OET-RV GEN EXO LEV NUM DEU JOB JOS JDG RUTH 1 SAM 2 SAM PSA AMOS HOS 1 KI 2 KI 1 CHR 2 CHR PROV ECC SNG JOEL MIC ISA ZEP HAB JER LAM YNA (JNA) NAH OBA DAN EZE EZRA EST NEH HAG ZEC MAL 2 PS WIS TOB MAN BAR DNG GES LES ESG JDT 3 MAC SIR 1 MAC 2 MAC 4 MAC YHN (JHN) MARK MAT LUKE ACTs YAC (JAM) GAL 1 TH 2 TH 1 COR 2 COR ROM COL LAO PHM EPH PHP 1 TIM TIT 1 PET 2 PET 2 TIM HEB YUD (JUD) 1 YHN (1 JHN) 2 YHN (2 JHN) 3 YHN (3 JHN) REV
OET-RV RUT 1 V1 V2 V3 V4 V5 V6 V7 V8 V9 V10 V11 V12 V13 V14 V15 V16 V17 V18 V19 V20 V21 V22
This OET Readers’ Version was designed to be used with the Literal Version alongside, so you won’t get the best understanding from this single viewpoint. This is still an early look into the drafted text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.
1 Back in the time when the tribal leaders ruled Yisrael (Israel), there was a drought which caused a shortage of food, so a man from the town of Beyt-Lehem (Bethlehem) in the Yehudah (Judah) region went to live in the country of Moav (Moab) for a while, taking his wife and their two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek and he was married to No’omi (Naomi), and their sons’ names were Mahlon and Kilyon. (They were part of the clan of Efratah from Beyt-Lehem in Yehudah.) They travelled to the Moav countryside and lived there. 3 Then No’omi’s husband Elimelek died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Eventually they married women from there in Moav—Orpah and Ruth. But after No’omi and her sons had lived in Moav for about then years, 5 Mahlon and Kilyon both also died, and No’omi was left without her husband or her two sons.
6 ⇔One day No’omi (Naomi) was in the countryside there in Moav (Moab) when she heard someone telling about how Yahweh had helped his people in Yisrael (Israel) and that now they had plenty of food, so she got ready to return to Beyt-Lehem (Bethlehem) with her two daughters-in-law. 7 The three of them left the place where they’d been living in Moav and started walking along the road back to Yehudah (Judah). 8 Then No’omi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Both of you should go back to your parents’ homes. I pray that Yahweh will treat you with the same faithfulness that you showed to your now-deceased husbands and to me. 9 May Yahweh enable both of you to find new husbands and find peace and happiness in your new homes with them.”
Then she kissed them as they all wept aloud. 10 But they both said, “No, we’ll go with you as you return to your relatives.”
11 But No’omi responded, “No, go back to your homes my daughters. Why would you bother coming with me? It’s not like I could still give birth to more sons to become your husbands. 12 Go on back, my daughters, because I’m too old to remarry. Even if I did hope for that and got married tonight and had some sons, 13 could you wait for them to grow up so you could be remarried? No, my daughters, what’s hard for me, even more than your hardships, is that Yahweh is using his power against me.”
14 Then they wailed and cried again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and left, but Ruth stayed and clung to No’omi. 15 No’omi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her parents and to her religion. Go back with her.”
16 But Ruth replied, “Please don’t insist that I leave you and go back, because wherever you go, I’ll go with you and wherever you live, I’ll live there too. Your people are my people, and your god is my god. 17 Wherever you die, I’ll die there too and be buried there. May Yahweh punish me severely if anything other than death separates the two of us.”
18 When No’omi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she didn’t say any more.
19 So the two of them travelled on until they reached Beyt-Lehem (Bethlehem). When they entered Beyt-Lehem, the whole town was curious about them, and the women began asking, “Is that No’omi?”
20 But No’omi told them not to call her ‘No’omi’ (which means ‘pleasant’) but to call her ‘Mara’ (meaning ‘miserable’) because she said, “The almighty God has made my life very miserable. 21 I went away content with a family, but Yahweh has brought me back with a void. So why call me ‘No’omi’? You see, Yahweh has testified against me—the powerful God has brought misfortune on me.”
22 And so No’omi (Naomi) had returned to Yisrael (Israel), along with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moavit, and they arrived there in Beyt-Lehem (Bethlehem) at the start of the barley harvest.
