Study Desk

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had not known a man by sleeping with him; and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

Now it came about in the days when the judges governed, that there was a famine in the land. And a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to reside in the land of Moab with his wife and his two sons.

Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, because she had heard in the land of Moab that the LORD had visited His people by giving them food.

So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to your mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

However, they said to her, "No, but we will return with you to your people."

But Naomi said, "Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

But Ruth said, "Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her about it.

But she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

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

Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, "May the LORD be with you." And they said to him, "May the LORD bless you."

And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, "She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab.

Her mother-in-law then said to her, "Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed." So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz."

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that others do not assault you in another field."

So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

"Now then, is Boaz not our relative, with whose young women you were? Behold, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight.

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he had relations with her. And the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.

Then they got up early in the morning and worshiped before the LORD, and returned again to their house in Ramah. And Elkanah had relations with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.