Ruth 1 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
The period of the judges, roughly 1200 to 1050 BC, with the book itself written down later
Location
Begins in Bethlehem in Judah, moves to Moab east of the Dead Sea, then returns to Bethlehem
Audience
Israelites reading in a later era, when questions about foreigners marrying into Israel were live
Situation
A famine drives Naomi's family from Bethlehem to Moab, where her husband and both sons die, leaving her with two Moabite daughters-in-law. Naomi tells them to return home, but Ruth refuses and pledges herself to Naomi's people and God.
Key Background
A widow with no husband, sons, or property had almost no legal standing in this society and depended on a male relative to survive, which is why Naomi's situation is desperate rather than merely sad. Moab and Israel had a long history of hostility, and Moabites carried a specific stigma in Israelite law, so Ruth's loyalty crosses a hard ethnic line. The name Bethlehem means house of bread, so a famine there is a bitter joke the original readers would have caught, and Naomi renaming herself Mara, meaning bitter, follows a common practice of names carrying meaning.
Back when the ran things in Israel, a famine hit the land. So a man from in Judah took his wife and two sons and moved to the country of to find food.
The man's name was his wife was and their two sons were and They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They arrived in Moab and settled there.
Then Elimelek, Naomi's husband, died. She was left with just her two sons.
The sons married — one named Orpah, the other They lived there about ten years.
Then both Mahlon and Kilion also died. Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.
While in Moab, Naomi heard that had to people and given them food again. So she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law.
She left the place where she'd been living, with her two daughters-in-law, and they started on the road back to Judah.
Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, both of you — go home to your mothers. May Yahweh show you the same you've shown to your dead husbands and to me."
"May Yahweh give each of you and in the home of a new husband." She kissed them, and they all broke down crying.
They said to her, "No — we're going back with you, to your people."
But Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Do I have more in my womb who could become your husbands?"
"Go back, my daughters, go on your way. I'm 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 —"
"would you really wait for them to grow up? Would you really stay unmarried for that long? No, my daughters. My life has become far more than yours, because own has out me."
They cried again. Then Orpah kissed mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth on to and wouldn't let go.
Naomi said, "Look — your sister-in-law is going back to people and Go with
But Ruth said, "Don't ask me to leave you or to stop following you. Wherever you go, I'll go. Wherever you live, I'll live. will be my and will be my
"Where you die, I'll die — and that's where I'll be buried. May me, and then some, if anything but death separates us."
When Naomi saw that Ruth had completely made up her mind to go with her, she stopped arguing.
So the two of them traveled until they reached Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town buzzed with excitement. The women said, "Can this really be Naomi?"
She told them, "Don't call me Call me because the has made my life incredibly bitter."
"I left here and Yahweh has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? Yahweh has me. The Almighty has brought disaster on me."
That's how Naomi came back from Moab, with her daughter-in-law the They arrived in Bethlehem just as the was beginning.