will remain my God.

Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Self-existent punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped persuading her.

So, the two of them continued the journey to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town made an uproar about them; they said, “This is Naomi!”

 “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’; call me ‘Mara,’” she retorted, “because the Almighty [the Self-existent] has made me to experience bitterness.

I went away full, but the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] has brought me back empty. Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ since the Self-existent [the Holy Spirit] has adjudged me wicked, and the Almighty [the Self-existent] has afflicted me.”

Like that, Naomi returned from Moab with her daughter-in-law, Ruth, the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.