Ruth 1:6–22

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

⁶When Naomi heard in Moabⁿ that the Lord had come to the aid of his people^o by providing food^p for them, she and her daughters-in-law^q prepared to return home from there. ⁷With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.^r May the Lord show you kindness,^s as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands^t and to me. ⁹May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest^u in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed^v them goodbye and they wept aloud^{w 10}and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”

¹¹But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands?^{x 12}Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons—¹³would you wait until they grew up?^y Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter^z for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!^a”

¹⁴At this they wept^b aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law^c goodbye,^d but Ruth clung to her.^e

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

¹⁶But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you^h 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 people^j 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

¹⁹So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.^o When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred^p 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 Almighty^dq 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 afflicted^e me;^t the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

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