Ruth 1:11

_AND NAOMI SAID, TURN AGAIN, MY DAUGHTERS: WHY WILL YE GO WITH ME? ARE THERE YET ANY MORE SONS IN MY WOMB, THAT THEY MAY BE YOUR HUSBANDS?_ Are there yet any more sons ... This alludes to the ancient custom (Genesis 38:26), afterward expressly sanctioned by the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 25:5), which required a younger son to marry the widow of his deceased brother....

6-14 Naomi began to think of returning, after the death of her two sons. When death comes into a family, it ought to reform what is amiss there. Earth is made bitter to us, that heaven may be made dear. Naomi seems to have been a person of faith and piety. She dismissed her daughters-in-law with prayer. It is very proper for friends, when they part, to part with them thus part in love. Did Naomi do well, to discourage her daughters from going with her, when she might save them from the idolatry of Moab, and bring them to the faith and worship of the God of Israel? Naomi, no doubt, desired to do that; but if they went with her, she would not have them to go upon her account. Those that take upon them a profession of religion only to oblige their friends, or for the sake of company, will be converts of small value. If they did come with her, she would have them make it their deliberate ch...

Verse Ruth 1:11. ARE _THERE YET_ ANY MORE _SONS_] This was spoken in allusion to the custom, that when a married brother died without leaving posterity, his brother should take his widow; and the children of such a marriage were accounted the children of the deceased brother. There is something very persuasive and affecting in the address of Naomi to her daughters-in-law. Let us observe the particulars: - 1. She intimates that she had no other sons to give them. 2. That she was not with child; so there could be no expectation. 3. That she was too old to have a husband. 4. That though she should marry that night, and have children, yet they could not wait till such sons were marriageable; she therefore begs them to return to their own country where they might be comfortably settled among their own kind

See marginal references and notes. The Levirate law probably existed among the Moabites, and in Israel extended beyond the brother in the strict sense, and applied to the nearest relations, since Boaz was only the kinsman of Elimelech Ruth 3:12....

EXPOSITION RUTH 1:6 THEN—the conjunction in Hebrew is the common generic copulative _and—_she arose. She had been _sitting_, as it were, where her husband had settled, and she now rose up to depart (see Ruth 1:4). SHE, AND HER DAUGHTERS-IN, LAW. The word for "her daughters-in-law—" כַּלּתֶיהָ—is literally "her brides," that is, the brides of her sons. That she might return—an admirable rendering into English idiom. The phrase in the original is simply "and she returned," that is, "and she began to return." FROM THE COUNTRY OF MOAB: FOR SHE HAD HEARD IN THE COUNTRY OF MOAB HOW THAT THE LORD HAD VISITED HIS PEOPLE IN GIVING THEM BREAD. Or, more literally, "_for _she heard in the country of Moab that Jehovah"—or, rather, ...

AND NAOMI SAID, TURN AGAIN, MY DAUGHTERS,.... Supposing this resolution of theirs only arose from a natural affection, and not from any love to the God or people of Israel; at least doubting whether it was so or not, and willing to try whether anyone, or both of them, were really from a principle of religion inclined to go with her; and desirous that they would thoroughly consider what they did, lest they should repent and apostatize, and bring a reproach upon the true religion: WHY WILL YE GO WITH ME? what reason can you give? this she said in order to get out of them if there was any real inclination in them to the true worship and service of God; though she keeps out that from her own questions put to them as follows, that it might come purely from themselves: ARE THERE YET ANY MORE SONS IN MY WOMB, THAT THEY MAY BE YOUR HUSBANDS? is there any likelihood that I should ever have any...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS CHAPTER 1 The Story of Naomi: Orpah and Ruth _ 1. Naomi and her sorrows (Ruth 1:1)_ 2. The return (Ruth 1:6) 3. Orpah turning back, Ruth cleaving (Ruth 1:14) 4. Naomi and Ruth in Bethlehem (Ruth 1:19) The story begins with a famine. Elimelech, “my God is king,” and Naomi, “pleasant,” leave Bethlehem, “the house of bread,” to go to the land of Moab, the heathen country. The story ends in Bethlehem with a marriage. Naomi far from the land, in unbelief and bitterness, bereft of Elimelech, her two sons also dead, Mahlon, which means “sick,” and Chilion “pining,” pictures Israel's condition, away from

RUTH AND NAOMI. Bethlehem ceased for a time to be what its name signified a house of bread. Under stress of famine Elimelech, with his wife Naomi, left his Judæ an home, and went to sojourn in the land of Moab, where he died. His two sons married women of Moab, Orpah and Ruth, but died childless, so that Naomi and her daughters-in-law were left together in lonely widowhood. Ruth 1:1. Seen from the uplands of Judea, the mountains of Moab are like an immense wall rising beyond the mysterious gulf of the Dead Sea. Ruth 1:2. Elimelech, meaning my God is king, is an ancient Palestinian name, which occurs in the Amarna tablets. Naomi means my sweet one, a mother's fond name for her child. Ephrath was a district round about Bethlehem (_cf._...

WHY... ? Figure of speech _Erotesis._ App-6....

_have I yet sons … that they may be your husbands_?] Alluding to the custom of levirate marriage, i. e. marriage with a brother in law (Lat. _levir_) after the husband's death. The law on the subject is given in Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. St Matthew 22:24....