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Ruth 1: where you go, I will go

Ruth promises to stay with Naomi wherever she goes. Couples read it as a promise of faithful love.

Bible reference: Ruth 1:16-17

For weddings

At a glance

Text
King James Version, at the bottom of this page
Length, read slowly
Under a minute
Where it goes
  • Scripture reading · Christian wedding ceremony and Wedding ceremonyRead by: reader
  • Second reading · Christian wedding ceremonyRead by: reader

Have the officiant read your choice first: they have the last word.

We don’t show modern translations here: they are protected by copyright. You can find them in your church’s Bible or on the publisher’s website. Further down this page is the text from the King James Version, which you may use freely.

Use in your program

What this reading says

Ruth is a young widow from Moab. Her widowed mother-in-law Naomi is going home to Bethlehem and tells Ruth to stay with her own people. Ruth refuses. Where you go, I will go. Where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die, I will die and be buried. Only death will separate us. It is a promise made by one woman to another, in grief, with nothing to gain. Couples borrow it because it says what a wedding vow says, in words far older than any vow book.

When it fits

This reading is at home at a non-religious ceremony, an interfaith wedding or a church service, because it is about loyalty rather than doctrine. Couples who left a country, a job or a family to be together hear their own story in it. Same-sex couples choose it partly because the speaker and the listener are both women. It is not in the Catholic list of wedding readings, so ask your priest; most Protestant pastors welcome it. If you want a reading that is about the two of you rather than about love in general, Genesis 2 is its traditional cousin. For a poem that counts the ways instead of the places, see How Do I Love Thee?.

Reading it aloud

A sister, a best friend or a mother-in-law reads this one well. Resist speeding up. Read the promises as a list, with a small stop after each "I will". The King James Version begins "Intreat me not to leave thee", with "whither thou goest" a few words later. If you would rather have "Where you go, I will go", paste a modern translation into your wedding program with its credit line.

Text from the King James Version

Ruth 1:16-17

This older translation is in the public domain in the United States, so you may print it in your program for free. A Catholic Mass reads from the lectionary, so for a Mass, paste the text your parish uses.

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: Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Goes well with

In a sample program

Scripture readings for a wedding

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