1 ¹ In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 1 ² The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there. 1 ³ But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 1 ⁴ These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years; 1 ⁵ and both Mahlon and Chilion died, so that the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.