¹⁸ So they traveled on, just the two of them now, on the long road to Bethlehem. By one estimate, the journey might have taken as long as a week. Surely, though, each found in the company of the other some measure of comfort in the face of grief.

²¹ The two women finally reached Bethlehem, a village about six miles (10 km) south of Jerusalem. Naomi and her family, it seems, had once been quite prominent in that little town, for the whole place was buzzing with the news of Naomi’s return. The women there would peer at her and say, “Is this Naomi?” Evidently, her sojourn in Moab had left her much changed; her countenance and bearing showed the mark of years of hardship and grief.​—Ruth 1:19.