Ruth 1-2
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 1[a]
Naomi’s Life in Moab. 1 In the days of the judges,[b] a famine broke out in the land. A certain man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab along with his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They traveled to the land of Moab and dwelt there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They both married Moabite women. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years,[c] 5 both Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving the woman bereft of her husband and two sons.
6 [d]She set out with her two daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in Moab she had heard how the Lord had come to the aid of his people, giving them food to eat. 7 She and her two daughters-in-law set out from the place where they had been living and took the road leading back to the land of Judah. 8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Each of you should go back to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you as much kindness as you have shown to those who died and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you consolation in the home of a husband.” She then kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “We will go with you back to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I still have any sons in my womb who might become your husbands? 12 Go back, my daughters. Go your way. I am too old even to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me and I slept with a husband tonight and gave birth to sons, 13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you stay unmarried for them? No, my daughters, for it greatly grieves me on your account that the hand of the Lord has been raised against me.”
14 Ruth Stays with Naomi. They cried out loud again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Then she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth answered, “Please do not insist on my leaving you or forsaking you. 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.[e] 17 Wherever you die, I will die and be buried there. May the Lord do this to me and even worse if anything other than death separates me from you.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
19 Life in Bethlehem. So they both traveled on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was a commotion among all of the inhabitants of the city on account of them. The women exclaimed, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She told them, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. The Almighty has made my life so very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi? The Lord has brought witness against me; the Almighty has afflicted me.”
22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, went with her. They left the land of Moab and they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Chapter 2
Ruth and Boaz.[f] 1 Naomi’s husband had a kinsman, a very wealthy man from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go now to the field and glean ears of corn after one in whose sight I might find favor.” So she said, “Go, my daughter.”
3 She left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. It happened that she arrived at a portion of the field that belonged to Boaz of the clan of Elimelech.[g] 4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered him, “The Lord bless you.” 5 Boaz asked his foreman of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 The foreman of the harvesters answered, “The young woman is a Moabite. She came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather the sheaves after the harvesters.’ She arrived early this morning and has continued working continuously until now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go and glean in any other field and do not go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. 9 Keep your eyes on the field that they are reaping, and follow after them. I have told the young men not to bother you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the young men have drawn.” 10 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “Why have I, a foreigner, found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “I have been informed of all that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died, how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and came to live with a people whom you had not previously known. 12 May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”[h] 13 Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my lord. You have comforted me and shown kindness to your servant, even though I am not really one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it into the sour wine.” She sat alongside the reapers. He served her so much roasted grain that she ate until she was full and there was still some left over.
15 When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men: “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not reproach her. 16 Let some fall out from the bundles and leave it there for her to glean, but do not chastise her.”
17 So she gleaned in the field until the evening. She threshed out what she had gleaned, and it amounted to an ephah of barley. 18 She gathered it up and went back into the city. She showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what she had saved after she was full. 19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord who has not withdrawn his favor from the living nor the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “The man is one of our relatives, one of our closest relations.”[i] 21 Ruth the Moabite added, “He said to me, ‘You should stay close to my young men until they have finished my harvest.’ ” 22 So Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good for you to go out with his servant girls, lest you be harmed in some other field.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and the wheat harvests were over, and she continued to live with her mother-in-law.
Footnotes
- Ruth 1:1 The names seem to have been chosen as descriptions of the individuals: Mahlon (weakness) and Chilion (consumption) were destined to die young. Ruth means “the friend” (the companion); Orpah means “she who turned her back.” The names thus sum up the destiny of the family. There is no reference here to the bad reputation of Moabite women (Num 25:1).
- Ruth 1:1 In the days of the judges: the author introduces the Book of Ruth by referring to a time in Israelite history that was marked by idolatry and sin. Naomi and Ruth’s story of selfless commitment to God and each other is a shining light in otherwise dark circumstances.
- Ruth 1:4 The blending of the Israelites and Moabites was not encouraged but marriage was not forbidden as it was with the Canaanites.
- Ruth 1:6 In the blows of fate Naomi recognizes the hand of the Lord; but her faith is not strong enough for her to believe that her life can have any further meaning: Naomi (my sweetness) is henceforth Mara (bitterness).
- Ruth 1:16 This familiar passage occurring in song and used in religious wedding ceremonies to mark the faithful love and commitment pledged by the bride and groom has even deeper roots. Throughout time, God has chosen the most unlikely people to increase his kingdom. Ruth, a Moabite, worships the true God and is recognized and blessed for her faithfulness. She became a great-grandmother to King David and an ancestor of Jesus.
- Ruth 2:1 Ruth belongs to the class of poor people whom the law authorized to glean in fields that had been harvested. “You shall not . . . gather up the gleanings of your harvest. . . . leave them for the poor and the alien” (Lev 23:22; see Deut 24:19-22; Lev 19:9-10).
- Ruth 2:3 Ruth was no stranger to hard work and her humility in gleaning was rewarded with the providential discovery of the field of Boaz, her kinsman.
- Ruth 2:12 Under whose wings . . . taken refuge: Ruth’s apparent fidelity to the God of the Israelites is noted with admiration by Boaz.
- Ruth 2:20 Although Naomi wavered and complained during her worst trials, she never despaired of God’s goodness. She now recognizes the hand of the Lord who has been at work and is providing for her and Ruth through Boaz’s kindness.
