⁶⁷ So Jesus said to ^(A)the twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?”

⁷⁰ Jesus answered them, ^(A)“Did I not choose you, ^(B)the twelve? And yet one of you is ^(C)a devil.”

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵ Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, ^26 (A)“If anyone comes to me and ^(B)does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, ^(C)yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. ^27 (D)Whoever does not ^(E)bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. ²⁸ For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not ^(F)first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? ²⁹ Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, ³⁰ saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’ ³¹ Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not ^(G)sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? ³² And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. ^33 (H)So therefore, any one of you who ^(I)does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb ^(A)that they may become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters; go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have hope, even if I should have a husband this night and should bear sons, ¹³ would you therefore wait till they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake that ^(B)the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.” ¹⁴ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to ^(C)her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 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. ^(D)Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. ^(E)May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” ^18 (F)And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.

¹⁹ Then the king said to ^(A)Ittai the Gittite, “Why do you also go with us? Go back and stay with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your home. ²⁰ You came only yesterday, and shall I today make you wander about with us, since I go ^(B)I know not where? Go back and take your brothers with you, and may the Lord show^[a] steadfast love and faithfulness to you.”

^2 (A)The names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, ^(B)who is called Peter, and ^(C)Andrew his brother; ^(D)James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother;

^15 (A)And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the Lord, ^(B)choose this day whom you will serve, whether ^(C)the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or ^(D)the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. ^(E)But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

¹⁶ Then the people answered, “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods, ¹⁷ for it is the Lord our God who brought us and our fathers up from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, and who did those great signs in our sight and preserved us in all the way that we went, and among all the peoples through whom we passed. ¹⁸ And the Lord drove out before us all the peoples, the Amorites who lived in the land. Therefore we also will serve the Lord, for he is our God.”

¹⁹ But Joshua said to the people, “You are not able to serve the Lord, for he is ^(F)a holy God. He is ^(G)a jealous God; ^(H)he will not forgive your transgressions or your sins. ^20 (I)If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then ^(J)he will turn and do you harm and consume you, after having done you good.” ²¹ And the people said to Joshua, “No, but we will serve the Lord.” ²² Then Joshua said to the people, “You are witnesses against yourselves that ^(K)you have chosen the Lord, to serve him.” And they said, “We are witnesses.”