The big picture
The Book of Ruth opens with a household steadily emptied by famine, migration, and death. Bethlehem has no bread, so Elimelech’s family goes to Moab, where Naomi eventually loses her husband and both sons. When she hears that the LORD has given bread again in Judah, she begins the return and urges Ruth and Orpah to seek new futures rather than bind themselves to her losses. Orpah leaves after Naomi’s repeated request, while Ruth chooses a loyalty that reaches beyond companionship to people, God, death, and burial. Bethlehem receives the two women at barley harvest, but Naomi can still describe herself as empty while Ruth stands beside her. The chapter closes without correcting Naomi’s grief. Instead, the Book of Ruth quietly places grief, loyal presence, returning bread, and the beginning of harvest in the same frame.
Central truth
A Bethlehem household seeks food in Moab, but three deaths leave Naomi without her husband and sons and bind the book's opening to bereaved women rather than easy explanations. Ruth answers Naomi's repeated offers of release with a binding commitment to Naomi's journey, people, God, and burial, choosing a shared future that Naomi cannot promise will be secure. Naomi reaches Bethlehem naming her life bitter and empty, while the Book of Ruth places Ruth beside her and the beginning of barley harvest before her.
The study notes have a page of their own
The movement by movement analysis, the words to trace, the verse by verse notes and where readers differ are written for someone studying alone. They are on the Deep Personal Reflections page for this chapter. This page is the lesson.
A chapter-specific teaching brief
These anchors come from this chapter itself. They help a teacher use the Level 1 overview, the Level 2 study, and the Scripture text as one lesson.
Open with the chapter’s first image
Ruth 1:1: “Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Beth-lehem-judah went to sojourn in the…”
Slow down at the turning point
Ruth 1:11: “And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?”
Keep this word trail visible
LORD, Naomi, daughters, Moab, return, sons
What to explain, in order
Teach the passage in this order. Each step names the verses it rests on, so every point can be shown in the text before it is applied.
Ruth 1:1–5
Ruth 1:1
Set the time before the people
Begin with the first clause and do not rush it. The phrase "in the days when the judges ruled" puts the family in the same years as the Book of Judges, a time of repeated failure and rescue, and "a famine in the land" makes the land of promise a place without bread. Explain sojourn: to live in another country as a resident foreigner, without the rights of a native. Teach this first because the reason for leaving is hunger, and learners need to hear that plainly before anyone starts speculating about motives. Say that no judge is named and no date is given.
Ruth 1:1-2
Four names and a home town
Read the names slowly and write them up: Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, Chilion. Point out that 1:2 adds "Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah", a clan within the town, so this is a rooted family and not drifters. Explain that Elimelech is usually taken to mean my God is king, and that Naomi means pleasant, which she will turn against herself in 1:20. Leave the popular meanings of the sons' names alone or mark them as uncertain; they are not offered by the text as causes. The point here is that the losses to come happen to people with names.
Ruth 1:3-4
The first death and two marriages
Put the weight on the small phrase "and she was left". The Book of Ruth tells the death from Naomi's side: it is "Naomi's husband" who dies. Then the sons marry women of Moab, Orpah and Ruth, and the family stays about ten years. Explain that the text reports these marriages without comment, so the teacher should too at this stage. This step comes before 1:5 so that learners see the household rebuilt for a while: a widow, two sons, two daughters in law, a life in a foreign land that seems to be holding together.
Ruth 1:5
Left of her sons and her husband
Now read 1:5 and pause after it. Both sons die, and the verse repeats the word left: "the woman was left of her two sons and her husband". Notice that she is not even named here; she is "the woman", stripped down to what she has lost. Explain what this meant in that world: no husband and no son meant no one bound by duty to provide for her or to carry on the family name and land. Teach this last in the unit because it is the ground the whole Book of Ruth stands on. Every later scene answers this emptiness, and the book's last word on Naomi will be a child laid in her arms in 4:16.
Ruth 1:6–18
Ruth 1:6-7
The turn toward home
Begin with the news that sets everything moving: the LORD has "visited his people in giving them bread". Point out that the famine which drove the family out is ended by God, and that this is one of only two places in the Book of Ruth where the text itself says the LORD acted (the other is 4:13). Then show the key verb of the chapter, return, which comes again and again in 1:6-22. Teach this first so learners hear the whole unit as a road home, and ask whose home it is: Naomi's, but not yet Orpah's or Ruth's.
Ruth 1:8-10
A blessing on the road
Slow down on Naomi's first speech. Explain that "deal kindly" translates hesed, loyal and generous love that goes beyond duty, one of the key words of the Book of Ruth (it returns in 2:20 and 3:10). Naomi uses it to praise two Moabite women. Then explain rest, a settled home with a husband, and note that Naomi wants it for them in Moab. This step comes before the argument of 1:11-13 because it sets Naomi's tone: she sends them away with a blessing, not a rejection, and both women answer with tears and a refusal.
Ruth 1:11-13
The argument from an empty womb
Now teach the background learners need. In Israel a widow without children could be married by her husband's brother so that the dead man's name would continue (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Naomi's sons are dead and she has no more, so she pushes the logic to absurdity: even a pregnancy tonight would give them nothing for years. Read her last line carefully: "the hand of the LORD is gone out against me". She speaks her grief honestly and from faith, not unbelief. Do not correct her here; the Book of Ruth lets her speak, and so should the teacher.
Ruth 1:14-15
One kiss, one clinging
Put the two verbs side by side on the board: kissed and clave. Orpah does what Naomi asked and what was sensible. Ruth holds on. Explain clave by its use in Genesis 2:24, the strongest word for attachment in the Old Testament. Then read 1:15 and note "her gods": to go back to Moab is to go back to Chemosh as well as to a mother's house. That gives Ruth's next words their weight. Teach this before 1:16 so that the room feels Naomi's last push and sees that Ruth now has every permission to leave.
Ruth 1:16-17
The whole pledge
Read Ruth's words aloud twice. Then list them in order: going, lodging, people, God, death, burial, oath. Show how the promise widens from a road to a whole life and past it. Point out that Ruth, a Moabite, swears by the LORD, Israel's covenant name, and not by Naomi's God in general: "the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me". Explain that this is a self-curse formula, calling God to act if she breaks her word. This is the centre of the unit and should get the most time.
Ruth 1:18
Naomi falls silent
End with the short verse that closes the scene. Naomi sees that Ruth is "stedfastly minded" and stops speaking. Make sure learners notice what is not there: no answer to the pledge, no word of comfort. Teach this last because it keeps the unit honest and sets up the arrival in Bethlehem, where Naomi will say she came back empty. Ruth's loyalty has not yet changed how Naomi sees her own life, and the Book of Ruth is patient about that.
Ruth 1:19–22
Ruth 1:19
The town stirs
Start with the arrival. Read "So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem" and pause on the word two: the road of the previous unit is over and Ruth is still there. Then show the stir in the town and the women's question, Is this Naomi. Explain that the Hebrew verb for the question is feminine, so the speakers are the women, who frame the whole book with 4:14-17. Teach this first because it moves the scene from a private road to a watching community, and everything Naomi says next is said in public.
Ruth 1:20
Pleasant becomes bitter
Write the two names on the board and their meanings: Naomi, pleasant; Mara, bitter. Let learners hear how sharp the wordplay is. Then point to her reason: the Almighty, Shaddai, "hath dealt very bitterly with me". Explain that Shaddai is the old name of God from the days of the patriarchs (Genesis 17:1). Make the point that she speaks of God, not of fate or bad luck, and does not hide her complaint. Teach this second so that her lament is heard before anyone hurries to correct it.
Ruth 1:21
Full and empty
Read the verse slowly and draw two columns, full and empty. Fill the first from 1:1-2 and the second from 1:3-5. Then show the four clauses about God: the LORD brought me home empty, the LORD testified against me, the Almighty afflicted me. Explain that this is lament, the kind of honest speech to God found in Job and in Psalms such as Psalm 88, and that the Bible preserves it without editing. The Book of Ruth does not rebuke her. It answers her slowly, with harvest, kindness and at last a child.
Ruth 1:22
The book's own summary
Finish with the verse in which the Book of Ruth speaks for itself. Read it as a deliberate answer to Naomi: she says empty, and the text says Ruth is "with her". Note the odd phrase that Ruth "returned" from Moab, which treats her as already belonging to the journey home. Then read the time note, "in the beginning of barley harvest", and connect it to the famine of 1:1 and the bread of 1:6. Teach this last because it is the hinge into chapter 2: the emptiness is real, and the fields are already turning.
Where learners get stuck
The misreadings this passage tends to produce, and how to answer each from the text.
Ruth 1:1–5
"Elimelech left the promised land because he did not trust God, so God punished him."
The text gives a reason, "there was a famine in the land", and no verdict. Jacob's family went down to Egypt in a famine (Genesis 46:3-4) and Isaac was told to stay in one (Genesis 26:2-3), so going and staying are both in Scripture and neither settles the case. Say honestly that some teachers read the move as unfaithful, then show that the Book of Ruth never says so and never links a death to the move. Keep the rule: claim only what the verse says.
"Mahlon and Chilion died because they married Moabite women."
Read 1:4-5 and show that the deaths follow the marriages in time only; the text draws no line between them. Deuteronomy 23:3 keeps a Moabite out of the congregation, but the Book of Ruth goes on to make a Moabite woman the great-grandmother of David (4:17) and to praise her kindness. A lesson that blames the marriages makes the book argue against its own ending. Teach that the cause of the deaths is not given and leave it there.
"The sons' names mean sickly and wasting, so the names explain why they died."
These meanings are popular and uncertain, and the Book of Ruth never explains either name. Even if the meanings were sure, a name given at birth is not a cause of death. Use the opportunity to teach a habit: notice what the text explains (Naomi's own name in 1:20) and what it leaves alone. Where the book is silent, the teacher should not fill the silence with a moral.
"After 1:5 Naomi was completely alone."
Read 1:5 again: she was left of her sons and her husband. Then read 1:6, where she rises "with her daughters in law". Naomi has lost all the men of her household, and that is a real and heavy loss, but Orpah and Ruth are with her. This matters for the next unit, where Naomi will try to send them away, and for 1:21, where she says she came home empty with Ruth standing beside her.
Ruth 1:6–18
"Orpah was the selfish one who turned her back on Naomi."
Read 1:8, 1:10 and 1:14. Naomi praises Orpah's kindness, Orpah weeps and first insists on going, and she leaves only after Naomi urges her three times. She does what was reasonable and what she was asked. The text records that she went back to her people and her gods and says no more about her. Ruth's choice shines because it goes beyond the reasonable, not because Orpah's was wicked.
"Ruth's words are a wedding vow between a husband and wife."
They are often read at weddings, and they can be borrowed for that. But in the text they are spoken by a widowed daughter in law to her widowed mother in law, on a road, with no marriage in sight. Teach their first meaning: loyalty across generations and across peoples, and a turning to Israel's God. Using them only for romance loses the surprise of 1:16-17.
"Naomi was bitter and wanted to be rid of them."
Naomi is grieving, and she says so in 1:13. But her words in 1:8-9 are a blessing in the LORD's name and a prayer for their rest. Her argument in 1:11-13 is for their sake: she has no sons to give them and does not want them to share her hardship. A teacher who makes Naomi the obstacle in this scene has missed that she is the one asking God to be kind to them.
"Ruth went to Judah because she expected a better life there."
Naomi has just told her the opposite: no husband, no sons, a hand of the LORD against her household (1:11-13). Ruth's pledge in 1:16-17 mentions no gain at all and ends at a grave. Whatever Ruth hoped, the text presents her choice as loyalty without guarantee, and that is what Boaz will praise in 2:11.
Ruth 1:19–22
"Naomi was sinning when she complained against God."
The Book of Ruth records her words without a single word of rebuke, and the same God answers her with harvest and a grandson. Scripture keeps many such laments, from Job 3 to Psalm 88, and the prophets and psalmists speak in the same way. Naomi takes her grief to God by name rather than away from him. Teach the difference between honest lament and rejecting God, and do not make grieving learners feel that their tears are sin.
"Naomi ignored Ruth and was ungrateful for her."
Grief narrows sight, and Naomi does not mention Ruth in 1:20-21. But the text does not accuse her. It simply places Ruth beside her in 1:22 and lets the rest of the book show what Ruth is worth. In 4:15 the women of Bethlehem say it aloud for her. Teach learners to hold both: Naomi's words are honest, and Ruth's presence is real.
"Naomi changed her name to Mara from then on."
She asks to be called Mara, but no one does. The very next verse says "So Naomi returned", and she is Naomi through the rest of the book, down to 4:17 where a son is born "to Naomi". The request shows how she felt on the day she came home. It is not a new identity the text accepts, and the ending suggests that pleasant was the truer name after all.
"The barley harvest is just a date."
The Book of Ruth does not waste words. The family left because of "a famine in the land" (1:1), and Naomi set out because the LORD had given "bread" (1:6). The harvest note ties those threads together and makes the gleaning of chapter 2 possible. It is the first sign of the turn, and the harvests mark the time again in 2:23.
Learning objectives
- Locate the account within the days of the judges.
- Identify the stated reason for leaving Bethlehem.
- Name the household members introduced in 1:2.
- Trace the three deaths in their reported order.
- Distinguish reported loss from an asserted divine punishment.
- Identify the women remaining at the opening's close.
- Identify the news that begins Naomi's return.
- Recognize Naomi's blessing of both daughters-in-law.
- Explain Naomi's argument about prospective husbands.
- Distinguish Orpah's farewell from Ruth's decision to remain.
- Trace the widening commitments in Ruth's oath.
- Identify how Naomi responds to Ruth's settled resolve.
- Identify Bethlehem's response to Naomi's arrival.
- Explain Naomi's requested change of name from her own words.
- Identify the losses behind her description of emptiness.
- Distinguish Naomi's interpretation from a disclosed cause of suffering.
- Recognize Ruth's repeated identification as present and Moabite.
- Explain why the harvest notice matters for the next chapter.
Teacher preparation
- Read 1:1-5 slowly, allowing a pause after each death; five verses carry years of family experience.
- Locate Bethlehem in Judah and Moab across the Dead Sea; do not invent the family's precise route.
- Explain 'sojourn' as living away from home and 'Ephrathites' here through the connection with Bethlehem in 1:2.
- Read 1:6-9 before class to see that the surviving daughters-in-law are recognized for kindness, not introduced as culprits.
- Prepare a simple family diagram without ages, causes of death, or a date the passage does not supply.
- Read 1:6-18 with three distinct speaking positions; use voluntary readers without assigning anyone a bereavement role.
- Explain 'rest' in 1:9 as security in a household, not a request for a nap.
- Define 'intreat' in 1:16 as urge and 'clave' in 1:14 as held fast.
- Compare the concern for a deceased husband's family in Deuteronomy 25:5-6, but do not present Naomi's imagined unborn sons as an immediately workable arrangement.
- Mark every instruction to return and every part of Ruth's answer; prepare to address the common use of these words at weddings.
- Read 1:1-5 before 1:19-22 so the language of emptiness remains attached to actual bereavement.
- Let Naomi's explanation of bitterness in 1:20 interpret her requested name; avoid unsupported symbolism for every family name.
- Mark the first-person speech in 1:20-21 and the account's closing statement in 1:22 in different columns.
- Read 2:2-3 to see the practical significance of barley harvest without making the harvest a guarantee of instant recovery.
- Prepare a response to the claim that Naomi should simply be grateful for Ruth; keep companionship and grief together rather than making them rivals.
Evidence and interpretation checks
Explicit
State that famine prompts the journey in 1:1 and that Elimelech, Mahlon, and Chilion die in 1:3-5. State that Naomi blesses both women for kindness in 1:8-9, while Ruth explicitly claims Naomi's people and God in 1:16. State that Naomi describes divine affliction in 1:20-21 and that 1:22 reports Ruth's presence and the beginning of barley harvest.
Scripture-supported
Compare the family losses in 1:3-5 with Naomi's own description of returning empty in 1:21; her later words have concrete losses behind them. Read 1:16-17 beside Boaz's account in 2:11-12; the later passage confirms the concrete cost and religious significance of Ruth's departure. Read Naomi's 'empty' in 1:21 beside the deaths in 1:3-5; her language refers to devastating household loss, not an itemized inventory.
Strong inference
Infer severe household vulnerability from the three widows remaining after 1:5, reinforced by Ruth's need to glean in 2:2. Infer that Ruth accepts substantial uncertainty from Naomi's bleak prospects in 1:11-13 and Ruth's continued resolve in 1:16-18. Infer that the harvest notice in 1:22 opens a practical possibility because Ruth seeks gleaning work immediately in 2:2-3.
Possible or traditional reading
Present the claim that leaving Bethlehem caused divine punishment as a traditional reading some bring to 1:1-5, not the Book of Ruth's stated verdict. Explain that reading 1:16-17 as Ruth's conversion emphasizes her confession of Israel's God; the passage records the pledge, not a formal conversion ceremony. Present the reading of 1:21 as a confession of punishment for leaving Judah as an interpretation some propose; Naomi names no specific offense here.
Limit
Do not supply causes of death, the women's ages, or a named judge from 1:1-5; 'about ten years' in 1:4 is not a complete family chronology. Do not make 1:14 a declaration that Orpah never showed love, or claim that Ruth's words in 1:16-17 were originally spoken to a husband. Do not make 1:19-22 reveal God's reasons for the deaths, diagnose Naomi's inner condition, or promise that every bereaved person will receive this book's later outcome.
Discussion with answer guidance
1. What does 'when the judges ruled' establish before Elimelech is named?
What a good answer contains
It places the family in a period before it describes the family: "in the days when the judges ruled" (1:1). A good answer says this is a setting, the unsettled years between Joshua and the kings, and that the verse names no judge and gives no year. A weak answer borrows Judges 21:25 to pass sentence on Elimelech; the period may have been disordered, but the Book of Ruth does not say this household shared its sins.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:1 to identify a historical setting, not a named judge or an exact year. Keep broader conditions separate from this family's moral assessment.
2. Why does the household leave Bethlehem for Moab?
What a good answer contains
Because "there was a famine in the land" (1:1). That is the only reason the verse gives, and the verb is "to sojourn", to live somewhere as an outsider, not to settle for good. A strong answer stops there. A weak answer adds unbelief, greed or a broken command; none of those is written, and a learner should be able to point to the verse for every claim made about the move.
Show teacher guidance
Answer famine from 1:1. Correct claims that the text explicitly accuses Elimelech of unbelief or records a command forbidding this move.
3. Why keep all four names in 1:2 rather than reducing them to 'a family'?
What a good answer contains
Because 1:2 takes the trouble to name them: Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon and Chilion, "Ephrathites of Beth-lehem-judah". A good answer notices that names make the losses in 1:3-5 losses of particular people, a husband and two sons, and that the clan name Ephrathites ties them to a place that will matter again (4:11). A weak answer treats the list as filler on the way to Ruth, who has not yet appeared.
Show teacher guidance
Identify Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, and Chilion; then track whose relationships the later deaths sever. Allow the names to resist treating loss as a statistic.
4. How does the sequence of deaths change Naomi's position?
What a good answer contains
In two blows. First "Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons" (1:3), so she is a widow with grown sons who then marry. Then, about ten years later, "Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them" (1:5). A good answer sees that the second loss removes the men who could have provided for her, so she is now a widow without sons in a foreign land. Running both deaths together into one event misses the decade between them.
Show teacher guidance
Trace her husband's death in 1:3 and both sons' deaths in 1:5. Do not compress them into one reported accident.
5. What can 'about ten years' tell us, and what can it not tell us?
What a good answer contains
That the family stayed long: "they dwelled there about ten years" (1:4), so this was no brief stay. It cannot tell us whether the ten years count from the move or from the marriages, how old anyone was, or why neither marriage produced a child. A strong answer keeps the word "about" and says what the verse leaves open. A weak answer builds a timeline or a diagnosis the text never gives.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:4 for the approximate span in Moab; resist deriving precise marriage lengths, infertility diagnoses, or ages.
6. Who remains when 1:5 says Naomi was left?
What a good answer contains
Naomi and her two daughters in law. The verse says "the woman was left of her two sons and her husband" (1:5), which names what she lost, not that she was alone. Orpah and Ruth, named in 1:4, are still there, and 1:6 says she arose "with her daughters in law". A good answer holds both truths: she has lost every man in her household, and she is not without companions. That is the tension the rest of chapter 1 works through.
Show teacher guidance
Keep Ruth and Orpah from 1:4 on the family diagram. Naomi has lost husband and sons; the account has not left her literally without any companion.
7. What news moves Naomi onto the road toward Judah?
What a good answer contains
News that "the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread" (1:6). The famine of 1:1 is over, and the Book of Ruth credits the LORD with ending it. A good answer notices that Naomi's return starts from hearing about God's care for Bethlehem, not from a plan of her own or from Ruth. A weak answer brings Boaz forward; nobody on this road knows he exists yet, and the text keeps it that way until 2:1.
Show teacher guidance
Name the Lord's provision of bread in 1:6. Do not say Ruth first proposes the return or that Naomi already knows Boaz will help.
8. What does Naomi acknowledge about both women before their paths divide?
What a good answer contains
That both have been kind. She prays, "the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me" (1:8), and asks that each find rest "in the house of her husband" (1:9). Both weep and both say, "Surely we will return with thee unto thy people" (1:10). A good answer sees that Orpah and Ruth begin in the same place, praised for the same loyalty. A lesson that makes Orpah cold from the start has not read these verses.
Show teacher guidance
Read 1:8-10: both have shown kindness, both weep, and both initially wish to accompany her. Do not start with one heroine and one invented villain.
9. Why does Naomi imagine sons not yet born?
What a good answer contains
To show them, as starkly as she can, that she has nothing to offer. She asks whether there are "yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands" (1:11). Even if she married that night and bore sons, would they wait for them to grow up (1:12-13)? A strong answer explains the custom behind the question, a brother marrying his dead brother's widow (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), and sees that Naomi is arguing for their good. Reading this as a real plan to have children misses the irony in her voice.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:11-13: she exposes the impossibility of offering the younger women a secure marriage prospect through herself. Do not read this as an actual pregnancy plan.
10. How does the Book of Ruth distinguish the two farewells in 1:14?
What a good answer contains
By two different gestures: "Orpah kissed her mother in law; but Ruth clave unto her" (1:14). A kiss is a goodbye; clinging is a refusal to say it. A good answer adds that the same Hebrew verb is used in Genesis 2:24 for a man who shall "cleave unto his wife", which shows how strong Ruth's hold is. Naomi then says Orpah "is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods" (1:15). The text records where Orpah went, not a sentence passed on her.
Show teacher guidance
Notice Orpah's kiss and Ruth's cleaving. Then retain 1:15's reference to Orpah's people and gods without inventing a later punishment.
11. How far beyond traveling together does Ruth's answer reach?
What a good answer contains
All the way to the grave and beyond it. Ruth names the road, the lodging, the people and the God: "whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God" (1:16). Then she names death and burial (1:17) and binds herself with an oath in the LORD's name. A good answer counts these parts and notices that the promise is to Naomi, Naomi's people and Naomi's God together. A weak answer shrinks it to keeping someone company on a journey.
Show teacher guidance
Trace lodging, people, God, death, and burial in 1:16-17. The promise is much larger than accompanying Naomi to the next town.
12. What finally ends Naomi's effort to send Ruth away?
What a good answer contains
Ruth's resolve. "When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her" (1:18). A good answer notices that Naomi stops arguing, nothing more. The verse records no embrace, no thanks and no change of mood, and 1:20-21 will show that her grief walks into Bethlehem with her. That honesty is part of the passage, and a good answer does not cover it with a warmer ending than the text gives.
Show teacher guidance
Point to Ruth's steadfast resolve in 1:18. Naomi stops speaking against the decision; the verse does not report that all her sorrow disappears.
13. What does Bethlehem's question 'Is this Naomi?' establish?
What a good answer contains
That Naomi is known and that her return is an event. The verse says "all the city was moved about them" (1:19), and the question is asked in surprise. In Hebrew the verb is feminine, so it is the women of the town who ask, the same women who will speak again in 4:14-17. A good answer keeps to recognition and stir. A weak answer invents details about how aged or ragged she looked; the verse does not describe her at all.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:19 to show recognition and communal attention. Do not invent details about her appearance, age, or the townspeople's motives.
14. Why does Naomi ask to be called Mara?
What a good answer contains
Because she has renamed her own life. Naomi means pleasant and Mara means bitter, and she gives the reason herself: "for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me" (1:20). A good answer quotes her and notes that she blames no one else; she speaks directly about God. A weak answer turns this into a formal change of name. The Book of Ruth keeps calling her Naomi in the very next verse, so this is a cry, not a legal act.
Show teacher guidance
Follow her own explanation in 1:20: she experiences the Almighty's dealings as bitter. Keep the answer rooted in her speech rather than an imagined renaming ceremony.
15. What had made Naomi's departure 'full' compared with this return?
What a good answer contains
Her husband and her two sons. "I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty" (1:21). Put the verse beside 1:1-5: she left with Elimelech, Mahlon and Chilion and returns without any of them. A strong answer notes the irony that the family left because of famine, so full here cannot mean wealthy; it means a household. A weak answer treats full as money and so misses what she is grieving.
Show teacher guidance
Read 1:21 beside 1:2-5 and name her husband and sons. Do not claim she left wealthy merely because she uses 'full.'
16. How can Ruth stand beside Naomi while Naomi still says 'empty'?
What a good answer contains
Because grief and companionship can be true at the same moment. Naomi says "empty" (1:21), and the very next verse says "Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her" (1:22). A good answer does not scold Naomi for overlooking Ruth and does not erase Ruth to agree with Naomi. Both are in the text. The book will settle the matter gently in 4:15, where the women tell Naomi that Ruth is better to her than seven sons.
Show teacher guidance
Hold 1:21 and 1:22 together: family loss and faithful companionship coexist. Reject both the erasure of Ruth and the scolding of Naomi for grieving.
17. Why retain 'Ruth the Moabitess' at this point of arrival?
What a good answer contains
Because her origin has not stopped mattering. 1:22 calls her "Ruth the Moabitess" and says she "returned out of the country of Moab", although she has never lived in Bethlehem. A good answer notices that the Book of Ruth keeps the title in 2:2, 2:21 and 4:5, so the town and the reader never forget that a foreigner is at the centre of Israel's account. Her welcome will be a real question, not a formality.
Show teacher guidance
Notice 1:22 preserves Ruth's origin and relationship to Naomi. Her presence in Bethlehem does not erase the border she has crossed.
18. What does the final harvest notice change, and what remains unresolved?
What a good answer contains
The verse says "they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest" (1:22). The book that began with "a famine in the land" now arrives at harvest, and the bread of 1:6 is ripening in the fields. That makes gleaning possible in 2:2. A good answer also says what the verse does not do: it promises no husband, no son and no end to Naomi's bitterness. It opens a door and leaves the next step to chapter 2.
Show teacher guidance
Use 1:22 and the next step in 2:2. Food-gathering becomes possible; the verse announces neither marriage nor the end of sorrow.
Responsible application
Heart and habits
Remove unsupported accusations from a fictional explanation of Elimelech's migration; retain what 1:1 actually reports.
Relationships and community
Ask what practical assistance three bereaved women in a foreign-country household might need; mark proposed needs as inferences.
Give losses their names
Draft a brief account of this household that acknowledges each death without inventing a lesson the deceased supposedly needed to teach.
Loyalty without coercion
Use Naomi's repeated permission to leave and Ruth's free response to distinguish chosen commitment from pressure to remain in an unsafe relationship.
Notice openings without forcing conclusions
Identify one practical opportunity the harvest creates, then state one outcome it does not yet guarantee.
Session plans
Two timings of the same lesson. The shorter keeps the reading, the central discussion and one response; the longer gives the confusions and the application their own time.
Ruth 1:1–5
45 minutes
The setting
Read 1:1 aloud and ask question one. Write judges, famine and sojourn on the board and explain each in a sentence.
The family
Read 1:2 and draw the family diagram with all four names. Ask question three and add Bethlehem and Moab to a simple map.
Two losses
Read 1:3-5 with a pause after each death. Take questions four and five, crossing names off the diagram as they die and adding Orpah and Ruth.
What the text does not say
Ask question two, then work through confusions one and two together, reading only the verses each one claims to rest on.
Who remains and the handout
Ask question six, read the key verse together, give out the handout, and close in prayer for any in the room who carry losses.
90 minutes
Bread and hunger
Ask the group what a family would have to face to leave home for good. Take answers briefly, then read 1:1 and question one.
Judges and sojourners
Read Judges 21:25 for the period, then explain sojourn. Ask question two and keep the answer to what 1:1 states.
Names on the board
Read 1:2 and build the family diagram. Ask question three and discuss what Elimelech and Naomi mean, marking the sons' names as uncertain with confusion three.
The decade in Moab
Read 1:3-5 slowly. Take questions four and five, and have learners say aloud what Naomi has after each verse.
Verdicts the text does not give
Work through confusions one and two. Read Genesis 26:2-3 and 46:3-4 for the first and Deuteronomy 23:3 with Ruth 4:17 for the second.
Not alone
Read 1:5-6 together. Take question six and confusion four, and point ahead to 1:21 without teaching it yet.
Application
In pairs, do the application on giving losses their names, writing two sentences that state what happened without explaining why.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray for widows and for families far from home.
Ruth 1:6–18
45 minutes
Bread in Bethlehem
Read 1:6-7 and ask question one. Mark the word return each time it appears as the unit is read.
Naomi's blessing
Read 1:8-10. Explain kindly as hesed and ask question two. Deal with confusion three in a sentence.
Nothing to offer
Read 1:11-13 and ask question three, explaining the custom of Deuteronomy 25:5-6 briefly.
Kiss and cling, then the pledge
Read 1:14-17. Take questions four and five, listing the parts of Ruth's pledge on the board, and use confusion one on Orpah.
Silence and the handout
Read 1:18 and ask question six. Read the key verse together, give out the handout, and close in prayer.
90 minutes
Leaving and staying
Ask the group to recall a hard goodbye and what made it hard. Then read 1:6-7 and ask question one.
Hesed on the road
Read 1:8-10. Teach hesed with 2:20 and 3:10 for later reference, and ask question two. Take confusion three here.
Naomi's argument
Read 1:11-13 and Deuteronomy 25:5-6. Ask question three and let the group hear Naomi's grief in 1:13 without correcting it.
Two daughters, two choices
Read 1:14-15. Ask question four, compare Genesis 2:24 for clave, and work through confusion one.
The pledge
Read 1:16-17 aloud twice. Take question five, list the seven parts, and discuss the oath in the LORD's name. Then take confusions two and four.
Naomi falls silent
Read 1:18 and ask question six. Look ahead to 1:20-21 to show that grief and loyalty walk into Bethlehem together.
Application
In small groups, work on the loyalty without coercion application, keeping Naomi's repeated permission to leave in view.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray for those who have chosen loyalty at a cost.
Ruth 1:19–22
45 minutes
Two arrive
Read 1:19 and ask question one. Note the word two and the women who ask the question.
Naomi and Mara
Write the two names and meanings on the board. Read 1:20 and ask question two, then confusion three.
Full and empty
Read 1:21 and draw the two columns. Ask question three and work through confusion one on lament.
Ruth with her
Read 1:22. Take questions four and five, and confusion two, keeping both Naomi's words and Ruth's presence in view.
Harvest and handout
Ask question six. Read the key verse together, give out the handout, and pray for any who feel empty.
90 minutes
Coming home
Ask what it is like to return to a place after a long time and a great loss. Read 1:19 and ask question one.
The names
Read 1:20. Teach Naomi, Mara and Shaddai with Genesis 17:1. Ask question two and take confusion three.
Lament
Read 1:21 and fill the columns from 1:1-5. Ask question three, then read Psalm 88:1-3 and take confusion one.
The one beside her
Read 1:22. Take questions four and five and confusion two. Read 4:15 aloud as the book's later answer.
The harvest
Ask question six and take confusion four, tracing famine, bread and harvest through 1:1, 1:6 and 1:22.
Application
Work through the application on welcoming without correcting grief, writing a response to Naomi that names her losses first.
Quiet response
Give the group a few minutes to write privately where they feel full or empty, without sharing.
Handout and prayer
Read the key verse together, point to the take-home line, and pray in the words of lament and hope.
Adapting the lesson
Ruth 1:1–5
Children
Use five paper figures on a map, one for each person, and walk the family from Bethlehem to Moab because there was no food. When the deaths come, lay the figures down gently rather than tearing them, and say plainly that they died and Naomi was very sad. Leave out every theory about why. If a child has lost someone, let that child stay quiet.
Youth
Start with the famine and ask what they would do if their town ran out of food. Then ask them to sort statements about the family into three piles: what the verse says, what is a fair guess, and what is rumour. Most of the popular claims about Elimelech end up in the third pile. Give room for anyone who has moved countries or lost a parent, but do not ask.
Adults
Give time to the setting in the days of the judges and to what sojourning meant for a family without rights. Let the group test the common readings of the move and the marriages against the verses. Some in the room will have buried a spouse or a child; name that grief as real in Naomi, and do not let the lesson suggest that losses always carry a hidden lesson.
One to one
Read the five verses aloud, then ask which line the person noticed most. If it is "she was left", stay there. If the person is grieving, let Naomi's losses be told without explanation, as the text tells them, and resist the urge to resolve them with the end of the book. Ask what they would want a friend to do for Naomi.
Ruth 1:6–18
Children
Walk three children along a line on the floor as Naomi, Orpah and Ruth. At the turn, let Orpah wave and go back, and let Ruth hold Naomi's hand and keep walking. Teach Ruth's words in a short form they can say together: where you go, I will go; your God will be my God. Do not make Orpah bad; say she went home to her mother.
Youth
Ask what it costs to stay loyal when someone tells you that you are free to go. Read 1:16-17 and let them list everything Ruth gave up and everything she gained, which is almost nothing visible. Discuss the difference between loyalty that is chosen and pressure that keeps someone in a harmful place, using Naomi's repeated permission. Avoid turning it into a lesson on dating.
Adults
Give time to the custom behind 1:11-13 and to hesed as the book's key word. Let the group weigh Naomi's line about the hand of the LORD without hurrying to fix it. Discuss what it means that a Moabite swears by the LORD's name. Some adults care for aging parents or in-laws; the unit can honour that, but avoid making Ruth a rule for every family situation.
One to one
Read the passage together, then read 1:16-17 again slowly. Ask the person whether they have ever been told they were free to leave and stayed anyway, or left. Let them speak of either without judgement. If they are deciding about a relationship that is harmful, make clear that Ruth's loyalty was freely given to someone who blessed her, not endured under threat.
Ruth 1:19–22
Children
Make two signs, one saying pleasant and one saying bitter, and let a child hold the pleasant sign while Naomi leaves Bethlehem and switch it on her return. Talk about feeling very sad and telling God about it. Then show a picture of a field of barley ready to cut and say that God was already getting food ready. Keep the deaths in the background.
Youth
Ask whether it is ever right to tell God he has hurt you. Read 1:20-21 and a few lines of Psalm 88 and let them discuss honest prayer. Then ask who Naomi forgot to mention and why grief does that. Point out that the book does not shame her. Watch for anyone carrying their own loss and give a quiet way to respond.
Adults
Give time to lament as a form of faith and to the way the Book of Ruth lets Naomi speak without correction. Discuss the name wordplay and the meaning of Shaddai. Many adults will know seasons when they could not see the people beside them; let the group talk about that honestly. Then draw out the harvest as the book's quiet answer.
One to one
Read the four verses together and ask the person which word matters most to them, full, empty or harvest. If they are grieving, let 1:20-21 stand as permission to speak honestly to God. Do not rush them to 1:22. If they are the one standing beside someone who grieves, let Ruth's quiet presence encourage them to stay.
Song and video learning lab
A song or video may interpret, compress, or dramatize the text. Its value becomes clearer when its choices are compared with Scripture.
- Before the media: the exact passage and its central movement.
- During the media: the words, people, events, and emotions the artist emphasizes.
- After the media: what it clarifies, what it leaves out, and what belongs back in the biblical text.
Handout
One page for learners to take home. The print button prints this section alone.
Ruth 1:1–5
The passage in brief
The Book of Ruth opens in the days of the judges with a famine in Bethlehem. Elimelech takes his wife Naomi and their two sons to live in Moab. Elimelech dies, the sons marry Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth, and after about ten years both sons die too. The text does not say why. Naomi is left without her husband and her sons, in a foreign land, with two daughters in law.
A verse to keep
And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband.
Ruth 1:5 · King James Version
Questions to take home
Name the four members of the family in 1:2 and say what happened to each.
What reason does 1:1 give for the move to Moab?
Who is still with Naomi at the end of 1:5?
This week
This week, speak to someone who has lost a person they loved and use that person's name.
Ruth 1:6–18
The passage in brief
Naomi hears that the LORD has given Bethlehem bread again and sets out for home with Orpah and Ruth. On the road she blesses them for their kindness and urges them to go back to their mothers, since she has no sons left to give them. Orpah kisses her goodbye and returns. Ruth refuses to leave and promises to go where Naomi goes, to take Naomi's people and God as her own, and to be buried where Naomi is buried.
A verse to keep
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
Ruth 1:16 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What reasons does Naomi give in 1:11-13 for sending her daughters in law home?
List everything Ruth promises in 1:16-17.
Why do you think Naomi says nothing more after 1:18?
This week
Keep one promise this week that costs you something, and do it without telling anyone.
Ruth 1:19–22
The passage in brief
Naomi and Ruth reach Bethlehem, and the whole town is stirred. The women ask, Is this Naomi? Naomi tells them to call her Mara, which means bitter, because God has dealt bitterly with her. She left full and has come home empty. Yet Ruth is with her, and they arrive just as the barley harvest begins. The grief is real, and the fields are ripening.
A verse to keep
I went out full, and the LORD hath brought me home again empty: why then call ye me Naomi, seeing the LORD hath testified against me, and the Almighty hath afflicted me?
Ruth 1:21 · King James Version
Questions to take home
What does Naomi mean by full and empty in 1:21?
Who is with Naomi when she says she came home empty?
Why do you think the Book of Ruth mentions the barley harvest in 1:22?
This week
Tell God honestly this week where you feel empty, and then name one person he has put beside you.
Music and video connected to the passage
Related media appears when its Scripture reference overlaps this study. Music and video can illuminate a theme while the biblical text remains the foundation.
