Ruth

RUTH 11 Once, in the days when the Judges judged, there was a famine in the land. And one man set out from Bethlehem of Judah and journeyed to live for a while in 2 the land of Moab, and his wife and two sons came with him. This man’s name was Elimelekh, his wife’s was Naomi, and his two sons’ names were Mahlon and Kilyon, all Efratites from Bethlehem of Judah. They duly arrived in the land of Moab, and there they stayed. 3 But then Elimelekh, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left there with her 4 two sons. Both of them married Moabite women - the first was called Orpah, and the second was called Ruth - and they lived on there for some ten years. s And after that, the two of them - Mahlon and Kilyon - died as well, and the 6 woman was left bereaved of both her children and of her husband. And she got up, her daughters-in-law with her, to return from the land of Moab; for word had reached her in the land of Moab, that the Lorn had brought His people to mind, and granted them bread. 7 So she left the place where she had been, both of her daughters-in-law with her, 8 and set offback to the land of Judah. But to her two daughters-in-law she said, “Go on now, please, turn back, each to your own mother’s house, and may the Lorp 9 show you that same kindness that you have shown the dead, and me. May the Lorp grant that you find your resting place, each in her husband’s home —” and 10 as she kissed them, they wept aloud. And they said to her, “No. We are returning with you to your people.” 11 Said Naomi, “Turn back, daughters, why would you come with me? Have I still 12 sonsin my womb who could be husbands to you? Turn back, my daughters, go; I am too old to be with a man. Even were I to say, ‘there is hope for me still’; 13 were I even this night to be married, even if I could bear sons again - are you to wait for them as they grow? Would you be chained to them, never to be another man’s? No, daughters, your presence is very bitter to me now, for the hand of the Lorp has beaten me.” 14 Aloud they wept, still more, and then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law - but Ruth clung to her. 1s And Naomisaid, “Your sister-in-law has turned back, to her people, to her gods. Turn back after your sister-in-law.’ 16 But Ruth replied, “Do not entreat me to leave you, to turn back and not to go after you. Wherever you walk, I shall walk; wherever you lie down, there shall 17 I lie. Your people is my people; your God is my God. Wherever you die, there I die, and there shall I be buried. All of this may the Lorp show me, and more, for death alone will part me from you.”