Ruth 1:9

_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._ The Lord grant you that ye may find rest - enjoy a life of tranquility undisturbed by the cares, incumbrances, and vexatious troubles to which a state of widowhood is peculiarly exposed. THEN SHE KISSED THEM - the Oriental manner when friends are parting....

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...

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, ...

THE LORD GRANT YOU,.... Some make a supplement here, the Targum a perfect reward, Aben Ezra an husband; and so Josephus says c, she wished them happier marriages than they had with her sons, who were so soon taken from them; but a supplement seems needless, for what follows is connected with the wish, and contains the sum of it: THAT YOU MAY FIND REST; each of you: IN THE HOUSE OF HER HUSBAND; that is, that they might each of them be blessed with a good husband, with whom they might live free from brawls and contentions, as well as from the distressing cares of life, having husbands to provide all things necessary for them, and so from all the sorrows and distresses of a widowhood estate: THEN SHE KISSED THEM; in token of her affection for them, and in order to part with them; it being usual then as now for relations and friends to kiss at parting: AND THEY LIFTED UP THEIR VOICE 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._...

REST. Compare Ruth 3:1. A characteristic word in this Book....

_that ye may find rest_ Cf. Ruth 3:1; Naomi had in her mind another home for them, i. e. a second marriage. The story is told with much naturalness and delicacy....

_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