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)

¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.^(A)

¹⁹ So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem.^(B) When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred^(C) because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”