1. Once back in the time of the judges there was a famine in the land; so a man from Bethlehem of Judah left home with his wife and two sons to reside on the plateau of Moab.
2. The man was named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Some time after their arrival on the plateau of Moab,
3. Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons.
4. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years,
5. both Mahlon and Chilion died also, and the woman was left with neither her two boys nor her husband.
6. She and her daughters-in-law then prepared to go back from the plateau of Moab because word had reached her there that the Lord had seen to his people’s needs and given them food.
7. She and her two daughters-in-law left the place where they had been living. On the road back to the land of Judah,
8. Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you the same kindness as you have shown to the deceased and to me.
9. May the Lord guide each of you to find a husband and a home in which you will be at rest.” She kissed them good-bye, but they wept aloud,