Ruth 1

Ruth 1:1 It happened in the days of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while.

Ruth 1:2 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 came to the fields of Moab and settled there.

Ruth 1:3 Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons.

Ruth 1:4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about ten years,

Ruth 1:5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her sons and without her husband.

Ruth 1:6 She and her daughters-in-law set out to return from the country of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that Yahveh[1] had paid attention to his people’s need by providing them food.

Ruth 1:7 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 Naomi said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home. May Yahveh show kindness to you as you have shown to the dead and to me.

Ruth 1:9 May Yahveh grant each of you rest in the house of a new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.

Ruth 1:10 They said to her, “We plan on returning with you to your people.”

Ruth 1:11 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 Return home, my daughters. Go on, because 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 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, it is much too bitter for you to share, because Yahveh’s hand has turned against me.”

Ruth 1:14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

Ruth 1:15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Ruth 1:16 But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you, because 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 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahveh punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

Ruth 1:18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped discussing it with her.

Ruth 1:19 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 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “because the Almighty has made me very bitter.

Ruth 1:21 I went away full, but Yahveh has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

Ruth 1:22 So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

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[1] יהוה  = Yahveh. Ruth 1:6, 8-9, 13, 17, 21; 2:4, 12, 20; 3:10, 13; 4:11-14.

a quote:

“Chapter 1 is a story of sorrow. Everything is falling apart, but there is still hope because of Ruth, who has put her faith in the living God. She tells Naomi, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God, my God” (v. 16).”

Wiersbe Warren W. Put Your Life Together : Studies in the Book of Ruth. Victor Books 1985.p. 10.

Ruth 1 links:

beyond ordinary wisdom
Can this be Naomi?
clinging to Mara
divine coincidence
lost everything
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Friday, April 20, 2018
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Monday, April 4, 2016
Maranatha Daily Devotional – Wednesday, September 4, 2019
would we welcome Ruth?

The RUTH shelf in Jeff’s library