6 One day Naomi was in a field there in Moab when she heard someone telling about how Yahweh had helped his people in Israel and that now they had plenty of food, so she got ready to return to Bethlehem with her two daughters-in-law. 7 The three of them left the place where they’d been living in Moab and started walking along the road back to Yudah. 8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Both of you should go back to your parents’ homes. I pray that Yahweh will treat you with the same faithfulness that you showed to your now-deceased husbands and to me. 9 May Yahweh enable both of you to find new husbands and find peace and happiness in your new homes with them.”

Then she kissed them as they all wept aloud. 10 But they both said, “No, we’ll go with you to return to your relatives.”

11 But Naomi responded, “No, go back to your homes my daughters. Why would you bother coming with me? It’s not like I could still give birth to more sons to become your husbands. 12 Go on back, my daughters, because I’m too old to remarry. Even if I did hope for that and got married tonight and had some sons, 13 could you wait for them to grow up so you could be remarried? No, my daughters, what’s hard for me, even more than your hardships, is that Yahweh is using his power against me.”

14 Then they wailed and cried again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and left, but Ruth stayed and clung to Naomi. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her parents and to her religion. Go back with her.”

16 But Ruth replied, “Please don’t insist that I leave you and go back, because wherever you go, I’ll go with you and wherever you live, I’ll live there too. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I’ll die there too and be buried there. Maybe Yahweh punish me severely if anything other than death separates the two of us.”

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she didn’t say any more.

19 So the two of them travelled on until they reached Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was curious about them, and the women began asking, “Is that Naomi?”

20 But Naomi told them not to call her ‘Naomi’ (which means ‘pleasant’) but to call her ‘Mara’ (meaning ‘bitter’) because she said, “The almighty God has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away content with a family, but Yahweh has brought me back with a void. So why call me ‘Naomi’? You see, Yahweh has testified against me—the almighty God has brought misfortune on me.”

22 And so Naomi had returned, along with her daughter-in-law, Ruth the Moabitess, and they arrived there in Bethlehem at the start of the barley harvest.