Ruth 1:21

_I WENT OUT FULL, AND THE LORD HATH BROUGHT ME HOME AGAIN EMPTY: WHY THEN CALL YE ME NAOMI, SEEING THE LORD HATH TESTIFIED AGAINST ME, AND THE ALMIGHTY HATH AFFLICTED ME?_ The Almighty, х_ SHADAY_ (H7706)]. This name of God was employed in the early after the flood, as we find it in Genesis 49:25, in Numbers 1:6, and in Job very frequently. But there are not many instances in the sacred books after the time of Moses and their fewness (amounting only to four, Psalms 68:14; Psalms 91:1; Isaiah 13:6;

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 1:21. _I WENT OUT FULL_] Having a _husband_ and _two sons_. _THE LORD HATH BROUGHT ME HOME AGAIN EMPTY_] Having lost all _three_ by death. It is also likely that Elimelech took considerable property with him into the land of Moab; for as he fled from the face of the famine, he would naturally take his property with him; and on this Naomi subsisted till her return to Bethlehem, which she might not have thought of till all was spent....

THE LORD HATH TESTIFIED AGAINST ME - The phrase is very commonly applied to a man who gives witness concerning (usually against) another in a court of justice Exodus 20:16; 2 Samuel 1:16; Isaiah 3:9. Naomi in the bitterness of her spirit complains that the Lord Himself turned against her, and was bringing her sins up for judgment....

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;...

I WENT OUT FULL,.... Of my husband and children, as the Targum; of children and riches, as Aben Ezra and Jarchi; wherefore some Jewish writers blame her and her husband for going abroad at such a time, and ascribe it to a covetous disposition, and an unwillingness to relieve the poor that came to them in their distress, and therefore got out of the way of them, on account of which they were punished, so Jarchi on Ruth 1:1, see Judges 2:15 but this is said without any just cause or reason that appears: AND THE LORD HATH BROUGHT ME HOME AGAIN EMPTY: deprived of her husband, children, and substance; she acknowledges the hand of God in it, and seems not to murmur at it, but to submit to it quietly, and bear it patiently: WHY THEN CALL YE ME NAOMI; when there is nothing pleasant and agre

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._...

_hath testified against me_ i. e. hath marked His displeasure by the misfortunes which have overtaken me; for the idiom cf. Numbers 35:30; 1 Samuel 12:3. The Targ. characteristically moralizes: it was on account of Naomi's sin (in migrating to a heathen country). The LXX. and Vulg., pronouncing the verb differently, render _hath humbled me_, but against the Hebr. construction. Underlying the words is the conviction, so deeply rooted in the Hebrew mind, that all must go well with the righteous and that misfortune was a sign of Jehovah's wrath....

THE LORD HATH TESTIFIED AGAINST ME— The former part of the verse expresses what Naomi means by the _Lord's testifying against her:_ she _went out full;_ happy in a husband and two sons; but returned deprived of all, a lonely widow, worn with care, with poverty and age. See ch. Ruth 2:2. Several of the versions render this, the _Lord hath humbled me._...