14 At this they weptb aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-lawc goodbye,d but Ruth clung to her.e

15 “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-lawf is going back to her people and her gods.g Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave youh or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go,i and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my peoplej and your God my God.k 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,l if even death separates you and me.”m 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.n

19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.o When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirredp because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20 “Don’t call me Naomi,b” she told them. “Call me Mara,c because the Almightyd q has made my life very bitter.r 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.s Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflictede me;t the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

22 So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite,u her daughter-in-law,v arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvestw was beginning.x