³⁰ Then the mother of the child said, ^(A)“As the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So he arose and followed her.

⁴ Elijah said to him, “Elisha, ^(A)please stay here, for the Lord has sent me to ^(B)Jericho.” But he said, ^(C)“As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they came to Jericho.

² And Elijah said to Elisha, ^(A)“Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me as far as Bethel.” But Elisha said, ^(B)“As the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. ^(A)Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. ^(B)May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” ^18 (C)And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

Moses' Intercession

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, ^(A)you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ^(B)‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please ^(C)show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is ^(D)your people.” ¹⁴ And he said, ^(E)“My presence will go with you, and ^(F)I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, ^(G)“If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? ^(H)Is it not in your going with us, ^(I)so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”