Act 3 — SCENE I
Reading edition
Place: In Moab, on the road to Judah.
Characters: Naomi, Ruth, Orpah.
Setting: Naomi, Ruth, Orpah, are on the road going toward Judah.
[Naomi stops and faces about.]
Naomi: Turn back, my daughters-in-law; return each of you to your mother's house. You have come with me far enough. I must take the rest of my journey alone.
Orpah and Ruth: Oh, do not send us back! We will not leave thee!
Naomi: Yea, you must leave me now. I am going home to my own country and my own people, to Bethlehem, Judah! It is ten long years since I left there to come to dwell in your land of Moab. But now that the famine is over I must return.
Orpah: But, Naomi, our mother-in-law, we love thee. Do not thou leave us!
Naomi: I must go. I came to this country happy—with my husband and two sons—but misfortune has dealt bitterly with me. My husband first died, and now my two sons, your husbands, are taken from me. I am old and sad. I have no one left to comfort me. I must go back to mine own people. Leave me, my daughters, and God bless you!
[Both daughters weep.]
Orpah [weeping and kissing Naomi]: If thou wilt be happier, then thou must leave us. I will return to my mother's house as thou sayest. [She goes off slowly, weeping.]
[Ruth still stands by weeping. Takes hold of Naomi's hand.]
Naomi: Behold, Orpah, thy sister-in-law, has gone back to her people and unto her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law.
Ruth: Intreat me not to leave thee, nor 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: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part thee and me.
Naomi: Since thou art so steadfastly minded to go with me, Ruth, I will cease urging thee. Come, thou mayest go with me to Bethlehem.