Ruth 1:11-22 ▼

11 But Naomi (my delight) replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you⁺ go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your⁺ husbands?

12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

13 would you⁺ wait for them to grow up? Would you⁺ refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it is much more bitter for me than for you⁺, because the hand of the LORD {YHWH} has gone out against me.”

14 Again they wept aloud, and Orpah (gazelle) kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth (friendship) clung to her.

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

16 But Ruth (friendship) replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God {Elohim} will be my God.

17 Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD {YHWH} punish me, and ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.”

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

19 So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem (house of bread). When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi (my delight)?”

20 “Do not call me Naomi (pleasant), she replied. “Call me Mara (bitter), because the Almighty {Shaddai} has dealt quite bitterly with me.

21 I went away full, but the LORD {YHWH} has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi (my delight)? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

22 So Naomi (my delight) returned from the land of Moab (of his father) with her daughter-in-law Ruth (friendship) the Moabitess (from father: what father?). And they arrived in Bethlehem (house of bread) at the beginning of the barley harvest.