Ruth 1:6-14

New Century Version

⁶ While Naomi was in Moab, she heard that the Lord had come to help his people and had given them food again. So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab and return home. ⁷ Naomi and her daughters-in-law left the place where they had lived and started back to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back home, each of you to your own mother’s house. May the Lord be as kind to you as you have been to me and my sons who are now dead. ⁹ May the Lord give you another happy home and a new husband.”

When Naomi kissed the women good-bye, they began to cry out loud. ¹⁰ They said to her, “No, we want to go with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “My daughters, return to your own homes. Why do you want to go with me? I cannot give birth to more sons to give you new husbands; ¹² go back, my daughters, to your own homes. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I told myself, ‘I still have hope’ and had another husband tonight, and even if I had more sons, ¹³ should you wait until they were grown into men? Should you live for so many years without husbands? Don’t do that, my daughters. My life is much too sad for you to share, because the Lord has been against me!”

¹⁴ The women cried together out loud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi good-bye, but Ruth held on to her tightly.