surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry! Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! No, my daughters, you must not return with me. For my intense suffering is too much for you to bear. For the LORD is afflicting me!”
These verses are found using AI-powered semantic similarity based on meaning and context. Results may occasionally include unexpected connections.
1¶ A Family Tragedy: Famine and Death During the time of the judges there was a famine in the land of Judah. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons.
2(Now the man’s name was Elimelech, his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were of the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there.
3Sometime later Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone.
4So her sons married Moabite women.(One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) And they continued to live there about ten years.
5Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left all alone– bereaved of her two children as well as her husband!
6So she decided to return home from the region of Moab, accompanied by her daughters-in-law, because while she was living in Moab she had heard that the LORD had shown concern for his people, reversing the famine by providing abundant crops.
7Ruth Returns with Naomi Now as she and her two daughters-in-law began to leave the place where she had been living to return to the land of Judah,
8Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law,“Listen to me! Each of you should return to your mother’s home! May the LORD show you the same kind of devotion that you have shown to your deceased husbands and to me!
9May the LORD enable each of you to find security in the home of a new husband!” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept loudly.
10But they said to her,“No! We will return with you to your people.”
11But Naomi replied,“Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands!
12Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons,
14Again they wept loudly. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to her.
15So Naomi said,“Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law back home!”
16But Ruth replied,“Stop urging me to abandon you! For wherever you go, I will go. Wherever you live, I will live. Your people will become my people, and your God will become my God.
17Wherever you die, I will die– and there I will be buried. May the LORD punish me severely if I do not keep my promise! Only death will be able to separate me from you!”
18When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to dissuade her.
19So the two of them journeyed together until they arrived in Bethlehem. Naomi and Ruth Arrive in BethlehemWhen they entered Bethlehem, the whole village was excited about their arrival. The women of the village said,“Can this be Naomi?”
20But she replied to them,“Don’t call me‘Naomi’! Call me‘Mara’ because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly.
21I left here full, but the LORD has caused me to return empty-handed. Why do you call me‘Naomi,’ seeing that the LORD has opposed me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer?”
22So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab.(Now they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.)
1Naomi Instructs Ruth At that time, Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her,“My daughter, I must find a home for you so you will be secure.
2Now Boaz, with whose female servants you worked, is our close relative. Look, tonight he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor.
16and she returned to her mother-in-law. Ruth Returns to NaomiWhen Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked,“How did things turn out for you, my daughter?” Ruth told her about all the man had done for her.
17She said,“He gave me these sixty pounds of barley, for he said to me,‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
18Then Naomi said,“Stay put, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest until he has taken care of the matter today.”
9He said,“Who are you?” She replied,“I am Ruth, your servant. Marry your servant, for you are a guardian of the family interests.”
10He said,“May you be rewarded by the LORD, my dear! This act of devotion is greater than what you did before. For you have not sought to marry one of the young men, whether rich or poor.
11Now, my dear, don’t worry! I intend to do for you everything you propose, for everyone in the village knows that you are a worthy woman.
6The servant in charge of the harvesters replied,“She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab.
7She asked,‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until now– except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.”
8So Boaz said to Ruth,“Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers.
18Ruth Returns to Naomi She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much grain she had gathered. Then Ruth gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime.
19Her mother-in-law asked her,“Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said,“The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,“May he be rewarded by the LORD because he has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” Then Naomi said to her,“This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.”
21Ruth the Moabite replied,“He even told me,‘You may go along beside my servants until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’”
22Naomi then said to her daughter-in-law Ruth,“It is good, my daughter, that you should go out to work with his female servants. That way you will not be harmed, which could happen in another field.”
23So Ruth worked beside Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law.
14The village women said to Naomi,“May the LORD be praised because he has not left you without a guardian today! May he become famous in Israel!
15He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She is better to you than seven sons!”
2One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi,“Let me go to the fields so I can gather grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” Naomi replied,“You may go, my daughter.”
35When he saw her, he ripped his clothes and said,“Oh no! My daughter! You have completely ruined me! You have brought me disaster! I made an oath to the LORD, and I cannot break it.”
36She said to him,“My father, since you made an oath to the LORD, do to me as you promised. After all, the LORD vindicated you before your enemies, the Ammonites.”
37She then said to her father,“Please grant me this one wish. For two months allow me to walk through the hills with my friends and mourn my virginity.”
38He said,“You may go.” He permitted her to leave for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills.
13She said,“You really are being kind to me, sir, for you have reassured and encouraged me, your servant, even though I will never be like one of your servants!”
16Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman. It’s just that, to this point, I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”
13Remain here tonight. Then in the morning, if he agrees to marry you, fine, let him do so. But if he does not want to do so, I promise, as surely as the LORD lives, to marry you. Sleep here until morning.”
11All the people who were at the gate and the elders replied,“We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is entering your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel! May you prosper in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem.
11Boaz replied to her,“I have been given a full report of all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband– how you left your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously.