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¹ And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man went from Bethlehem-Judah, to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

² And 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. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

³ And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

⁴ And they took them Moabitish wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second Ruth: and they abode there about ten years.

⁵ And Mahlon and Chilion died also, both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband.

⁶ And she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Moab; for she had heard in the fields of Moab how that Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread.

⁷ Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. Jehovah deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.

⁹ Jehovah grant you that ye may find rest, each in the house of her husband. And she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice and wept.

¹⁰ And they said to her, We will certainly return with thee to thy people.

¹¹ And Naomi said, Return, my daughters: why will ye go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb, that they could be your husbands?

¹² Return, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, should I even have a husband to-night, and should I also bear sons,

¹³ would ye wait on that account till they were grown? Would ye stay on that account from having husbands? No, my daughters, for I am in much more bitterness than you; for the hand of Jehovah is gone out against me.

¹⁴ And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave to her.

¹⁵ And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people and to her gods: return after thy sister-in-law.

¹⁶ And Ruth said, Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from [following] after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;

¹⁷ where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee!

¹⁸ And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.

¹⁹ And they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they came to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and the [women] said, Is this Naomi?

²⁰ And she said to them, Call me not Naomi—call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

²¹ I went out full, and Jehovah has brought me home again empty. Why do ye call me Naomi, seeing Jehovah has brought me low, and the Almighty has afflicted me?

²² So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the fields of Moab; and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley-harvest.