¹⁷ And where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. I ask the Lord to punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise: Only death will separate us.”

¹⁸ Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her. So Naomi stopped arguing with her. ¹⁹ Naomi and Ruth went on until they came to the town of Bethlehem. When the two women entered Bethlehem, all the people became very excited. The women of the town said, “Is this Naomi?”