History · Chapter 1 of 4
Ruth 1
During a famine, Naomi's family leaves Bethlehem for Moab, where her husband and both sons die, leaving her with two Moabite daughters-in-law. Hearing the LORD has given Israel bread again, Naomi sets out home and urges the young widows to stay. Orpah turns back, but Ruth clings to her, vowing that Naomi's people and God will be her own. They reach Bethlehem as barley harvest begins.
What happens in Ruth 1
In the days of the judges a famine drives Elimelech and Naomi, with sons Mahlon and Chilion, from Bethlehem to Moab. Elimelech dies there, the sons marry Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth, and after about ten years both sons die too, leaving Naomi bereft of husband and children. Hearing that the LORD has visited Israel with bread, she starts home and tells her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers' houses, blessing them and praying they find rest.
They weep and refuse, but Naomi insists she has no more sons to give them. Orpah kisses her and turns back, yet Ruth clings to Naomi and makes her famous vow: where you go I will go, your people shall be my people, and your God my God, only death will part us. Reaching Bethlehem, the city is stirred, but Naomi asks to be called Mara, bitter, saying she went out full and the LORD brought her home empty, as barley harvest begins.
Ruth 1 in context
Ruth is set in the turbulent era of the judges, when there was no king in Israel, yet it tells an intimate family story rather than a national one. Moab, across the Dead Sea, was often hostile to Israel, making Ruth's place in the account striking.
Widows without sons had little standing or security. The book traces how God's providence works through ordinary loyalty and loss, and it will end by linking this family to King David's line.
Main themes of Ruth 1
Ruth 1 (KJV)
1Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehemjudah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. 2And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehemjudah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there. 3And Elimelech Naomi’s husband died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4And they took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they dwelled there about ten years. 5And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. 6Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread. 7Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. 8And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother’s house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. 9The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. 10And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. 11And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons; 13Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me. 14And they lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her. 15And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law. 16And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: 17Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me. 18When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her. 19So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi? 20And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. 21I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me? 22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
Verses to carry from Ruth 1
“And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:”Ruth 1:16
“Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.”Ruth 1:17
“And she said unto them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.”Ruth 1:20
Christian typology
How Ruth 1 points to Jesus
Ruth's story opens a road that leads to Bethlehem, and centuries later to a greater child born there. A Moabite outsider, bound by love to Israel and Israel's God, Ruth will become the great-grandmother of King David and so an ancestor of Jesus, whom Matthew names in his genealogy. Her welcome into the covenant foreshadows the gospel's reach to all nations, grafting Gentiles into the family of God through faith.
Naomi returns to Bethlehem empty, but God is quietly working her emptiness toward fullness, as he would work the world's emptiness toward the Redeemer born in that same town. The loyal love Ruth shows, refusing to abandon the afflicted, is a faint image of the love of Christ, who binds himself to his people and will not let them go.
Questions about Ruth 1
Why did Naomi want to be called Mara?
Mara means bitter. Returning to Bethlehem widowed and childless, Naomi felt the LORD had emptied and afflicted her, so she rejected her name Naomi, which suggests pleasant, as no longer fitting. Her request is an honest cry of grief directed at God, not a denial of him. Scripture records her lament without rebuke, showing that faith can hold real sorrow and still speak to the Almighty.
What does Ruth's vow to Naomi mean?
Ruth pledges total, permanent loyalty: she will go where Naomi goes, lodge where she lodges, adopt her people and her God, and be buried where she dies. As a Moabite widow she had no earthly reason to stay, so her vow is pure covenant love, choosing Naomi and Naomi's God for their own sake. It is one of Scripture's clearest pictures of faithful, self-giving devotion.
Reflection
Naomi came home empty and could only name her bitterness. She could not see that the young woman walking beside her was the beginning of God's answer. When your own season feels like loss with no visible redemption, remember that providence often works underground first.
The harvest was just beginning as she wept, and God was nearer to her emptiness than she knew.
A prayer from Ruth 1
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