³ Now Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women,^(A) one named Orpah and the other Ruth.^(B) After they had lived there about ten years, ⁵ both Mahlon and Kilion^(C) also died,^(D) and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home.^(A) May the Lord show you kindness,^(B) as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands^(C) and to me. ⁹ May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest^(D) in the home of another husband.”

Then she kissed^(E) them goodbye and they wept aloud^(F)

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you^(A) or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go,^(B) and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people^(C) and your God my God.^{(D) 17} Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,^(E) if even death separates you and me.”^(F)