8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion,*1:8 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9 May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband."

And she kissed them as they wept aloud 10 and said, "Surely we will return with you to your people."

11 But Naomi replied, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has gone out against me."

14 Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.