Ruth 1:16-22 ▼

16 But 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 Yahweh do to me, and more, if anything but death separates you and me.”

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

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

20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

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

22 So 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 the beginning of barley harvest.