And it happened in the days of the judges, and there was a famine in the land, and a man went from Bethlehem of Yehudah to sojourn in the fields of Mo'av, he and his wife and his two sons.

And the name of the man was 'Elimélekh, and the name of his wife No'omi, and the name of his two sons Maḥlon and Kil'yon, Efratim from Bethlehem of Yehudah, and they came to the fields of Mo'av and they were there.

And 'Elimélekh, husband of No'omi, died, and she was left, she and her two sons.

And they took for themselves wives of Mo'av, the name of the one 'Orpah and the name of the second Ruth, and they lived there about ten years.

And both of them died, Maḥlon and Kil'yon, and the woman was left from her two children and from her husband.

And she got up, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Mo'av, because she heard in the fields of Mo'av that יהוה had remembered His people to give them bread.

And she went out from the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Yehudah.

And No'omi said to her two daughters-in-law, 'Go, return each woman to her mother's house. May יהוה do kindness with you, as you have done with the dead and with me.'

'May יהוה grant you, and you will find rest, each woman in the house of her husband.' And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.

And they said to her, 'Surely with you we will return to your people.'

And No'omi said, 'Return, my daughters, why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be husbands to you?'

'Return, my daughters, go, for I am too old to be a husband. Because I said, I have hope, even if I were a husband tonight, and even if I bore sons.'

'Will you wait for them until they grow? Will you refrain from being a husband to them? No, my daughters, because it is very bitter for me because of you, because the hand of יהוה has gone out against me.'

And they lifted up their voices and wept again, and 'Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

And she said, 'Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Return, follow your sister-in-law.'

And Ruth said, 'Do not urge me to leave you, to return from following you. For where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your Elohim are my Elohim.'

'Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May יהוה do so to me, and may He add more, if anything but death separates me from you.'

And she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she stopped speaking to her.

And the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened when they came to Bethlehem, that the whole city was stirred up about them, and they said, 'Is this No'omi?'

And she said to them, 'Do not call me No'omi; call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.'

'I went out full, and יהוה has brought me back empty. Why do you call me No'omi, and יהוה has testified against me, and the Almighty has done evil to me?'

And No'omi returned, and Ruth the Mo'avite, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned from the fields of Mo'av, and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.