Ruth 1:13

_WOULD YE TARRY FOR THEM TILL THEY WERE GROWN? WOULD YE STAY FOR THEM FROM HAVING HUSBANDS? NAY, MY DAUGHTERS; FOR IT GRIEVETH ME MUCH FOR YOUR SAKES THAT THE HAND OF THE LORD IS GONE OUT AGAINST ME._ The hand of the Lord is gone out against me - i:e., I am not only not in a condition to provide you with other husbands, but so reduced in circumstances that I cannot think of your being subjected to privations with me. The arguments of Naomi prevailed with Orpah, who returned to her people and her х_ 'ªLOHIYM_ (H430)], gods. But Ruth was clinging to her, and said, 'Thy God shall be my God.' These expressions of Ruth, are as much plural as that of Naomi in the preceding verse; and yet our translators have very properly rendered them in the singular, "God." The language indicates the most devoted affection; and even in the pages of Sterne, that great master of pathos, there is nothing which...

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...

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, ...

WOULD YOU TARRY FOR THEM TILL THEY WERE GROWN?.... It is not to be thought that they would tarry till she was married and had children, and then till these infants were grown up to men's estate, and be marriageable; for though Tamar tarried for Shelah, yet he was born, and of some years of age, though not a grown man, Genesis 38:11 WOULD YE STAY FOR THEM FROM HAVING HUSBANDS? they were young widows, and it was fit they should marry again; and it could not be imagined that they would deny themselves having husbands, in expectation of any sons of her's: NAY, MY DAUGHTERS; I am well satisfied you will never tarry for them, nor deprive yourselves of such a benefit; it is unreasonable to suppose it: FOR IT GRIEVETH ME MUCH FOR YOUR SAKES; that she could be of no manner of service to them, either to give them husbands, or to support and

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._...

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

_would ye therefore tarry till they were grown?_ The narrative in Genesis 38. shews that the custom of levirate marriage was presupposed for the patriarchal age, but in a more primitive form than that of the modified law in Deuteronomy 25. According to Genesis 38. a son, though not of marriageable age, is bound by a positive requirement of the divine will to marry his brother's widow, and she must remain a widow _till he be grown up_(ib. Ruth 1:11). The identity of the latter expression with that in the present verse seems to imply a reminiscence of the patriarchal narrative. But Naomi's imaginary sons, the offspring of an impossible second marriage, would be half-brothers to Mahlon and Chilion; and there is nothing to shew that a levi

_Ruth's Determination to Remain With Naomi Ruth 1:8-18_ 8 And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go return each to her mother's house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. 9 The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. 10 And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. 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? 12 Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also tonight, and should also bear sons; 13 Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grievet