1 In the days when the judges ruled, "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.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 aloud10 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, "" she told them. "Call me Mara, "because the Almighty "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 "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.

1 In diebus unius judicis, quando judices prerant, facta est fames in terra. Abiitque homo de Bethlehem Juda, ut peregrinaretur in regione Moabitide cum uxore sua ac duobus liberis. 2 Ipse vocabatur Elimelech, et uxor ejus Nomi : et duo filii, alter Mahalon, et alter Chelion, Ephrathi de Bethlehem Juda. Ingressique regionem Moabitidem, morabantur ibi. 3 Et mortuus est Elimelech maritus Nomi : remansitque ipsa cum filiis. 4 Qui acceperunt uxores Moabitidas, quarum una vocabatur Orpha, altera vero Ruth. Manseruntque ibi decem annis, 5 et ambo mortui sunt, Mahalon videlicet et Chelion : remansitque mulier orbata duobus liberis ac marito. 6 Et surrexit ut in patriam pergeret cum utraque nuru sua de regione Moabitide : audierat enim quod respexisset Dominus populum suum, et dedisset eis escas.7 Egressa est itaque de loco peregrinationis su, cum utraque nuru : et jam in via revertendi posita in terram Juda, 8 dixit ad eas : Ite in domum matris vestr : faciat vobiscum Dominus misericordiam, sicut fecistis cum mortuis, et mecum. 9 Det vobis invenire requiem in domibus virorum quos sortitur estis. Et osculata est eas. Qu elevata voce flere cperunt, 10 et dicere : Tecum pergemus ad populum tuum. 11 Quibus illa respondit : Revertimini, fili me, cur venitis mecum ? num ultra habeo filios in utero meo, ut viros ex me sperare possitis ? 12 Revertimini, fili me, et abite : jam enim senectute confecta sum, nec apta vinculo conjugali : etiamsi possem hac nocte concipere, et parere filios, 13 si eos expectare velitis donec crescant, et annos pubertatis impleant, ante eritis vetul quam nubatis. Nolite, quso, fili me : quia vestra angustia magis me premit, et egressa est manus Domini contra me. 14 Elevata igitur voce, rursum flere cperunt : Orpha osculata est socrum, ac reversa est ; Ruth adhsit socrui su : 15 cui dixit Nomi : En reversa est cognata tua ad populum suum, et ad deos suos, vade cum ea. 16 Qu respondit : Ne adverseris mihi ut relinquam te et abeam : quocumque enim perrexeris, pergam, et ubi morata fueris, et ego pariter morabor. Populus tuus populus meus, et Deus tuus Deus meus. 17 Qu te terra morientem susceperit, in ea moriar : ibique locum accipiam sepultur. Hc mihi faciat Dominus, et hc addat, si non sola mors me et te separaverit.18 Videns ergo Nomi quod obstinato animo Ruth decrevisset secum pergere, adversari noluit, nec ad suos ultra reditum persuadere : 19 profectque sunt simul, et venerunt in Bethlehem. Quibus urbem ingressis, velox apud cunctos fama percrebruit : dicebantque mulieres : Hc est illa Nomi. 20 Quibus ait : Ne vocetis me Nomi (id est, pulchram), sed vocate me Mara (id est, amaram), quia amaritudine valde replevit me Omnipotens. 21 Egressa sum plena, et vacuam reduxit me Dominus. Cur ergo vocatis me Nomi, quam Dominus humiliavit, et afflixit Omnipotens ? 22 Venit ergo Nomi cum Ruth Moabitide nuru sua, de terra peregrinationis su : ac reversa est in Bethlehem, quando primum hordea metebantur.