Ruth 1

Naomi Loses Her Husband and Sons

1 In the days when the judges ruled,[a] there was a famine in the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.
2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was 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.
3 Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years,
5 both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.
7 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.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me.
9 May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud
10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 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?
12 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—
13 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 turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”
16 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.
17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.”
18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 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?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b] ” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter.
21 I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

Images for Ruth 1

Cross References 50

  • 1. Judges 2:16-18
  • 2. S Genesis 12:10; 2 Kings 6:25; Psalms 105:16; Haggai 1:11
  • 3. S Genesis 35:19
  • 4. Genesis 47:4
  • 5. S Genesis 36:35; Judges 3:30
  • 6. ver 3; Ruth 2:1; Ruth 4:3
  • 7. ver 5; Ruth 4:9
  • 8. S Genesis 35:16
  • 9. Genesis 35:19; 1 Samuel 16:18
  • 10. 1 Kings 11:1; 2 Chronicles 24:26; Ezra 9:2; Nehemiah 13:23
  • 11. ver 14; Ruth 4:13; Matthew 1:5
  • 12. S ver 2
  • 13. ver 8; Ruth 2:11
  • 14. S Genesis 36:35
  • 15. S Genesis 50:24; Exodus 4:31; Jeremiah 29:10; Zephaniah 2:7
  • 16. Psalms 132:15; Matthew 6:11
  • 17. S Genesis 11:31; S Genesis 38:16
  • 18. Genesis 38:11
  • 19. S Genesis 19:19; Ruth 2:20; 2 Timothy 1:16
  • 20. S ver 5
  • 21. Ruth 3:1
  • 22. S Genesis 27:27; S Genesis 29:11
  • 23. S Genesis 27:38; S Numbers 25:6
  • 24. Genesis 38:11; Deuteronomy 25:5
  • 25. Genesis 38:11
  • 26. ver 20; Exodus 1:14; Exodus 15:23; 1 Samuel 30:6
  • 27. S Judges 2:15; S Job 4:5; Job 19:21; Psalms 32:4
  • 28. ver 9
  • 29. Ruth 2:11; Ruth 3:1; Micah 7:6
  • 30. S Genesis 31:28
  • 31. S Deuteronomy 10:20; Proverbs 17:17; Proverbs 18:24
  • 32. Deuteronomy 25:7
  • 33. S Joshua 24:14; Judges 11:24
  • 34. 2 Kings 2:2
  • 35. Genesis 24:58
  • 36. Psalms 45:10
  • 37. S Joshua 24:15; Ruth 2:11,12
  • 38. 1 Samuel 3:17; 1 Samuel 14:44; 1 Samuel 20:13; 1 Samuel 25:22; 2 Samuel 3:9,35; 2 Samuel 19:13; 1 Kings 2:23; 1 Kings 19:2; 1 Kings 20:10; 2 Kings 6:31
  • 39. 2 Samuel 15:21
  • 40. Acts 21:14
  • 41. S Judges 17:7
  • 42. Matthew 21:10
  • 43. S Genesis 15:1; S Genesis 17:1; Psalms 91:1; Exodus 6:3
  • 44. S ver 13; Job 6:4
  • 45. Job 1:21
  • 46. Job 30:11; Psalms 88:7; Isaiah 53:4
  • 47. Ru 2:2,6,21; Ruth 4:5,10
  • 48. S Genesis 11:31
  • 49. S Exodus 9:31; S Leviticus 19:9; Ruth 2:23
  • 50. 2 Samuel 21:9

Footnotes 5

  • [a]. Traditionally "judged"
  • [b]. "Naomi" means "pleasant."
  • [c]. "Mara" means "bitter."
  • [d]. Hebrew "Shaddai" ; also in verse 21
  • [e]. Or "has testified against"

Ruth 1 Commentaries

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