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)

¹¹ Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law^(A) since the death of your husband^(B)—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know^(C) before.^{(D) 12} May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord,^(E) the God of Israel,^(F) under whose wings^(G) you have come to take refuge.^(H)”

⁸ Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don’t you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?^(A)”