12
Turn back, my daughters, go--for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons,
13
would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the hand of the Lord has gone out against me!"
14
Then they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15
And she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law."
16
But Ruth said: "Entreat me not to leave you, Or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever 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 will I be buried. The Lord do so to me, and more also, If anything but death parts you and me."
18
When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.
19
Now the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was excited because of them; and the women said, "Is this Naomi?"
20
But 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, and the Lord has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"
22
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.