Found Family: Noemi & Ruth, Ruth 1:1-17

Where You Go, I Go: The Story of Ruth and Naomi

Citation:  Ruth 1:1 – 17

When judges ruled over Israel, there was a famine in the land.

One man from Bethlehem in Juda left to travel with his wife and two sons to the land of the Moabites.

This man was named Elimelech, and his wife was named Naomi. Their two kids were named Mahalon and Chelion, Ephrathites from Bethlehem.

They traveled to the land of the Moabites and dwelled there.

When Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, it was just her and her two sons.

Her sons married Moabite women; one was named Orpha and the other was named Ruth.

They lived there for ten years, but then both of her sons Mahalon and Chelion died. Now the poor woman was bereft of both her husband and her two sons.

She took it upon herself to travel back to her homeland with both of her daughters-in-law, for she had heard that theLord had protected His people, and had provided them with food.

She got up and left, and when she was about to travel, she told her daughters-in-law, “Go back home to the home of your mothers. May the Lord take pity on you, just as you have taken pity on both the dead [i.e., your husbands] as well as me. May he give you peace in the home of your husbands when you remarry.” And she kissed them.

They began to cry, and wept, saying, “We will go with you to your people.”

She responded to them, “My daughters, go back home. Why would you want to go with me? I don’t have any more children in my womb, so you can’t hope for future husbands from me. Go back home, my daughters, and leave me. I am worn out with old age, and too old to get married again. Even if I could conceive a child tonight, and give birth to sons, if you wanted to wait for them to get old enough to marry them, you’d be too old to marry them.”

I beg you, daughters, please don’t stay, for your difficulties weigh upon my heart more than my own, and the Lord has set His hand against me.”

They both wailed and began to weep. Orpha kissed her mother-in-law and left her. Ruth, however, clung to her mother-in-law. Naomi told her, “Go now, she’s travelling back to your kin, and your own gods. Go with her.”

Ruth responded, “Don’t keep me from you or make me leave. Wherever you will go, I will go. Wherever you will live, I will live there, too. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. The land that holds your tomb will also accept mine. May the Lord grant me these things, and add one more thing: that only death should ever separate you and me.”

  

Where You Go, I Go: The Story of Ruth and Naomi

In diebus unius iudicis, quando iudices praerant, facta est fames in terra. Abiitque homo de Bethlehem Iuda, ut peregrinaretur in regione Moabitide cum uxore sua ac duobus liberis. Ipse vocabatur Elimelech, et uxor eius Noemi: et duo filii, alter Mahalon, et alter Chelion, Ephrathei de Bethlehem Iuda. Ingressique regionem Moabitidem, morabantur ibi.

Et mortuus est Elimelech maritus Noemi: remansitque ipsa cum filiis qui acceperunt uxores Moabitidas, quarum una vocabatur Orpha, altera vero Ruth. Manseruntque ibi decem annis, et ambo mortui sunt, Mahalon videlicet et Chelion: remansitque mulier orbata duobus liberis ac marito.

Et surrexit ut in patriam pergeret cum utraque nuru sua de regione Moabitide: audierat enim quod respexisset Dominus populum suum, et dedisset eis escas.

Egressa est itaque de loco peregrinationis suae, cum utraque nuru: et iam in via revertendi posita in terram Iuda. Dixit ad eas: “Ite in domum matris vestrae faciat vobiscum Dominus misericordiam, sicut fecistis cum mortuis et mecum. Det vobis invenire requiem in domibus virorum, quos sortiturae estis.” Et osculata est eas.

Quae elevata voce flere coeperunt, et dicere: “Tecum pergemus ad populum tuum.”

Quibus illa respondit: “Revertimini, filiae mea, cur venitis mecum? Num ultra habeo filios in utero meo, ut viros ex me sperare possitis? Revertimini, filiae meae, et abite: iam enim senectute confecta sum, nec apta vinculo coniugali: etiamsi possem hac nocte concipere, et parere filios, si eos expectare velitis donec crescant, et annos pubertais impleant, ante eritis vetulae quam nubatis.

 Nolite, quaeso, filiae meae: quia vestra angustia magis me premit, et egressa est manus Domini contra me.”

Elevata igitur voce, rursum flere coeperunt: Orpha osculata est socrum, ac reversa est.

Ruth adhaesit socrui suae, cui dixit Noemi: “En reversa est cognata tua ad populum suum, et ad deos suos, vade cum ea.”

Quae respondit: “Ne adverseris mihi, ut relinquam te, et abeam. Quocumque enim perrexeris, pergam, et ubi morata fueris, et ego pariter morabor. Populus tuus populus meus, et Deus tuus Deus meus. Quae te terra morientem susceperit, in ea moriar: ibique locum accipiam sepulturae. Haec mihi faciat Dominus, et haec addat, si non sola mors me et te separaverit.