Bethlehem on its ridge at dawn in a year of famine: a small town of flat-roofed stone houses above bare, cracked terraced fields, withered barley stalks, an empty threshing floor and dusty olive trees.

The Book of

Ruth 1

Famine in Bethlehem. A family leaves for Moab, and only the women come back.

22 verses≈ 4 min5 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1EmptyFamine, death and a loyal daughterChapter 1
2A field of favorRuth gleans in Boaz's field
3Under his wingA night at the threshing floor
4RedeemedA son, and David's line

Naomi Becomes a Widow

In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land.

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And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab.

The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

To Moab and back

Elimelech’s family left Bethlehem in Judah for the land of Moab, the high plateau east of the Dead Sea. About ten years later Naomi walked back with Ruth. The text doesn’t name the road; most likely it ran around the north end of the Dead Sea and across the Jordan near Jericho, several days on foot.

Reflect

When it all falls apart

Famine, a move to a foreign land, and then three graves. In a few lines Naomi “was left without her two sons and without her husband.” The story does not hurry past her loss, and neither does God. When have you felt left with nothing? What did you do with God in it, and what would you say to Him about it now?

Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi

Three widows seen from behind walking west at the edge of the Moab plateau, where the road drops toward the hazy Dead Sea far below, the hills of Judah faint beyond.

When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had attended to His people by providing them with food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab. Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah.

0:17

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Naomi

Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.”

And she kissed them as they wept aloud

Ruth and Orpah

and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? 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, 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 has gone out against me.”

On the plateau road, Orpah turns back toward a Moabite village with a hand raised in farewell, while Ruth holds Naomi's arm in both hands; all three in tears.

Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

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

Ruth 1:16–17

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

Question

Quick question

On the road from Moab, the two daughters-in-law made different choices.

Who went back to her people and her gods?

The Return to Bethlehem

So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem.

The women of Bethlehem

When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

Naomi

“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty.

Ruth 1:21

So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Pray

Honest, and held

Naomi did not pretend. She told the whole town, “the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me,” and still she spoke of the LORD as the One who rules. And she said it with Ruth standing beside her, and with the barley harvest just beginning. Pray honestly about your own grief. Thank God for the people He has given you who stay. Lord, You hear me even when my words are bitter. Thank You for those who have not left me. Help me trust that You are already bringing in a harvest I cannot see yet. Amen.

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Ruth 1

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A verse to carry with you

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 will be my God.

Ruth 1:16

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