Ruth 1:16

_AND THEY LIFTED UP THEIR VOICE, AND WEPT AGAIN: AND ORPAH KISSED HER MOTHER IN LAW; BUT RUTH CLAVE UNTO HER._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

15-18 See Ruth's resolution, and her good affection to Naomi. Orpah was loth to part from her; yet she did not love her well enough to leave Moab for her sake. Thus, many have a value and affection for Christ, yet come short of salvation by him, because they will not forsake other things for him. They love him, yet leave him, because they do not love him enough, but love other things better. Ruth is an example of the grace of God, inclining the soul to choose the better part. Naomi could desire no more than the solemn declaration Ruth made. See the power of resolution; it silences temptation. Those that go in religious ways without a stedfast mind, stand like a door half open, which invites a thief; but resolution shuts and bolts the door, resists the devil and forces him to flee....

Verse Ruth 1:16. _AND RUTH SAID_] A more perfect surrender was never made of friendly feelings to a friend: _I will not leave thee _- I will follow thee: _I will lodge where thou lodgest _- take the same fare with which thou meetest; _thy people shall be my people _- I most cheerfully abandon my own country, and determine to end my days in thine. I will also henceforth _have no god but thy God_, and be joined with thee in worship, as I am in affection and consanguinity. I will cleave unto thee _even unto death; die where_ _thou diest; and be buried_, if possible, in the same grave. This was a most extraordinary attachment, and evidently without any secular motive. The Targum adds several things to this conversation between Naomi and Ruth. I shall subjoin them: "And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee," for I desire to become a proselyte. An

EXPOSITION RUTH 1:15 AND SHE SAID, BEHOLD, THY SISTER-IN-LAW IS GONE BACK TO HER PEOPLE, AND TO HER GODS: RETURN THOU AFTER THY SISTER-IN-LAW. The expression that stands in King James's version thus, "and to her gods," is rendered by Dr. Cassel "_and _to her God." The same interpretation, it is noteworthy, is given in the Targum of Jonathan, who renders the expression, "and to her Fear" (וּלְוַת דְּחַלְרָּהּ). Such a translation assumes that the Moabites were not only theists, but monotheists. And yet in the mythology, or primitive theology, of Moab, we read both of Baal-Peor and of Chemosh. As to the former, see Numbers 25:8, Numbers 25:5;...

AND RUTH SAID, ENTREAT ME NOT TO LEAVE THEE, OR TO RETURN FROM FOLLOWING AFTER THEE,.... Do not make use of any arguments to persuade me to go back: or "do not meet me", or "be against me" h; do not meet me with objections, or be in my way, or an hinderance to me, in going along with thee; do not be against it, for to be against that was to be against her inclination, desires, and resolutions, and against her interest: FOR WHITHER THOU GOEST I WILL GO: let the country she was going to be what it would, though unknown to her, and though she should never see her own country any more: AND WHERE THOU LODGEST I WILL LODGE; though in ever so mean a cottage, or under the open air: THY PEOPLE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE; whom I shall choose to dwell among, and converse with; whose religion, laws, and customs she should readily comply with, having heard much of them, their wisdom, goodness, and piety,...

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._...

DISCOURSE: 278 THE CHARACTER OF RUTH Ruth 1:15. _She_ (Naomi)_ said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me._ THE study of Scripture characters is very instructive: for, in them, we see human nature in all its diversified conditions, not as artificially delineated by a brilliant fancy or a warm imagination, but as really existing, and exhibited to our view. For subjects of public discussion, too, they are peculiarly favourable; because, in presenting _real_ scen

_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

THE EXILE AND THE RETURN OF NAOMI 1. Beth-lehem-judah] two hours' journey S. of Jerusalem, is to be distinguished from Bethlehem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15). It was but a short distance from Moab, which, in the days here referred to, was a fertile, highly cultivated country. Travellers still speak of it as a land of streams. Nothing short of the compulsion of famine could have induced a Hebrew to migrate into this foreign country where he would have no right of citizenship, this unclean land where Jehovah could not be worshipped. 2. The name ELIMELECH means 'my God is King.' NAOMI, or, as it ought to be written, 'Noomi,' means 'pleasant.' The two sons, MAHLON ('sickly') and CHILION ('wasting away'), evidently owe their names to the fate which overtook them. It is not quite certain how we should understand the names of their wives. ORPAH was