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) 17} Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely,^(E) if even death separates you and me.”^{(F) 18} When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.^(G)

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

²⁰ “Don’t call me Naomi,^[a]” she told them. “Call me Mara,^[b] because the Almighty^[c](J) has made my life very bitter.^{(K) 21} I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.^(L) Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted^[d] me;^(M) the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”

²² So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite,^(N) her daughter-in-law,^(O) arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest^(P) was beginning.^(Q)

Naomi Gains a Son

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. When he made love to her, the Lord enabled her to conceive,^(A) and she gave birth to a son.^{(B) 14} The women^(C) said to Naomi: “Praise be to the Lord,^(D) who this day has not left you without a guardian-redeemer.^(E) May he become famous throughout Israel! ¹⁵ He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law,^(F) who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons,^(G) has given him birth.”

¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him. ¹⁷ The women living there said, “Naomi has a son!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse,^(H) the father of David.^(I)

The Genealogy of David^(J)

¹⁸ This, then, is the family line of Perez^(K):