14. They cried again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth held on to her.
15. Naomi then said to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and to her gods! Why don't you go with her?”
16. Ruth answered,“Please don't tell meto leave youand return home!I will go where you go,I will live where you live;your people will be my people,your God will be my God.
17. I will die where you dieand be buried beside you.May the Lord punish meif we are ever separated,even by death!”
18. When Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her, she stopped urging her to go back.
19. They reached Bethlehem, and the whole town was excited to see them. The women who lived there asked, “Can this really be Naomi?”
20. Then she told them, “Don't call me Naomi any longer! Call me Mara, because God has made my life bitter.
21. I had everything when I left, but the Lord has brought me back with nothing. How can you still call me Naomi, when God has turned against me and made my life so hard?”
22. The barley harvest was just beginning when Naomi and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law, arrived in Bethlehem.