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)

⁴ When the messengers came to Gibeah^(A) of Saul and reported these terms to the people, they all wept^(B) aloud. ⁵ Just then Saul was returning from the fields, behind his oxen, and he asked, “What is wrong with everyone? Why are they weeping?” Then they repeated to him what the men of Jabesh had said.

⁶ When Saul heard their words, the Spirit^(C) of God came powerfully upon him, and he burned with anger. ⁷ He took a pair of oxen,^(D) cut them into pieces, and sent the pieces by messengers throughout Israel,^(E) proclaiming, “This is what will be done to the oxen of anyone^(F) who does not follow Saul and Samuel.” Then the terror of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out together as one.^(G)