18. When Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind to go with her, she stopped urging her to go back.
19. They reached Bethlehem, and the whole town was excited to see them. The women who lived there asked, “Can this really be Naomi?”
20. Then she told them, “Don't call me Naomi any longer! Call me Mara, because God has made my life bitter.
21. I had everything when I left, but the Lord has brought me back with nothing. How can you still call me Naomi, when God has turned against me and made my life so hard?”
22. The barley harvest was just beginning when Naomi and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law, arrived in Bethlehem.