Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 95
RUTH
In the days when the judges ruled in Israel, a severe famine came upon
the land. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah left his home and went to
live in the country of Moab, taking his wife and two sons with him. The
man’s name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi. Their two sons were
Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of
Judah. And when they reached Moab, they settled there.
Then Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons. The two
sons married Moabite women. One married a woman named Orpah, and
the other a woman named Ruth. But about ten years later, both Mah
lon and Kilion died. This left Naomi alone, without her two sons or her
husband.
Then Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had blessed his people in Judah
by giving them good crops again. So Naomi and her d aughters-in-law got
ready to leave Moab to return to her homeland. With her two d aughters-
in-law she set out from the place where she had been living, and they took
the road that would lead them back to Judah.
But on the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back to
your mothers’ homes. And may the Lord reward you for your kindness
to your husbands and to me. May the Lord bless you with the security
of another marriage.” Then she kissed them g ood-bye, and they all broke
down and wept.
“No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.”
But Naomi replied, “Why should you go on with me? Can I still give
birth to other sons who could grow up to be your husbands? No, my
daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to marry again.
And even if it were possible, and I were to get married tonight and bear
sons, then what? Would you wait for them to grow up and refuse to marry
someone else? No, of course not, my daughters! Things are far more
bitter for me than for you, because the Lord himself has raised his fist
against me.”
And again they wept together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
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