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.

⁴ When the messengers came to ^(A)Gibeah of Saul, they reported the matter in the ears of the people, ^(B)and all the people wept aloud.

⁵ Now, behold, Saul was coming from the field behind the oxen. And Saul said, “What is wrong with the people, that they are weeping?” So they told him the news of the men of Jabesh. ^6 (C)And the Spirit of God rushed upon Saul when he heard these words, and his anger was greatly kindled. ⁷ He took a yoke of oxen ^(D)and cut them in pieces and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hand of the messengers, saying, ^(E)“Whoever does not come out after Saul and Samuel, so shall it be done to his oxen!” Then the dread of the Lord fell upon the people, and they came out ^(F)as one man.