Naomi’s Family in Moab
1 During the time 1:1 Lit In the days of the judging of the judges, 1:1 Jdg 2:16–18 there was a famine in the land. 1:1 Gn 12:10; 26:1; 43:1; 2Kg 8:1 A man left Bethlehem 1:1 Jdg 17:7; 19:1 in Judah with his wife and two sons to stay in the territory of Moab for a while.
16 But Ruth replied:
Don’t plead with me to abandon you
or to return and not follow you.
For 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.
17 Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May the Lord punish me, 1:17 1Sm 3:17; 2Sm 3:9,35; 1Kg 2:23; 2Kg 6:31
and do so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.
20 "Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara," 1:20 = Bitter; see v. 2 she answered, "for the Almighty 1:20 Gn 49:25; Ex 6:3; Nm 24:4; Jb 6:4 has made me very bitter. 1:20 Ex 15:2321 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. 1:21 Ru 3:17 Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed 1:21 LXX, Syr, Vg read has humiliated me, and the Almighty has afflicted me? "