Ruth 1:14-22

14Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

15Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

16But Ruth replied: Don’t plead with me to abandon you or to return and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

17Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me, and do so severely, if anything but death separates you and me.

18When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped talking to her.

19The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20“Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” she answered, “for the Almighty has made me very bitter.

21I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has opposed me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”

22So Naomi came back from the territory of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.