11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons who could become your husbands?h 12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying?G No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share,H because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”i 14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods.j Follow your sister-in-law.”

16 But Ruth replied:

Don’t plead with me to abandon you

or to return and not follow you.

For wherever you go, I will go,

and wherever you live, I will live;

your people will be my people,

and your God will be my God.

17 Where you die, I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May the Lord punish me,k

and do so severely,

if anything but death separates you and me.

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.