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 Moab for a while, taking his wife and their two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek and he was married to Naomi, and their sons’ names were Mahlon and Kilion. (They were part of the clan of Ephrathah from Beyt-Lehem in Yehudah.) They travelled to the Moab countryside and lived there. 3 Then Naomi’s husband Elimelek died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Eventually they married women from there in Moab—Orpah and Ruth. But after Naomi and her sons had lived in Moab for about then years, 5 Mahlon and Kilion both also died, and Naomi was left without her husband or her two sons.