Ruth 1:13-20

New International Version

¹³ would you wait until they grew up?^(A) Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter^(B) for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!^(C)”

¹⁴ At this they wept^(D) aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law^(E) goodbye,^(F) but Ruth clung to her.^(G)

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

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you^(J) or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go,^(K) and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people^(L) and your God my God.^{(M) 17} Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,^(N) if even death separates you and me.”^{(O) 18} When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.^(P)

¹⁹ So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.^(Q) When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred^(R) because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,^[a]” she told them. “Call me Mara,^[b] because the Almighty^[c](S) has made my life very bitter.^(T)