Ruth 1:15–22

¹⁵Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her ^agods; return after your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶But Ruth said, “Do not press me to forsake you in turning back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.

¹⁷“Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may ^aYahweh do to me, and more, if anything but death separates you and me.”

¹⁸So ^ashe saw that she was determined to go with her, and she ¹said no more to her.

¹⁹Then they both went until they came to Bethlehem. Now it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, ^aall the city was stirred because of them, and ¹the women said, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰She said to them, “Do not call me ¹Naomi; call me ²Mara, for ^3athe Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

²¹“I went out full, but ^aYahweh has caused me to return empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Yahweh has answered against me, and ¹the Almighty has brought calamity against me.”

²²So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the fields of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at ^athe beginning of barley harvest.