Ruth 1:19

_SO THEY TWO WENT UNTIL THEY CAME TO BETHLEHEM. AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THEY WERE COME TO BETHLEHEM, THAT ALL THE CITY WAS MOVED ABOUT THEM, AND THEY SAID, IS THIS NAOMI?_ All the city was moved about them - the present condition of Naomi, a forlorn and desolate widow, presented so painful a contrast to the flourishing state of prosperity and domestic bliss in which she had been at her departure....

19-22 Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem. Afflictions will make great and surprising changes in a little time. May God, by his grace, fit us for all such changes, especially the great change!, Naomi signifies "pleasant," or "amiable;" Mara, "bitter," or "bitterness." She was now a woman of a sorrowful spirit. She had come home empty, poor, a widow and childless. But there is a fulness for believers of which they never can be emptied; a good part which shall not be taken from those who have it. The cup of affliction is a "bitter" cup, but she owns that the affliction came from God. It well becomes us to have our hearts humbled under humbling providences. It is not affliction itself, but affliction rightly borne, that does us good....

Verse Ruth 1:19. _ALL THE CITY WAS MOVED ABOUT THEM_] It appears that Naomi was not only well known, but highly respected also at Bethlehem; a proof that Elimelech was of high consideration in that place....

AND THEY SAID - i. e. the women of Bethlehem said. “They” in the Hebrew is feminine....

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;...

SO THEY TWO WENT UNTIL THEY CAME TO BETHLEHEM,.... Went on their way directly till they came to it, without lingering or staying by the way, at least not unnecessarily, and not for any time; and they kept together, though Ruth was a younger woman, and could have gone faster, yet she kept company with her ancient mother, and was no doubt very much edified and instructed by her pious conversation; and it seems that they were alone, only they two; for as they had no camels nor asses to ride on, but were obliged to travel on foot, so they had no servants to wait upon them, and assist them in their journey, such were their mean circumstances: AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN THEY WERE COME TO BETHLEHEM; had entered the city, and were seen by some that formerly had known Naomi, or at least to whom she made herself known: THAT ALL THE CITY WAS MOVED ABOUT THEM; the news of their arrival was soon spr...

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._...

BETH-LEHEM. House of bread....

_all the city was moved] was in a stir_; so 1 Samuel 4:5; 1 Kings 1:45 (-rang again"). Beth-lehem was a small place; Naomi's return without her husband and sons could not escape notice; it aroused keen excitement, especially among the women a graphic touch, true to life....