¹⁶ But Ruth answered, “Stop urging me to abandon you and to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I’ll go. Wherever you live, I’ll live. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I’ll die and be buried. May the Lord do this to me—and more—if anything^[a] except death comes between you and me.”

¹⁸ When Naomi^[b] observed Ruth’s^[c] determination to travel with her, she ended the conversation.