Ruth 1: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

In the days when the judges ruled, there is a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah goes with his wife Naomi and their two sons to live in Moab. He dies there, the sons marry Moabite women and then die too, and Naomi, having heard that the LORD has given his people food, sets out for home with her two daughters-in-law. She urges them again and again to go back; Orpah kisses her and returns, but Ruth clings to her and pledges to go wherever Naomi goes. The two reach Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest, and Naomi tells the town to call her Mara instead of Naomi.

Claim by Claim

1. 1:1
   • It came to pass in the days when the judges ruled.
   • There was a famine in the land.
   • A certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab.
   • The man's wife went with him.
   • The man's two sons went with him.
2. 1:2
   • The man's name was Elimelech.
   • His wife's name was Naomi.
   • His two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion.
   • They were Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah.
   • They came into the country of Moab.
   • They remained there.
3. 1:3
   • Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died.
   • Naomi was left, and her two sons with her.
4. 1:4
   • The sons took Moabite women as wives.
   • One wife was named Orpah.
   • The other wife was named Ruth.
   • They lived there about ten years.
5. 1:5
   • Mahlon and Chilion also both died.
   • The woman was left without her two children.
   • The woman was left without her husband.
6. 1:6
   • Naomi arose with her daughters-in-law.
   • She returned from the country of Moab.
   • She had heard in the country of Moab that the LORD had visited his people by giving them bread.
7. 1:7
   • She went out from the place where she had been.
   • Her two daughters-in-law went with her.
   • They went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8. 1:8
   • Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law to go and return, each to her mother's house.
   • Naomi said the LORD should deal kindly with them.
   • Naomi said they had dealt kindly with the dead.
   • Naomi said they had dealt kindly with her.
9. 1:9
   • Naomi said the LORD should grant that each of them find rest in the house of her husband.
   • Naomi kissed them.
   • They lifted up their voice.
   • They wept.
10. 1:10
    • They said to her that they would return with her to her people.
11. 1:11
    • Naomi told them to turn back, calling them her daughters.
    • Naomi asked why they would go with her.
    • Naomi asked whether she had any more sons in her womb who could become their husbands.
12. 1:12
    • Naomi told her daughters to turn back and go their way.
    • Naomi said she was too old to have a husband.
    • Naomi posed the case of saying she had hope.
    • Naomi posed the case of having a husband that very night.
    • Naomi posed the case of bearing sons.
13. 1:13
    • Naomi asked whether they would wait for those sons until they were grown.
    • Naomi asked whether they would refrain from having husbands for their sake.
    • Naomi told them no, calling them her daughters.
    • Naomi said it was very bitter for her for their sakes.
    • Naomi said the hand of the LORD had gone out against her.
14. 1:14
    • They lifted up their voice and wept again.
    • Orpah kissed her mother-in-law.
    • Ruth clung to Naomi.
15. 1:15
    • Naomi said that Ruth's sister-in-law had gone back to her people.
    • Naomi said that Ruth's sister-in-law had gone back to her gods.
    • Naomi told Ruth to return after her sister-in-law.
16. 1:16
    • Ruth said not to urge her to leave Naomi.
    • Ruth said not to urge her to turn back from following Naomi.
    • Ruth said she would go wherever Naomi went.
    • Ruth said she would lodge wherever Naomi lodged.
    • Ruth said Naomi's people would be her people.
    • Ruth said Naomi's God would be her God.
17. 1:17
    • Ruth said she would die where Naomi died.
    • Ruth said she would be buried there.
    • Ruth invoked the LORD to do so to her and more also.
    • Ruth said the oath applied if anything but death separated her from Naomi.
18. 1:18
    • Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her.
    • Naomi stopped speaking to her about it.
19. 1:19
    • The two of them went until they came to Bethlehem.
    • When they came to Bethlehem, the whole city was stirred because of them.
    • The people said, Is this Naomi?
20. 1:20
    • Naomi told them not to call her Naomi.
    • Naomi told them to call her Mara.
    • Naomi said the Almighty had dealt very bitterly with her.
21. 1:21
    • Naomi said she went out full.
    • Naomi said the LORD had brought her back empty.
    • Naomi asked why they called her Naomi.
    • Naomi said the LORD had testified against her.
    • Naomi said the Almighty had afflicted her.
22. 1:22
    • Naomi returned.
    • Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, returned with her out of the country of Moab.
    • They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

1:1

"The days when the judges ruled" places the story in the period before Israel had kings, when leaders called judges arose locally in times of crisis, a stretch of a few centuries remembered as unsettled and often lawless. Moab was a small kingdom east of the Dead Sea, about a fifty-mile journey from Bethlehem, close enough to reach on foot but a foreign country with its own language, laws and gods; relations between Moab and Israel were often hostile. "Bethlehem in Judah" distinguishes this town from another Bethlehem in the north. The Hebrew name Bethlehem means "house of bread," so a famine in Bethlehem is a deliberate irony in the original.

1:2

The names carry meanings a Hebrew listener would hear. Elimelech means roughly "my God is king"; Naomi means "pleasant" or "sweet" (this matters in verse 20). Mahlon and Chilion sound like the Hebrew words for sickness and for wasting away or coming to an end, ominous names for two men who die young. "Ephrathites" identifies the family's clan or district: Ephrathah was an older name for the area around Bethlehem, so this marks them as long-established locals, not newcomers.

1:4

Marrying Moabite women would have sounded serious to the book's first audience. Israelite law treated Moab as a nation to be kept at a distance, and Deuteronomy 23:3 bars Moabites from the assembly of Israel. The narrator states the marriages flatly, without comment, and the whole book then follows what happens to one of these women.

1:5

In this society a woman had no independent legal or economic standing; she was supported through her husband, her sons, or her father's household. A widow with no surviving sons had lost every normal means of support and protection at once. This is why Naomi's situation is presented as a disaster and not simply a grief.

1:6

"The LORD" printed in capitals stands for the personal name of Israel's God, four Hebrew letters usually written YHWH. Ancient Jewish practice avoided pronouncing it and said "the Lord" instead; English translations follow that custom by using capitals to show where the name itself stands in the text.

1:8

"Your mother's house" is unusual (the normal phrase is "your father's house." The mother's house turns up elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible in connection with marriage and courtship, so Naomi is pointing the women back toward remarriage. "Be kind to you" translates the Hebrew word hesed, which means loyal, generous commitment shown to someone you are not obliged to help) more than politeness, closer to steadfast devotion.

1:9

"Rest" here does not mean sleep or relief from work. It means a secure, settled place, the safety of a household of one's own, which for a widow meant remarriage.

1:11

Naomi is referring to a custom sometimes called levirate marriage: when a man died childless, a brother or close male relative was expected to marry the widow, and the first son of that marriage counted as the dead man's heir. Naomi's point is that she has no more sons to offer, and so no way to give Orpah and Ruth a place in her family. This custom becomes central later in the book.

1:13

"The hand of the LORD has gone out against me" is a set idiom for divine power directed at a person, the way "a hand raised against" someone means active opposition. Naomi is saying her misfortunes are aimed at her personally.

1:14

The word rendered "clung" is a strong physical word for sticking fast to something; it is the same verb used of a husband joining to his wife. The contrast with Orpah's farewell kiss is deliberate: one woman lets go, the other holds on.

1:15

Each nation was understood to have its own god or gods, and Moab's national god was Chemosh. To go back to your people was, in the ordinary way of speaking, to go back to their gods as well, the two were not separable. Naomi is describing a normal, expected return home, not accusing Orpah of anything.

1:16

"Intreat" is an older spelling of entreat, meaning to urge or plead with. Ruth's answer moves in stages from travel to housing to nationality to religion, which is why the last line matters: she is not just promising to stay with an old woman, she is changing which people and which God she belongs to.

1:17

"May the LORD punish me, and worse still" is a fixed oath formula in Hebrew, literally "may God do so to me and more also." The speaker calls down an unnamed penalty on herself if she breaks her word. It is the strongest form of promise available, roughly the ancient equivalent of swearing under oath.

1:19

"Stirred" translates a verb suggesting a commotion or uproar running through the town. In the Hebrew, the verb form of "Is this Naomi?" is feminine plural, so it is specifically the women of Bethlehem who ask the question.

1:20

The two names are being played against each other. Naomi means "pleasant"; Mara means "bitter." She is saying her name no longer fits her circumstances. "The Almighty" translates the Hebrew title Shaddai, an ancient name for God whose exact sense is uncertain: it may relate to a word for mountain or for power, and English translators have long settled on "Almighty" without being certain that is right.

1:21

"Full" and "empty" are set against each other deliberately: she left with a husband and two sons, and returns with neither. "Testified against me" is courtroom language, the image is of God appearing as a witness for the prosecution in a legal case against her.

1:22

Barley was the first grain to ripen, harvested in this region around late April. The detail sets the season and also matters practically: harvest time was when a poor person could go into the fields and gather leftover grain, which is what happens next in the story.