Ruth 1:15–22

¹⁵So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” ¹⁶But Ruth said,

“Do not press me to leave you,

to turn back from following you!

Where you go, I will go;

where you lodge, I will lodge;

your people shall be my people

and your God my God.^*

¹⁷Where you die, I will die,

and there will I be buried.

May the Lord do thus to me,

and more as well,

if even death parts me from you!”

¹⁸When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.^*

¹⁹So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” ²⁰She said to them,

“Call me no longer Naomi;^c

call me Mara,^d

for the Almighty^e has dealt bitterly with me.^*

²¹I went away full,

but the Lord has brought me back empty;

why call me Naomi

when the Lord has dealt harshly with^f me

and the Almighty^g has brought calamity upon me?”^*

²²So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.^*