"14 Then they lifted up their voices and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.
15 And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.17 Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you.” 18 And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them. And the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them, “Do not call me Naomi;[a] call me Mara,[b] for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 I went away full, and the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, when the Lord has testified against me and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”
22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabite her daughter-in-law with her, who returned from the country of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest."
Ruth 1:14-22
The Rev. William Still writes: 'Naomi is fully aware that the Lord has dealt with her in judgment, and facing it with courage and returning home she saves herself from that uncomprehending despair which envelops all who in misfortune believe in nothing be- yond chance and blind fate. The judgment of bereavement cannot be reversed, in return- ing home she is at least removing herself from the targets area of the divine judgment. And although certain judicial losses cannot be recovered, there are always some bless- ings remaining, upon which the merciful Lord can gain a foothold to restore the prosper- ity of a penitent soul: Naomi had a devoted daughter-in-law, it was the beginning of the barley harvest, and Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's. If not always at once, it is not long before the returned backslider finds the Lord working on his remnants of good, according to the silent plans of His love. And good is good, however small it be, for it has relations with all the good in the universe.'