Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Ruth 1:15

And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.

15. unto her people, and unto her god ] i.e. Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, Num 21:29, 1Ki 11:33. The ancient belief here receives its simplest expression: each land and people had its own Deity inseparably connected with it; outside lay the territory of another god. The Israelites, at any rate the popular religion in Israel, did not deny the divinity of the gods of the neighbouring lands, though for themselves Jehovah was the only God; cf. Jdg 11:24, 1Sa 26:19. So when Orpah goes back to Moab she goes back to her native god; similarly, when Ruth determines to make her home in Judah, she declares her intention of adopting the religion of her new country, Rth 1:16. See Rth 1:8 n.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

Rth 1:15

Thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods.

Backsliding

1. The backslidings of such as set out fair, and do begin well, is a sore temptation to young converts and proselytes. It was no less to the very disciples themselves (Joh 6:66-67). Thus it was also an occasion of stumbling unto the primitive Christians to behold the backslidings of two such forward professors as Hymenaeus and Philetus had been; insomuch that the apostle saith to them, Nevertheless the foundation (of Gods election) standeth sure; the Lord knoweth them that are His, etc. As the multitude of sinners cannot give any patronage to the evil ways of sin, so neither can the paucity of saints put any disgrace or disparagement upon the good ways of God.

2. Some forward followers of the only true and living God may apostatise from thence to embrace the vanities of the Gentiles.

3. That love to the ways and worship of God is a sincere love which doth undergo trials and temptations, yet bears up against all: godly Ruth rides out the storm against wind and tide of both the sisters pattern and the mothers precept. (C. Ness.)

The painful separation

Nothing can be more encouraging to the Christian heart than to see the young setting out to seek the Lord. It is a beautiful exercise and exhibition of youth. Never do the morning hours appear so bright or so promising. We cannot suspect the sincerity of any, and therefore we encourage them to press forward. We have seen these youthful travellers going with Naomi out of the place where they dwelt, on the way to return unto the land of Judah. For a time they travel together happily and affectionately. There is a line which divides Moab from Judah. This is a painful but an inevitable crisis. The two sisters must separate. There is just such a line in our souls history where similar entire separation must take place. The awakened mind sees its own sinfulness and need, acknowledges the darkness and emptiness of the Moab in which it has dwelt, and truly feels the importance of those blessed offers which the gospel proclaims. The Holy Spirit has taught the sinner the guiltiness and wretchedness of his past life. He knows, he sees, he feels the truth. But he does not love the truth. He does not embrace and choose it for his own, his portion for ever. If he would really do this, all would be well. His heart he cannot, will not, give to Christ. Anything else he will do. But nothing else will avail him anything. Poor Orpah! How often have I seen young travellers to eternity stopping just where you stop; hesitating just where you hesitate. Nothing more can be done for you where you are. There is Moab. You have tried that, and found it empty and unhappy. There is Judah. All its provisions and offers are before you, and brought for your acceptance. Never will you be sorry if you take your portion there. Here are Naomi and Ruth. They are journeying to the land which the Lord hath promised them. Soon they will be far from you, out of your sight. Then you will mourn over the separation which you foolishly made. You may go back to Moab, and bury yourself in its sins and follies. But you will find no peace or happiness there. Your conscience will never again allow you to rest. Orpah goes back to her people and her gods. This is a most important fact in her history. She does not, cannot remain where they part. That is a place most unnatural and unattractive. No; she goes back, while Ruth and Naomi go forward. The separation grows wider every hour. This is a most affecting illustration. The awakened and convinced mind can never abide at the line where a Saviour is refused. There is no permanency in such a state of mind. There is no home for the soul there. You go back. It may be to self-indulgence, dissipation, and sensual delights. It may be to giddiness, frivolity, and empty, cheerless mirth. It may be to business, covetousness, and unceasing occupation. It may be to infidelity and assumed unbelief and argument. It may be to open hostility and persecution of the gospel, and those who love it. It may be to absolute and dreadful hardness of heart. But to whatever it shall be, you still go back. The worst opposers of the gospel we ever meet are those who once were almost Christians. But you say you will hereafter return to Christ. You cannot do this but by His own Spirit. And that Spirit you have driven far from you. There is a spring that returneth in creation when the winter has gone. But you have buried the sacred seed of your souls welfare beneath a winter which knows no coming spring. You will mourn at the last, when your flesh and your body are consumed. But it will be with a worldly sorrow which worketh death, and not with a godly sorrow which worketh repentance unto salvation. This is the fearful prospect in your return with Orpah. (S. H. Tyng, D. D.)

Orpah

I. Orpah was a Moabitish woman–had been married to one of the sons of Elimelech–and was now a widow. She had been brought up amid the absurdities and impurities and superstitions of idolatry. But her connection with an Israelitish family was a great advantage to her, and ought to have been improved by her, to the benefit of her soul, and deemed a peculiar privilege and blessing. Oh, then, let us associate with those who live for another world whose spirit and words and conduct diffuse the savour of heaven, and are calculated to keep God and eternity in our minds.

II. Orpah possessed many natural excellences, which made her lovely and amiable, though still lacking that new heart and that devotedness to God without which no man can be saved.

1. Orpah acted well in the character of a wife.

2. Orpah conducted herself with kindness and tenderness and affection towards her mother-in-law, Naomi, also.

3. Another valuable feature, which we cannot view but with great interest, in the character of Orpah, was her intention to accompany Naomi to the land of Judah. It is well to see hopeful beginnings–to see the careless aroused, the indifferent in some degree alarmed about their sins, and paying more attention than before to the welfare of their souls. It is well to see the profane putting on the decencies of morality, and renouncing their vile habits and pursuits. It is well, we say, to see these hopeful signs. But, alas! they often disappoint our fondest hopes.

III. Orpahs fatal deficiency, She only began her march to Canaan–her resolution failed–she persevered not, but returned to her own land! Naomi wished not to prevent either Ruth or Orpah from accompanying her to Canaan, but from doing so for her sake. She had no earthly inducement to hold out to them. If they came, she wished them to come from religious considerations alone. If we take up the cause of God from any but spiritual motives–if we attach ourselves to the cause and people of God from earthly views, our religion is hateful in heaven. The loaves and fishes are to have nothing to do with our pursuit of Christ, but the attractions of His grace–the privilege of serving Him, and a supreme desire to be His–His alone–His for ever.

1. Orpah forsook the cause of God–she returned to her people. Their maxims and their habits, after all, were more congenial with her mind. Woe awaits those who are kept from following the Lord fully from regard to earthly connections and associates.

2. Orpah forsook the cause of God with great reluctance. Agrippa-like, she was almost persuaded to go with her to the land of Judah, yet, though with many misgivings, she retraced her steps to her own country, and saw her no more. Now, with the view of inducing these wavering characters, who are thus daily withstanding the convictions of their own minds–who return to Moab, but with many tears–to hasten out of their present condition, we beg to say a few words concerning their danger. It is a great mercy to have our minds in the smallest degree impressed with Divine things, and awakened to the importance of the things which accompany salvation. It is a mercy to be made to feel some measure of anxiety about our never-dying souls and their everlasting welfare. It is the Holy Ghost striving with us, and bidding us to consider our peril while yet it may be avoided. With the view of urging these characters to a speedy determination to be altogether on the Lords side, we beg to add a few remarks likewise concerning their present folly. When man neglects to follow the admonitions of his conscience, he deprives himself of all comfort. He cannot enjoy inward tranquillity in this state. There is something within him constantly telling him that his end cannot be desirable if a radical spiritual change does not take place in him. He cannot have real joy in this condition. If your religion resembles that of Orpah, give God no rest till the weight of your transgression drives you to the Saviour, and a believing view of His matchless love constrains you to devote your persons and your talents to His service and glory. (John Hughes.)

Orpah and Ruth

I. Family sorrows.

1. Want.

2. Separation.

3. Death.

II. Family errors.

1. Preference of worldly comfort before religious privileges.

2. Formation of worldly connections.

III. Family attachments.

1. Their power. The amiableness of Naomi has so attached these idolaters to her that they are willing to forsake even their own mother.

2. Their weakness. The case of Orpah may teach us that an attachment to religious people is not religion; nor can it, of itself, produce religion in the heart.

IV. Family mercies.

1. The return of moderate prosperity.

2. Converting grace bestowed upon an idolater. (Homilist.)

The danger of religious indifference

A family perished, not long ago, by a fire in their own house. They were not consumed by the flames, but suffocated by the smoke. No blaze was visible at all, nor could any alarming sign of fire be discovered from the street, and yet death came as effectually upon them as if they had been burned to ashes. Thus is sin fatal in its consequences, few being destroyed by outrageous forms of it, flaming up with lurid glare, but multitudes perishing by the stifling smoke of indifference and spiritual slumber. (J. H. Norton.)

Unto her people, and unto her gods

When Christian set out from the City of Destruction, he too, for a short part of his journey, was attended by two companions: the first indeed, Obstinate, only went with him in order to try and bring him back to what he considered wiser courses, but the other, Pliable, was absolutely sincere in his desire to reach the Celestial City. I intend to go along with this good man, he said, and to cast in my lot with him; he might have availed himself of the words of sincerely-meant devotion in which Orpah joined with Ruth, and have declared, Surely I will return with thee unto thy people. Yet, as we know, when the pilgrims, being heedless, fell into the Slough of Despondency, poor Pliable, his virtuous intentions notwithstanding, gave a desperate struggle or two, and got out of the mire, on that side of the Slough which was next to his own house. So away he went, and Christian saw him no more. There are one or two particulars in which the behaviour of Orpah was not unlike that of well meaning Pliable. To begin with, there can be no question but that she had a sincere affection and regard for Naomi, and would genuinely have liked to spend the remainder of her days in her society; but the attachment was purely personal, and in all such friendships there is a breaking point, a limit to the extent to which others are prepared to follow us. For it is only us whom they are following, and our path may lead us into circumstances more trying than they are prepared to undergo whose hearts are not buoyed up by the hope which animates our own. Another somewhat sad reflection respecting the history of Orpah springs from the fact that she actually started for the better land, and indeed went some considerable way on the journey. The thought of those fellow-travellers of ours who set out so cheerily with us and yet failed after all to persevere is one of the saddest that comes into our memory when we review our pilgrimage. We call to mind their fervour, their enthusiasm, their kindly interest; we shall never forget how our heart sank within us when they announced their intention of turning back. And in the case of Orpah our feelings are the more regretful because we bear in mind that she was full of the best possible resolutions of going further still. Surely, she said, no less earnestly than did Ruth herself, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people. But, as we have already noticed, the desire in her mind was to be, as she put it, with thee ; it was the personal element in her relation to Naomi which, however charming in itself, constituted the weakness of her position–it was on this rock that her frail vessel was wrecked at last. Further, if Orpahs decision pains us, can we remain unmoved at Orpahs tears? She is quite clear in her own mind that she can go no further; she will leave no inconsiderable portion of her heart behind her when she says farewell to Naomi; she lifted up her voice and wept; she lifted up her voice and wept again. Alas for the impotence of tears! The question for each to ask himself is not, What have I felt? but, What have I done? Orpah loved Naomi dearly, and wept bitterly at the prospect of parting from her, but returned to her people and her gods nevertheless. And here we must pause to inquire how far Naomi was to blame for the failure of Orpah. We recognise the honesty with which the older woman points out to her companions the sacrifice which they will be called upon to make if they elect to go further with her. She must have known, she evidently did know, that by turning back Orpah was losing her reversionary interest in the property of her deceased husband, yet we do not find Naomi telling her of this. Warn people by all means that life in the kingdom of heaven is the life of a servant and a soldier, but tell them too that their entry into the kingdom has made them inheritors of a possession greater and more real than anything than the world can offer, and which it would be the most fearful madness to throw away. Love had brought Orpah a long way towards the land of Judah: might not a little affectionate entreaty have brought her further still? It is important that before passing away from the story of Orpah we should try to realise what it was that she lost by turning back. And with the inheritance, redeemed as it was by Boaz, Orpah had also lost the honour–Ruths chiefest glory in the ages yet to come–of being the ancestress of David and of the Messiah. Of all the promises to Abraham, that upon which in all probability the patriarch set the greatest store was Gods pledge that in him all the nations of the world should be blessed. To be an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven is in itself a marvel of grace, the true meaning of which we shall never fully know here, but to have it in ones power to bring redemption within the reach of others, surely this is an infinitely greater marvel still. God offers us salvation as the satisfaction of the needs of our own heart; but He also offers it to us in order that we may be qualified as the possessors of it to work with Him in plucking from the burning those who are the bondsmen of Satan and of sin. What answer shall we give to Him that speaketh? (H. A. Hall, B. D.)

The parting-place

Where was it that Orpah parted from her companions? She went with them some way, possibly a great way, but at last they reached a point in the journey which was geographically, so to speak, one of decision, one beyond which no one could pass without committing herself to new things and a new life, and at this point Orpah made up her mind to return. What more likely than that this point was the river itself, which if they adopted the southern route would form the boundary between Moab and the land of Judah? The river flows still, and each pilgrim has to make up his mind whether or not he shall cross it. There, then, flows the river: shall we cross? Sometimes it seems to us to be the river of surrender. Can I give myself wholly and unreservedly to God? And can I give up, or consent to His taking from me, whatever is contrary to His will and therefore to my happiness, love it as I may? Sometimes the river is one of confession. We have travelled thus far without our life or our relation to the world being appreciably affected or altered, and God, who is infinitely tender in His dealing with the returning soul, often postpones the necessity of or the occasion for a definite confession of our allegiance to Him until we are strong enough to make it. Yet sooner or later the river has to be crossed, and the more definitely the confession is made the better it always is for the soul. And sometimes the river is that of a consistent life. I would not shrink from throwing in my lot with that of the people of God, says many an one, if I could only hope to lead a consistent life: I will make no profession unless I can carry it out, and I fail to see how under my circumstances that can be possible. Certainly God requires that those who follow Him shall follow Him fully, as Caleb did, but God asks no one to lead the life of faith in his own strength or trusting to his own resources. A new life lies before you; but to enable you to live it, God offers you new strength. (H. A. Hall, B. D.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

Verse 15. Gone back – unto her gods] They were probably both idolaters, their having been proselytes is an unfounded conjecture. Chemosh was the grand idol of the Moabites. The conversion of Ruth probably commenced at this time.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Unto her people, and unto her gods; which she saith, partly, to try Ruths sincerity and constancy; partly, that by upbraiding Orpah with her idolatry she might consequently turn her from it; and partly, that she might intimate to her, that if she went with her, she must embrace the true God and religion.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

And she said,…. That is, Naomi to Ruth, after Orpah was gone:

behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods; meaning Orpah, who was the wife of her husband’s brother, as the word used signifies; she was not only on the road turning back to her own country and people, but to the gods thereof, Baalpeor or Priapus, and Chemosh, Nu 21:29 from whence Aben Ezra concludes, that she had been a proselyte to the true religion, and had renounced the gods of her nation, and retained the same profession while her husband lived, and unto this time, and now apostatized, since she is said to go back to her gods; and in this he is followed by some Christian interpreters g, and not without reason:

return thou after thy sister in law: this she said, not that in good earnest she desired her to return, at least to her former religion, only relates, though not as approving of, the conduct of her sister, rather as upbraiding it; but to try her sincerity and steadfastness, when such an instance and example was before her.

g Clericus & Rambachius.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

To the repeated entreaty of Naomi that she would follow her sister-in-law and return to her people and her God, Ruth replied: “ Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return away behind thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou stayest, I will stay; thy people is my people, and thy God my God! where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also (lit. and so may He add to do)! Death alone shall divide between me and thee. ” The words … are a frequently recurring formula in connection with an oath (cf. 1Sa 3:17; 1Sa 14:44; 1Sa 20:13, etc.), by which the person searing called down upon himself a severe punishment in case he should not keep his word or carry out his resolution. The following is not a particle used in swearing instead of in the sense of “if,” equivalent to “surely not,” as in 1Sa 20:12, in the oath which precedes the formula, but answer to in the sense of quod introducing the declaration, as in Gen 22:16; 1Sa 20:13; 1Ki 2:23; 2Ki 3:14, etc., signifying, I swear that death, and nothing else than death, shall separate us. Naomi was certainly serious in her intentions, and sincere in the advice which she gave to Ruth, and did not speak in this way merely to try her and put the state of her heart to the proof, “that it might be made manifest whether she would adhere stedfastly to the God of Israel and to herself, despising temporal things and the hope of temporal possessions’ ( Seb. Schmidt). She had simply the earthly prosperity of her daughter-in-law in her mind, as she herself had been shaken in her faith in the wonderful ways and gracious guidance of the faithful covenant God by the bitter experience of her own life.

(Note: “She thought of earthly things alone; and as at that time the Jews almost universally were growing lax in the worship of God, so she, having spent ten years among the Moabites, though it of little consequence whether they adhered to the religion of their fathers, to which they had been accustomed from their infancy or went over to the Jewish religion.” – Carpzov.)

With Ruth, however, it was evidently not merely strong affection and attachment by which she felt herself so drawn to her mother-in-law that she wished to live and die with her, but a leaning of her heart towards the God of Israel and His laws, of which she herself was probably not yet fully conscious, but which she had acquired so strongly in her conjugal relation and her intercourse with her Israelitish connections, that it was her earnest wish never to be separated from this people and its God (cf. Rth 2:11).

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Ruth’s Resolution, vs. 15-22

Some questions need to be considered here. How much had Ruth and Orpah been taught about the God of Israel? Did Naomi really want her daughters in law to remain in Moab? or did she hope they would choose to follow her? Why did Naomi insist that Ruth do as Orpah and return to her Moabite life, religion, and customs?

Given that this was a God-fearing family it is certainly likely that Naomi and her sons had taught the young wives about the God of Israel,of His power and His uniqueness. Surely Naomi hoped that the daughters in law would embrace the true God and be saved. However, she did not wish them to return with her not being fully convinced of the verity of the Lord over Moab’s gods. As Naomi urged them to return to Moab the women would surely have done so if. that was what they really desired. On the other hand, if they should be genuinely converted to Israel’s God they would not stay in the pagan land, regardless of how much Naomi insisted. Orpah failed the test, but Ruth passed it gloriously.

The resolution of Ruth whereby she unalterably took her stand, determined to return to Israel with Naomi, is classic. It is a challenge to all today to stand without wavering for Christ. It said to Naomi, “Say no more, for I am determined to return with you. My life is changed. It is bound up in your life, Naomi, and I shall live it out according to the pattern I have seen in you.” This is a wonderful testimony to Naomi, Though her experiences were bitter, Ruth would be much of sweetness to her in return, so that she would reap good from her bad experience after all.

In examining Ruth’s resolution it is found that 1) she had chosen her path and would not swerve from it; 2) she had found good companionship and would not be separated from it; 3) she had found the true God and would not be turned from Him; 4) she was resolved to live out her life in her new choice and called on the Lord to help her fulfill it. Naomi could say no more, and they returned together to Bethlehem.

Naomi had been gone ten years, and the people may have about forgotten her. The town of Bethlehem was stirred by the appearance of the two women, and people were beginning to say, “Aren’t you Naomi?” Naomi could not deny her identity, but she told them that she should be called Mara, which means “bitter” rather than Naomi, which means “pleasant.” In this she admitted that she had been chastised of the Lord. She went to Moab full, with a husband and two sons, but she was returning to Bethlehem empty, having lost all three. Certainly this was testimony that the Lord had been displeased with Naomi and her family. It was barley harvest when they got to Bethlehem, a factor which will be important in the sequel.

Some of the many good lessons to be taken from Ruth, chapter one: 1) one always puts himself in danger by leaving the place where God is worshipped; 2) the Lord will chastise His children who disobey Him; 3) one may set the example for others to follow in coming to the Lord, but the choice must be by the one for whom it is set; 4) when one has truly accepted the Lord there will be no turning back from the decision; 5) bitter experiences may be sweetened when one returns to the place of the Lord’s true worship.

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.And she [Naomi] said, Behold thy sister-in-law, i.e., wife of a husbands brother; no English word exactly answering to the original Hebrew. The same word is rendered brothers wife (Deu. 25:7; Deu. 25:9), being the feminine of that rendered (ib. 7) husbands brother (Speakers Com.). Unto her gods [god]. And to her god (Luthers Bible). The singular is to be preferred (Lange). Adam Clarke thinks that both Orpah and Ruth had been idolaters so far. With Ruth, however, a leaning towards the God of Israel and His laws (Keil). Wright argues from these words that Naomi viewed idolatry without serious disfavour, at least as practised by others. This held upon insufficient data. Naomis words do not necessarily contain any recognition of the Moabitish deity, or indicate (as Wright suggests) that she was possibly led astray by the false idea that Jehovah was only the God of Israel (Lange). Was Jephthah then (Jdg. 11:21; Jdg. 11:24) similarly led astray. (Lange.)

Return thou. Serious in her intentions, sincere in her advice (Keil). Perhaps said merely to prove Ruths constancy (Speakers Com.). (Cf. Jos. 24:15-19.; 2Ki. 2:2-6). Spoken that it might be made clear whether she would adhere steadfastly to the God of Israel (Seb. Schmidt). Not that she desired her to return, but to try her sincerity (Gill). She had simply the earthly prosperity of her mother-in-law in her mind (Keil, Carpzoe).

Theme.THE THIRD AND LAST TRIAL OF AFFECTION

What though the world unfaithful prove,
And earthly friends and joys remove?
With sure and certain hope of love,

Still would I cling to thee.Mrs. Elliot.

And she [Naomi] said, Behold thy sister-in-law is gone back. Return thou, etc.

How sad is the history of a return to Moab (Tyng), both in its effects and in its influences! With Orpah, to go back to her people was to return to her gods. And yet how pregnant with meaning! Evident now that Orpah had mistaken a mere momentary feeling (cf. Rth. 1:10) for something deeper and more lasting. Evident, too, that Naomis suspicions and surmises were correct. Note. (a) The return justifies the tests (Rth. 1:8-9; Rth. 1:11-13). Very naturally, also, it leads to this final trial of Ruths affection and steadfastness. Naomi anxious still; fears lest even now cleaving to her should be the result of a rash, unthinking choice; dreads a future apostate in a present convert. Could not really intend to persuade her beloved daughter to return to the service of Chemosh (Lawson). Said of those of whom the world was not worthy, they were tempted (Heb. 11:37). So here. Note. (b) The trial is by no means intended to justify the return. In the present case, disobedience a virtue (Macgowan). When Christ said to Judas, What thou doest do quickly, He by no means authorised Judas to execute his wicked designs (Lawson). Orpah doubtless went back to Naomis grief (Lawson).

I. See where the strength of this last trial lay. An unfavourable example lends its weight to worldly disadvantages (M. Timson). These heavy enough before; now Ruth is to see one she loves turning away from Naomi, and lending her influence to lead her backwards. Orpah has gone back, too, although she cherished as warm an affection for Naomi as any a mother-in-law could expect. Note. (a) Example has a mighty influence, especially the example of those who are dear to us. Christ felt it to be so in that moment when the last link between Himself and His half-hearted followers was severed, and He turned to the rest with the question, Will ye also go away? (Joh. 6:67.) A scriptural doctrine, that because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold (Mat. 24:12). Note. (b) The castle seems almost won where one-half the soldiers are overcome (Lawson). Orpah has yielded, and yet for all this Ruth stands steadfast.

II. See in what lies its meaning and purpose. It evidently settled the questions at issue once and for ever. Decision comes as the result of conflict. Distrust of ones own judgment the most terrible spectre to fight (M. Timson). Especially so when the example of those we respect is adverse to our decisions. This mastered, however, the rest is easy.

LESSONS.

(1) The falls of some may justly bring others into trial (Bernard).

(2) Not the length or fury of the conflict which is important, but its results.
(3) The folly of apostacy must not damp but rather invigorate our zeal.

Fuller on this (condensed):
Examples of others set before our eyes are very potent and prevalent arguments to make us follow and imitate them, whether they be good examplesso the forwardness of the Corinthians to relieve the Jews provoked manyor whether they be badso the dissembling of Peter at Antioch drew Barnabas and others into the same fault. But those examples, of all others, are most forcible with us which are set by such who are near to us by kindred, or gracious with us in friendship, or great over as in power.
USE [Lesson] I. Let men in eminent places, as magistrates, ministers, fathers, masters, and the like (seeing that others love to dance after their pipe, to sing after their tune, to tread after their track), endeavour to propound themselves patterns of piety and religion to those that be under them.
II. When we see any good example propounded unto us, let us strive with all possible speed to imitate it. Follow not the adultery of David, but follow the chastity of Joseph; follow not the dissembling of Peter, but follow the sincerity of Nathanael; follow not the testiness of Jonah, but follow the meekness of Moses; follow not the apostacy of Orpah, but follow the perseverance of Ruth.

III. When any bad example is presented unto us, let us decline and detest it, though the men be never so many or so dear to us. Imitate Micaiah (1 Kings 22). Yea, but one may say, What if I find in the Scripture an action recorded whose doer is known to have been a godly and gracious man, may I not, without any further doubt or scruple, follow the same? The Holy Spirit hath not set these sins down with an intent they should be followed; but first to show the frailty of His dearest saints when He leaves them to themselves; as also to comfort us when we fall into grievous sins, when we see that as heinous offences of Gods servants stand upon the record in the Scriptures.

Oh, Orpah, Orpah! that thou hadst been wise, at least in this thy day, to think of the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hidden from thy eyes. And could we know her history, we should doubtless find in it many a sorrowful and weeping hour as she thought of these friends of her youth whom she was to see no more. It is the history we have seen in the child of the world over and over again. You may renounce the Saviour, and walk with Him no more. You may go back to Moab, and bury yourself in its sins and follies. But you will find no peace or happiness there. Your conscience will never again allow you to rest.Tyng.

Worldliness is not living in the world, possessing the world, using the world; worldliness is pursuing the world which is, to the forgetfulness and exclusion of that which is to come; it is a sacrificing of the future to the present, the enjoying of earths mess of pottage at the loss of the heavenly birthright.II. Wonnacott.

Where the heart is indeed influenced by sovereign grace, and drawn by the eternal Father, opposition will only serve to inflame our love and zeal, as oil cast into the fire serves only to increase its ardour instead of extinguishing the flame.Macgowan.

Still Naomi proves the spirit of Ruth. Your sister has gone back to her people and her gods. If you mean ever to go back, now is your best time to go. Think well of what you give up, and of what you may encounter in accompanying me. Much as I would love to have you to go with me, I do not wish you hereafter to feel disappointed or grieved on my account. Remember, I have nothing to offer you. If you go with me, it must be as a partner of my griefs and wants. Thus God often proves the young disciple with new trials. He sends the east wind upon the young trees of His planting, not to weaken or destroy, but to give greater strength and endurance for the time to come.Tyng.

Adam was soon drawn by Eve; Rehoboams heart was easily led after the advice of his familiars; the women of Judah by their husbands easily fell to idolatry.Bernard.

This is Naomis last trial of Ruth; and these words show plainly all was to try her, because she telleth Ruth of Orpahs going back, not only to her people, but also to her gods, which Naomi, a good woman, could not but hate, and could not so ill respect Ruth, and show so great coldness in religion and honour of the true God, as to dissuade Ruth from the same God of truth to return unto idols.Bernard.

The Saviour Himself cared not so much to be followed by the crowd, as to be served and loved by the few. Let the promiscuous multitude be gone, so that the handful left prove faithful and worthy! And even these He tries again and again. Strong enough to deny Himself of every faint-hearted and faithless disciple, and yet tender enough to weep after every such denial and desertion, it is so He speaks those pregnant and searching words of His to every one of us, Will ye also go away?B.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

(15) Naomi, now armed with a fresh argument, urges Ruth to follow her sister-in-laws example.

Her gods.Naomi doubtless views the Moabite idols as realities, whose power is, however, confined to the land of Moab. She is not sufficiently enlightened in her religion to see in the Lord more than the God of Israel.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

‘ And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Return you after your sister-in-law.’

Naomi pointed out to Ruth that her sister-in-law had taken her advice and had gone back to her people ‘and to her god’ (the Moabite god Chemosh). And she urges Ruth to do the same. Naomi recognised that she had sent Orpah back to the worship of Chemosh, and it is clear that the writer wants us to see that Naomi was in a poor spiritual condition. Her concern was for the physical needs of her daughters-in-law not their spiritual needs. Both Orpah and Ruth might have been lost to Yahwism.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

EXPOSITION

Rth 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” ( ). 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 Num 25:8, Num 25:5; Deu 4:3; Psa 106:28; Hos 9:10. As to the latter, see Jdg 11:24; 1Ki 11:7, 1Ki 11:33; Jer 48:7, Jer 48:13. In Numbers, moreover, Num 21:29, and in Jer 48:46, the Moabites are called the people of Chemosh, and frequently is their national god called Chemosh in the inscription of King Mesha on the Moabitish Stone, so recently discovered and deciphered. It is supposed, not without reason, that the two names belonged to one deity, Chemosh being the old native name. Nevertheless, the translation “to her god” is an interpretation, not a literal rendering, and, on the other hand, the translation “to her gods” would, on the hypothesis of the monotheism of the Moabites, be unidiomatic. The original expression, “to her Elohim,” does not tell anything, and was not intended by Naomi to tell anything, or to hint anything, of a numerical character concerning the object or objects of the Moabitish worship. It was an expression equally appropriate whether there was, or was not, a plurality of objects worshipped. It might be liberally rendered, and to her own forms of religious worship. The word elohim was a survival of ancient polytheistic theology and worship, when a plurality of powers were held in awe. “For,” says Fuller, “the heathen, supposing that the whole world, with all the creatures therein, was too great a diocese to be daily visited by one and the same deity, they therefore assigned sundry gods to several creatures.” The time arrived, however, when the great idea flashed into the Hebrew mind, The Powers are One and hence the plural noun, with its subtended conception of unity, became construed with verbs and adjectives in the singular number. It was so construed when applied to the one living God; but it readily retained its original applicability to a plurality of deifies, and hence, in such a passage as the one before us, where there is neither adjective nor verb to indicate the number, the word is quite incapable of exact rendering into English. Orpah had returned to her people and her Elohim. Return thou after thy sister-in-law. Are we then to suppose that Naomi desired Ruth to return to her Moabitish faith? Is it with a slight degree of criticism that she referred to Orpah’s palinode? Would she desire that Ruth should, in this matter, follow in her sister-in-law’s wake? We touch on tender topics. Not unlikely she had all along suspected or seen that Orpah would not have insuperable religious scruples. And not unlikely, too, she would herself be free from narrow religious bigotry, at least to the extent of dimly admitting that the true worship of the heart could reach the true God, even when offensive names, and forms, and symbolisms were present in the outer courts of the creed. Nevertheless, when she said to Ruth, “Return thou after thy sister-in-law,” she no doubt was rather putting her daughter-in-law to a final test, and leading her to thorough self-sifting, than encouraging her to go back to her ancestral forms of worship. “God,” says Fuller, “wrestled with Jacob with desire to be conquered; so Naomi no doubt opposed Ruth, hoping and wishing that she herself might be foiled.”

Rth 1:16

And Ruth said, Insist not on me forsaking thee: for whither thou goest, I will go. Ruth’s mind was made up. Her heart would not be wrenched away from her mother-in-law. The length of the journey, its dangers, and the inevitable fatigue accompanying it, moved not, by so much as a jot, her resolution. Had not her mother-in-law the same distance to travel, the same fatigue to endure, the same perils to encounter? Might not the aged traveler, moreover, derive some assistance and cheer from the company of a young, ready-handed, and willing-hearted companion? She was resolved. Nothing on earth would separate them. Wheresoever thou lodgest, I will lodge. A better version than Luther’s, “Where thou stayest, I will stay” (wo du bleibest, da bleibe ich auch). The reference is not to the ultimate destination, but to the nightly halts, is the verb employed; and it is rendered “to tarry all night” in Gen 24:54; Gen 28:11; Gen 31:54; Jdg 19:6, etc. It is the Latin pernoctare and the German ubernachten, the former being the rendering of the Vulgate, and the latter the translation in the Berlenburger Bibel. Thy people (is) my people, and thy God my God. There being no verb in the original, it is well to supply the simplest copula. Ruth claims, as it were, Naomi’s people and Naomi’s God as her own already.

Rth 1:17

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. She wished to be naturalized for life in Naomi’s fatherland. Nor did she wish her remains to be conveyed back for burial to the land of her nativity. So may Yahveh do to me, and still more, but death only shall part me and thee. She appeals to the God of the Israelites, the one universal God. She puts herself on oath, and invokes his severest penal displeasure if she should suffer anything less uncontrollable than death to part her from her mother-in-law. “So may Yahveh do to me.” It was thus that the Hebrews made their most awful appeals to Yahveh. They signified their willingness to suffer some dire calamity if they should either do the evil deed repudiated or fail to do the good deed promised. So stands in misty indefiniteness; not, as Fuller supposes, by way of “leaving it to the discretion of God Almighty to choose that arrow out of his quiver which he shall think it most fit to shoot,” but as a kind of euphemism, or cloudy veil, two-thirds concealing, and one-third revealing, whatever horrid infliction could by dramatic sign be represented or hinted. And still morea thoroughly Semitic idiom, and so may he add (to do) There was first of all a full imprecation, and then an additional ‘bittock,’ to lend intensity to the asseveration. “But death only shall sever between me and thee!” Ruth’s language is broken. Two formulas of imprecation are flung together. One, if complete, would have been to this effect: “So may Yahveh do to me, and so may he add to do, if () aught but death sever between me and thee!” The other, if complete, would have run thus: “I swear by Yahveh ‘that’ () death, death only, shall part thee and me. In the original the word death has the article, death emphatically. It is as if she had said death, the great divider. The full idea is in substance death alone. This divider alone, says Ruth, “shall sever between me and thee;” literally, “between me and between thee,” a Hebrew idiom, repeating for emphasis’ sake the two-sided relationship, but taking the repetition in reverse order, between me (and thee) and between thee (and me).

Rth 1:18

And she perceived. In our idiom we should have introduced the proper name, “And Naomi perceived.” That she was determined to go with her. She saw that Ruth was fixed in her resolution. And she left off speaking to her. She “gave in.” Ruth, as Fuller has it, was “a fixed star.”

Rth 1:19

And they two wentthey trudged along, the two of themuntil they came to Bethlehem. In the expression “the two of them” the masculine pronoun ( for ) occurs, as in Rth 1:8 and Rth 1:9. It mirrors in language the actual facts of relationship in life. The masculine is some- times assumptively representative of both itself and the feminine. And sometimes, even apart from the representative element, it is the overlapping and overbearing gender. And it came to pass, as they entered Bethlehem, that the whole city got into commotion concerning them, and they said, Is this Naomi? Naomi, though greatly altered in appearance, besides being travel-worn and weary, was recognized. But who was that pensive and beautiful companion by her side? Where was Elimelech? Where was Machne and Chillon? Why are they not with ir mother? Such would be some of the questions started, and keenly talked about and discussed. Then on both the wayfarers the finger-marks of poverty, involuntary signals of distress, would be unconcealable. Interest, sympathy, gossip would be alive throughout the little town, especially among the female portion of the population, and loud would be their exclamations of surprise. The verb they said is feminine in Hebrew, a nicety which cannot be reproduced in English without obtruding too prominently the sex referred to, as m Michaelis’s version”and all the women said.” So the Vulgate. The verb which we have rendered got into commotion is found in 1Sa 4:5“the earth rail again;” and in 1Ki 1:45“the city rang again.”

Rth 1:20

And she said to them, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me. Salutations were respectfully addressed to her as she walked along in quest of some humble abode. And when thus spoken to by the sympathetic townspeople, she was called, of course, by her old sweet name. But as it fell in its own rich music on her ears, its original import flashed vividly upon her mind. Her heart “filled” at the contrast which her circumstances represented, and she said, “Address me not as Naomi, call not to me () Naomi: address me as Mara,”that is, bitter,”for the Almighty has caused bitterness to me exceedingly” (see on Rth 1:2). The Almighty, or , an ancient polytheistic name that had at lengthlike and dna been reclaimed in all its fullness for the one living and true God. It had become a thorough proper name, and hence it is used without the article. In the Septuagint it is sometimes rendered, as here, , the Sufficient; in Job, where it frequently occurs, , the Omnipotent. But it is one of those peculiar nouns that never can be fully reproduced in any Aryan language, Naomi’s theology as indicated in the expression, “the Almighty hath caused bitterness to me exceedingly,” need not be to its minutest jot endorsed. God was not the only agent with whom she had had to do. Much of the bitterness of her lot may have been attributable to her husband or to herself, and perhaps to forefathers and foremothers. It is not fair to ascribe all the embittering element of things to God. Much rather might the sweetness, which had so often relieved the bitterness, be traced to the band of him who is “the Lord God, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness.”

Rth 1:21

I went forth full, and Yahveh has caused me to return in emptiness. Why should you call me Naomi, and Yahveh has testified against me, and the Almighty has brought evil upon me? She went forth “full,” with husband and sons, not to speak of goods. She was under the necessity of returning in emptiness, or with empty hands. The Hebrew word does not exactly mean empty, as it is rendered in the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and King James’s version. It is not an adjective, but an adverb, emptily. This lamentable change of circumstances she attributed to the action of Yahveh. He had, she believed, been testifying against her by means of the trials through which she had passed. She was right in a certain conditional acceptation of her language; but only on condition of that condition. And, let us condition her declarations as we may, she was probably in danger of making the same mistake concerning herself and her trials which was made by Job’s comforters in reference to the calamities by which he was overwhelmed. In so far as penal evil is concerned, it may be traced directly or circuitously to the will and government of God. “Shall there be evilthat is, penal evilin a city, and the Lord hath not done it?” (Amo 3:6). But there are many sufferings that are not penal. The evil that is penal is only one segment of physical evil; and then there is besides, metaphysical evil, or the evil that consists in the inevitable imperfection of finite being. It is noteworthy that the participle of the Hiphilic verb employed by Naomi is always translated in King James s version evil doer, or wicked doer, or evil, or wicked, Naomi, in using such a term, and applying it to Yahveh, was walking on a theological precipice, where it is not needful that we should accompany her. Instead of the literal expression, ‘and‘ Yahveh, we may, with our English wealth of conjunctions freely say, ‘when‘ Yahveh. There is a charm in the original simplicity. There is likewise a charm in the more complex structure of the free translation.

Rth 1:22

So Naomi returned. The narrator pauses to recapitulate his narrative of the return, and hence the recapitulatory so is, in English, very much to be preferred to the merely additive and of the original. And Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the land of Moab. The cumulative and apparently redundant expression, “who returned out of the land of Moab,” is remarkable, at once for its simplicity and for its inexactitude. Ruth, strictly speaking, had not returned, but she took part in’ Naomi’s return. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the commencement of barley-harvest. Barley ripened before wheat, and began to be reaped sometimes as early as March, but generally in April, or Abib. By the time that the barley-harvest was finished the wheat crop would be ready for the sickle.

HOMILETICS

Rth 1:15-22

Devoted attachment.

I. Ruth was fixed in her desire and determination to CAST IS HER LOT WITH HER DESOLATE AND DESTITUTE MOTHER–IN–LAW. The absolute unselfishness of this determination is noteworthy, for

1. Be it noted that Naomi was not one of those who are always murmuring and complaining because they do not receive sufficient consideration.

2. Still less did she claim as a right, or urge as a duty, that her daughter-in-law should become her companion in travel, and wait upon her as an attendant.

3. On the contrary, she was careful to put Ruth in an attitude of entire freedom, so that, if she had a secret wish to go back to her Moabitish friends, she could have gratified her desire without laying herself open to the imputation of coldness or ingratitude.

4. Ruth was tested nevertheless, as all of us in our respective relations have either already been or will be. Eve, for instance, was emphatically tested. So was Adam. Abraham too. Joseph also. Very particularly the second Adam, our Lord Jesus Christ, when he was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. Judas was tested when the demon of cupidity entered into his heart. So was Peter when he stood warming himself at the fire in the court of the high priest’s palace. All who are tried are tested. And all men without exception have to endure trial and trials. It was as regards the strength of her attachment to her mother-in-law that Ruth was tested. Not only did Naomi hold out no hopes of home-comfort in Judah, she expressly said, dissuasively, when Orpah had gone back, “Behold, thy sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her Elohim: return thou after thy sister-in-law” (verse 15).

5. Ruth stood the test. Not so did Eve. Not so Adam. But Abraham stood it. So Joseph. Emphatically did Jesus stand it, so that lib knows how to succor those who are tempted. Judas did not stand the test Nor at first did Peter, though afterwards He repented, and, when reconverted, was able to strengthen his brethren. Ruth, for love to Naomi, was able to say in her heart, “Farewell, Melchom! Farewell, Chemosh! Farewell, Moab! Welcome, Israeli Welcome, Canaan! Welcome, Bethlehem!” (Fuller).

6. She witnessed a good and most noble confession of love and devotedness (see verses 16, 17). She said, “Insist not on me forsaking thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; wheresoever thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people is my people, and thy God my God: where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. So may Yahveh do to me, and still more, if aught but death part thee and me.” “Nothing,” says Matthew Henry, “could be said more fine, more brave.” “Truly,” says Dr. Kitto, “the simple eloquence of the mouth that speaks out of the abundance of the heart never found more beautiful and touching expression than in these words of this young widow” (‘Daily Bible-Illustrations’). “Her vow,” says S. Cox, “has stamped itself on the very heart of the world; and that not because of the beauty of its form simply, though even in our English version it sounds like a sweet and noble music, but because it expresses in a worthy form, and once for all, the utter devotion of a genuine and self-conquering love. It is the spirit which informs and breathes through these melodious words that make them so precious to us, and that also renders it impossible to utter any fitting comment on them”. Be it borne in mind that something of the same enthusiasm of love, that dwelt in the heart of Ruth, should be found in the center of every home. Wheresoever a heart is swayed and dominated by the might and mastery of a great affection, the entire character becomes clothed with mingled dignity and beauty.

II. THE ENTRY OF THE TWO WIDOWS INTO BETHLEHEM. There was no more talk, no more thought, of turning back. The hearts of the two widows were locked together forever. Hence they traveled on from stage to stage, until, worn and wearied, they entered Bethlehem.

1. Note the effect on the citizens, especially the female portion of them (see verse 19). Naomi, passing along through the streets, was recognized. The news flew from individual to individual, from house to house, from lane to lane. There was a running to and fro of excited mothers and maidens. All were eager to see the returned emigrant, and her pensive Moabitish companion. Her old acquaintances, in particular, when they had seen and identified her, broke up into groups, and talked, and said, Is that Naomi? That, Naomi I Is this Naomi? This, Naomi! “So unlike is the rose when it is withered to what it was when it was blooming.”

2. Note the effect on Naomi herself. As she looked on old scenes, and witnessed the excitement and commotion of old neighbors and acquaintances, her heart felt overwhelmed within her, and she said to the sympathizing friends who clustered around her, “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (see verses 20, 21). But it surely will be permitted to us not only to mingle our tears with those of the afflicted widow, but likewise to pause reverently ere we unreservedly accept or endorse her attribution of all her trials and woes to the hand and heart of the Lord. It should nevertheless be borne in mind that even those trials that come most directly from men’s own acts or choices come to pass by the permission of the Almighty, and are so overruled by him that they will be made to work for good to them who love him (Rom 8:28).

HOMILIES BY J.R. THOMSON

Rth 1:16-18

Constancy.

For simple pathos and unstudied eloquence, this language is unsurpassed. “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” Here is the fervent outpouring of a true heart. Love and resolution are at their height. Thousands of human souls have expressed their mutual attachment in these words. They are not words of extravagance or of passion, but of feeling, of principle, of a fixed and changeless mind. Constancy must be admired, even by the inconstant.

I. THERE WERE INFLUENCES OPPOSED TO RUTH‘S CONSTANCY.

1. Early associations and friendships would have tied her to Moab.

2. The entreaty of Naomi that she would return set her perfectly free to do so, if she had been disposed.

3. The example of her sister-in-law, Orpah, could not but have some weight. Orpah had been, like Ruth, kind alike to the living and the dead, yet she wept, kissed her mother-in-law, and returned.

4. The religion of her childhood could scarcely have been without attractions for her. Could she leave the temples, the deities, the observances of her earliest days behind?

II. THERE WERE MANIFESTATIONS OF PIOUS CONSTANCY IN RUTH‘S RESOLVES.

1. She would go with Naomi, though by an unknown route.

2. She would dwell with Naomi, though in an unknown home.

3. She would die with Naomi, though to be buried in an unknown grave.

III. THERE WAS A RELIGIOUS FOUNDATION FOR RUTH‘S CONSTANCY.

1. Apparent from the resolution”Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God.”

2. Apparent from the adjuration she employed”The Lord do so,” etc.

IV. THE TRIUMPH AND RECOMPENSE OF RUTH‘S CONSTANCY.

1. Her fidelity and devotion were reciprocated by Naomi.

2. In the providence of God Ruth was rewarded by an honorable position and a happy life.T.

Rth 1:19-21

Heart wounds reopened.

Return after long absence to scenes of youth always affecting; he who returns is changed; they who receive him are changed too. Observe the reception which Naomi met from her former neighbors at Bethlehem. Their question, “Is this Naomi?” evinces

1. Surprise. She is living! We see her again! Yet how is she changed!

2. Interest. How varied has been her experience whilst absent! And she loves Bethlehem so that she returns to it in her sorrow!

3. Compassion. “All the city was moved about them.” How could those who remembered her fail to be affected by the calamities she had passed through? Consider the sentiments expressed by Naomi upon her return.

I. HER GRIEF WAS NATURAL AND BLAMELESS. “I went out full,” i.e. in health, in youth, with some earthly property; above all, with husband and sons. “The Lord hath brought me home again empty,” i.e. aged, broken down in health and spirits, poor, without kindred or supporters. “Call me not Naomi,” i.e. pleasant; “call me Mara,” i.e. bitter. Her lot was sad. Religion does not question the fact of human trouble and sorrow. And she was not wrong in feeling, in the circumstances, the peculiar pressure of grief and distress. We remember that “Jesus wept.”

II. HER RECOGNITION OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE WAS RIGHT; WAS A SIGN OF PIETY. She attributes all to the Almighty, to the Lord. Observe that in two verses this acknowledgment is made four times. In a world over which God rules we should acknowledge his presence and reign in all human experience. If trouble comes to us by means of natural laws, those laws are ordered by his wisdom. If by human agency, that agency is the result of the constitution with which he has endowed man. If as the result of our own action, he connects actions with their consequences. Therefore, let us reverently recognize his hand in all that happens to us!

III. HER INTERPRETATION OF GOD‘S PROVIDENCE WAS MISTAKEN. “The Lord,” said Naomi, “hath testified against me.” Men frequently imagine that if God could prevent afflictions, and yet permits them, he cannot regard the afflicted in a favorable and friendly light. But this is not so. “Whom he loveth he chasteneth.” The Book of Job warns us against misunderstanding the meaning of calamity. Christ has also warned us against supposing that Divine anger is the explanation of human griefs and sufferings. “All things work together for good unto those who love God.” How often is it true, as the poet Cowper knew and sang

“Behind a frowning providence
God hides a smiling face!”

T.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Rth 1:16, Rth 1:17

“Entreat me not to leave thee.” A mother and a daughter-in-law are to go together. The daughter wishes it, and petitions with most eloquent ardor that it shall be so. A mother-in-law is sometimesalas, too oftenthe subject of criticism and satire. It is a difficult position to fill, and many bitterly unkind and untrue caricatures have been made upon the relationship. In this case Naomi had made herself beloved by both Orpah and Ruth, and it was only through Naomi’s words, “Turn again,” that Orpah went back; for they had both said, “Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.” Ruth, however, remained firm, and her fidelity has made these words quickening to many undecided souls.

I. ENTREATY MAY PROVE TOO EARNEST. “Entreat me not.” It is the language of a heart that feels what limits there are to the power of resistance within us. Test may turn in unwise hands into overpowering temptation. Naomi knew where to stop, and Ruth remains to us a picture of heroic devotion. Orpah failed in courage, but was not destitute of affection, for her farewell is accompanied with a kiss of love. In her character we see impulse without strength. But “Ruth clave unto her.” And it was no light sacrifice to leave fatherland and home. We can hardly call the test at first a religious one, for it is evident that Ruth’s love for her mother-in-law was the immediate occasion of her cleaving to her, and leaving the Moabitish gods. In time, doubtless, her nominal faith turned into a living heritage.

II. LOVE CREATES THE FINEST ELOQUENCE. There is no utterance in the Old Testament more pathetic and melodious than these words. They are idyllic in their eloquence. There is nothing stilted or artificial in them, and they have in them a rhythm of melody which is more beautiful than a mere rhyme of words. Courage and sacrifice, love and devotion, breathe all through them. They condense too all that is prophetic of coming experiencethe lodging and the loneliness, the weary pilgrimage and the grave in a foreign land. The mind cannot frame sentences like these without the glow of a sincere and sacrificial heart. We feel as we read them what grandeur there is in human nature when love evokes all its depth of power. It is not a skilful touch that can do this, but a soul alive to the calls of love and duty.

III. NO TRUE LIFE WAS EVER LIVED IN VAIN. It was what Naomi had been to her, what she was in herself, that made this sacrifice possible. Love creates love. The charm of friendship may be merely intellectual, and then, after the feast of reason, all is’ over. But Naomi’s character was rooted in religion. She did not carry the mere roll of the prophets in her hand; she carried the spirit of the Holy Book in her heart. Ruth had never been in synagogue or temple; she had listened to no Rabbi, and never sat at the feet of the doctors; but as “the earliest piety is mother’s love,” so the character of a true mother is a stem around which the tendrils of the young heart climb to the mother’s God. None of us liveth to himself. And so from the flower of piety, the seed drops into other hearts, and brings forth fruit after many days.W.M.S.

Rth 1:18

Moral steadfastness.

“When she saw that she was steadfastly minded.” “Then she left speaking.” The test had done a true work, and we see the heroine who could stand fast. Yes; “having done all, to stand,” is something in the great emergencies and temptations of life. There are times when to stand in the rush of the stream, as the river breaks into spray around us, is as much for the hour as we can do, and God knows and honors that.

I. THE STEADFAST MIND GIVES THE STEADFAST STEP. A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. Veering here and there like the wind, there is no dependence on the direction he may take. The man or the woman is made by something within them invisible to the world. When Christ was led as a lamb to the slaughter, the great conflict had been fought out in Gethsemane, and then the steps were calm and steadfast. What an hour is that in which, in common parlance, “the mind is made up,” the resolution taken. This is firmness, as opposed to obstinacy, which acts with out reasons, and often in the teeth of them. The misery caused in this world by obstinate people is to be seen sometimes in the home, where sulkiness of temper makes the lives of others miserable Firmness is the result of the thoughtful decision of an enlightened mind and a consecrated heart.

II. THE STEADFAST MIND MAKES THE REST COMPANION. Ruth was ready for the companion journey back to Bethlehem. And in all our life journeys nothing is so precious as a steadfast heart. There are times of misinterpretation in all livestimes of disheartenment, times of shadow and darkness. In such hours a steadfast companion is God’s richest gift to us. What consolation it is to know that even humanly every support will not give way, that there will always be one eye to brighten, one hand to help, one heart to love, one mind to appreciate. The fickle and irresolute may have a transient beauty and a winning manner, but these are poor endowments without a steadfast mind.

III. THE STEADFAST MIND IS FREED FROM THE INFINITUDE OF LESSER WORRIES. It is made up. It is not open to every solicitation. It is negative to doubt and distrust. This is the right way, and naught can move it. The feeble and irresolute have a restless life. They are constantly balancing expediences and advantages. Christ our Divine Lord set his face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem. The hardest journey of all to the shame and spitting, the awful darkness and the cruel cross. If we are firm and decided in our purposes we shall not be wasting either time or strength upon the solicitations of the popular or profitable. A voice within will say, “This is the way, walk ye in it.”W.M.S.

Rth 1:19

“So they two went till they came to Bethlehem.” “They two!” Sometimes it is husband and wife. Sometimes it is two sisters commencing life together in the great city where they have to earn their bread. Sometimes it is two lovers who have large affection and little means, and who have to wait and work and hope on. Sometimes it is widow and child. “They two!” What unrecorded histories of heroism there are written in God’s book all unknown to us.

I. HERE IS THE COMMENCEMENT AND CLOSE OF A PILGRIMAGE. They went. They came. So is it of the life history itself. All is enfolded in these brief words. What a multitude of figures in Scripture suggest the brevity of life. A tale that is told. A post. A weaver’s shuttle. The morning flower. So indeed it is. What a multitude of incidents would be included even in this brief journey of Naomi’s; but these are the two clasps of the volume of life. They went. They came. “Every beginning holds in it the end, as the acorn does the oak.”

II. HERE IS THE SIGHT OF A CITY. Bethlehem. Cities with them were not like cities with us. Even Bethlehem was called a city. But the old dwelling-places, after ten years, have a mute eloquence about them. Other feet come to the well. Little children who gathered flowers on the wild hills are now bearing pitchers to the well. But after a weary journey how refreshing to the Easterns was the glimpse of the white houses on the hills. We look for a city. A city which hath foundations. A city where our beloved are; for God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. We do not think of it in health and strength and excitement of human interest, but one day we shall look with quiet longing for the city gates. The evening of life will come upon us, and we shall pray, “Let me go, for the day breaketh.”

III. HERE IS A PILGRIMAGE ENDED. Better is the end of a thing than the beginning, said the wise man. And so it is. “I have finished my course.” How much is included in that. When the battered ship comes into harbor we take more interest in her than the spick and span new vessel with trim decks, and untorn sails, and scarless masts. When the battle is over we think more of the shot-pierced flag than of the new banner borne out by the troops with martial music. We like to see the pilgrim start. But some pilgrims turn back. We like to hear Ruth’s resolve. How much better is it to see the resolve written in letters of living history. We can call no man hero, no woman heroine, till the march is over and the victory won.W.M.S.

Rth 1:19

Never seemed there a sadder contrast. Naomi left Bethlehem in the full bloom of womanhood, with a husband and two sons. Elimelech, her husband, died, we read, “and she was left and her two sons.” They took them wives, and, as mothers do, she lived in the hopes and honors of their new homes; but, after dwelling in Moab about ten years, we read Mahlon and Chillon died also, both of them, and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband, A strange land is not so strange when we carry home with us; but it is strange when all that made home, is gone. We need not wonder, therefore, that not alone for the bread of harvest, but for the bread of love, she and her daughters-in-law “went on the way to return to the land of Judah.” But, with a fine instinct, Naomi felt that what would be home again for her would be an alien land to them; and the tender narrative tells us how she suggested they should remain, and find rest, each of them, in the place of their people. We well know the sequel to the words of Naomi, “Turn again my daughters;” for Ruth has become with us all a beautiful picture of truehearted womanhood, and a very household name. But it is with the question, “Is this Naomi?” that we now have to deal. She went out full. Not wealthy, perhaps,though love is always wealthy, for it alone gives that which worlds want wealth to buy. She is coming home “empty,” as many have done since Naomi did, in all the generations. Bent, and sad, and gray, her worn dress tells of her poverty, her garb bespeaks the widow. All in a few years; all crowded into these few opening verses. The pathway of the past is an avenue now, along which she looks to the opening days, when the light flooded her steps, and she walked in the warm glow of companionship and love. Is this Naomi? And have not we had this to say again and again concerning those whose early days we knew? There we heard the merry shout of children, and there we saw manhood in its strength and prime. Naomi it cannot be: that the face we knew as a bride and as a mother! Never! Yet so it is. They went out full and came home empty. Yet not empty, if, like Naomi, they keep their fellowship with God.

I. NAOMI IS A RETURNING PILGRIM. Home has been but a tent life, and the curtains have been rent by sorrow and death. She tells us the old, old story. Here have we no continuing city. Beautiful was the land to which she returned, and in that dear land of promise there never was a fairer time than barley-harvest. Many and many a harvest-time had come and gone since Naomi went forth, and many a reaper’s song was silent evermore. As she passed the vines and the oleanders fringing the broad fields, bronzed and bright-eyed faces were directed towards her; and here, in the distance, was Bethlehem, its little white houses dotting the green slopes, its well by the wayside. Bethlehemhome! Oh! that strange longing to live through the closing years in the country places where we were born l It is a common instinct. The Chinese have it, and will be buried nowhere else. It is a beautiful instinct tooto look with the reverent eyes of age on the tombstones we used to spell out in the village, to hear the old rush of the river, the old murmur of the sea. Strange thoughts fill this woman’s mind, as the old picture is there with a new peopling of forms and faces. Yet not all new. The workers turn to the passing figure, and a gleam of recognition, doubtful at first, lights up their eyes. And then the word passes from one to the other, Is this Naomi? It is the same world in which we live today. There is also something to remind us that we are pilgrims and strangers, that unresting time will not wait one hour for us. The unseen angels hurry us on through love and grief and death. Happy for us if we say plainly that we seek a country, for the only escape from the ennui of life is the satisfaction of the immortal thirst within us by the gospel revelation of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

II. NAOMI IS A GODLY PILGRIM. Travel-worn and weary, with sandaled feet, she is coming to a city sanctified by the faith of her fathers. She had lived in a heathen country so devoutly, that Ruth could say, “Thy God shall be my God”a beautiful testimony to Naomi’s fidelity, to her victory over idolatrous usages, to her own personal influence over others. Thy God l How serious the eye, how sober the mien, of this woman as she comes into the city. She has had a battle of life to fight, and she has fought it well. How brave and noble and faithful a woman she is! Is this Naomi? If there is not so much of what the world calls beauty in her face, there is character there, experience there. The young Christian starting on his pilgrimage is cheerful enough. His armor is bright and new, his enthusiasm is fresh and keen. He goes forth full of enterprise and hope. Do not be surprised if in the after years you ask, Is this Naomi? How careful, how anxious, how dependent on God alone! What bright visions once filled his soul, how ready he was to criticize Christian character, how determined and unflinching he looked! Well, it was a noble promise, and where would the world be without the enthusiasm of youth? Be not surprised now if he looks worn and weary. He has had battles to fight that the world knows not of. He has made strange discoveries in the continent of his own heart; he has been well-nigh overcome, and casting himself entirely on his Lord, he says, “By the grace of God I am what I am.” Look at that weary heart. Is that Luther? Look at that faithless spirit. Is that Peter? Look at that worn soldier. Is that Paul? But the Lord is with them I Empty, indeed, in a human sense was Naomi. Call me not Naomi, she said; it has lost its meaning. Life is no longer pleasant. Call me Mara, for life is bitter. True-hearted soul I She knew that it was bitter, indeed, though it was God’s will; “for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.” Very bitterly! And are we to cover over that? Can we sing

“Thy will is sweetest to me when
It triumphs at my cost?”

We may sing it; but it is hard to live it. It is glorious to believe in God at such times at all, and to bow with the pain all through our hearts, and to say, “My God.”W.M.S.

Rth 1:22; Rth 2:1-3

Naomi’s history may now be carried on in the light of these texts.

I. NAOMI IS AN ANCESTRAL PILGRIM. Ancestor of whom? Turn to Mat 1:5, and you will find in the genealogy of our Lord the name of Ruth. The earlier part of that Divine life, how fresh and beautiful it isthe advent, the angels, the shepherds’ songs! The mother, the first visit to the temple, the doctors! And beautiful ministry too. Power wedded to mercy, miracles of healing, mighty deeds of love, sermons amid the mountains and the cities. True! But stand here a moment. It is an early evening of life, I admit; but it s evening. Do you see in the blue distance One coming from the judgment hall? Do you hear the wild cry of the mob, “Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him! Crucify him!”? Do you mark the crush of the crowd round one fallen form, who fainted beneath the burden of that cross which he bore for us all? Follow him on to the slopes, while Simon, the Cyrenian, helps to bear his cross. The soldiers mock him. The crowd insult him. They spat upon him, they smote him with their hands, they buffeted him. And now his hands and feet are nailed; his pale face is bowed. Come nearer and gaze. Behold the man I As the reapers asked, “Is this Naomi?” so we ask, “Is this Jesus?” Is this he whose sweet face lay in the manger? Is this he whose bright inquisitive face was in the temple? Is this he who passed the angels at heaven’s high gate, and came to earth, saying, “Lo! I come to do thy will, O God.” Yes! Bowed, bruised, broken for us. The same Savior, who now endures the cross, despising the shame. Well may we wonder and adore! He saved others, himself he cannotwill notsave! More beautiful now than in the stainless infancy of the Holy Child. More beautiful now than when by the shores of Galilee’s lake, he spake words which mirrored heaven more purely and clearly than those waters the gold and crimson of the sky. It is the bowed, broken, forsaken, suffering, dying Lord that moves the world’s heart. He knew it all. In that hour, when his soul was made an offering for sin, he, being lifted up, had power to draw all hearts unto him. Is this Naomi? Well might angels ask, Is this the eternal Son of the Father? Is this he of whom the Almighty said, “He is my fellow.” Is this he to whom command was given, Let all the angels of God worship him? Yes! It is he. It is finished. “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in.”

II. NAOMI IS A PROVIDED–FOR PILGRIM. Back to Bethlehem; but how to live? how to find the roof-tree that should shelter again? She knew the Eternal’s name, “Jehovah-Jireh,” the Lord will provide. A kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man Of wealth, lived there: of the family of Elimelech; his name was Boaz. We must not mind criticism when we talk of chance, or happening. The Bible does. It is simply one way of stating what seems to us accidental; although in reality we know that the least secrets are in the good hand of him “to whom is nothing trivial.” Ruth wants to glean! And Naomi says, Go, my daughter; “and her hapher chancewas to light on the part of a field belonging unto Boaz?’ We know that the same old love story, which is new in every generation begins again; so Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife. So that a new home begins, and a smile plays through the tears of the lonely widow. Naomi has some human light again in her landscape; she will see the children’s children, and take them by the hand into the coming barley-harvests; she will have some appropriate hopes and joys and interests still. Life to her will not be desolate, because she has still a God above her and a world around her to call forth interest and hope. Her sorrow was not greater than she could bear, and the summer over, even autumn had its tender beauties before life’s winter came. So it ever is. Trust in the Lord, and you shall never want any good thing. Believe still in your Savior, and provided for you will be with all weapons of fence, all means of consolation, all prosperity that shall not harm your soul. So true, then, is the Bible to the real facts of human life. It is not a book of gaiety, for life is real and earnest, and its associations are mortal and mutable. It consecrates home joy, and yet reminds us that every garden has its grave, every dear union its separation. But, on the other hand, there are no utterances of unbearable grief, or unmitigated woe. It says ever to us, Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. And the facts of experience in every age endorse its truth. As the snows bide flowers even in the Alps, so beneath all our separations and sorrows there are still plants of the Lord, peace, and hope, and joy, and rest in him. Blessed, indeed, shall we be if we can rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him. We, too, shall all change. Time and sorrow will write their experiences on our brow. There will be hours in which we feel like Naomi, empty, oh I so empty. The cup of affection poured out on the ground, the forest without its songsters, the garden without its flowers, the home without its familiar faces. We shall see these pictures every day, and wonder, more and more, how any hearts can do without a Brother and a Savior in Jesus Christ. But if character be enriched and trained, all is well; for this very end have we bad Divine discipline, and the Lord will perfect that which concerneth us for the highest ends of eternal life in him. The baptism with which our Lord was baptized changed his face, altered his mien, enlarged even his Divine experience. He was made “perfect through suffering,” and became the Author of eternal salvation to all who trust in him. Coming back even to Bethlehem is only for a season. As Naomi returns, nature alone remains the same; the blue roller-bird would flash for a moment across her path, the music of the turtle-dove remind her of the melody of nature in her childhood;the peasant garb would tell her of the old unchanged ways; and the line of hills against the sky would remind her that the earth abideth forever. But for her there was a still more abiding country, where Elimelech, like Abraham, lived, and where Mahlon and Chillon waited for the familiar face that had made their boyhood blessed. And so we wait. The redemption we celebrate here is a passover, a memorial of deliverance and a prophecy of home. Home where sorrow and sighing, night and death, will flee away; where, no longer pilgrims, we shall no more go out, and where the worn face and the weary heart shall be transfigured into the immortal life.W.M.S.

Rth 1:21

“I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home again empty.” It seemed, indeed, a via dolorosa, this path homeward. How expressive the words.

I. LOVE MAKES LIFE FULL. Why, I thought they went out poor? Yes. Seeking bread? Yes. Yet Naomi’s description is true and beautiful. We are “full” when we have that which makes home, home indeed, and we are poor if, having all wealth of means, we have not love. Well, indeed, has it been said that “the golden moments in the stream of life rush past us, and we see nothing but sand; the angels come to visit us, and we only know them when they are gone.” We never know how empty life is till the loved are lost to us.

II. THE LORD IS THE DISPOSER OF ALL EVENTS. “The Lord hath brought me home.” We talk of Providence when all goes well with us, when the harvests are ripened, and the fruits hang on the wall. But we must not limit Providence to the pleasant. The Lord “takes away” as well as gives. It is said that, in the order of reading at the family altar, when the late John Angell James was about to conduct worship after a severe bereavement, the Psalm to be read was the hundred and third. The good man stopped, tears rolled down his face; and then, gathering up his strength, he said, “Why not? It is the Father!” and he read on, “Bless the Lord, O my soul!”

III. THE FULLEST HOME MAY SOON BE EMPTIED. Yes! We too should feel it so. A husband and two sons gone! What converse there had been! what interest in each other’s pursuits I what affectionate concern for each other’s weal and happiness! and what a wealth of love for Naomi, the center of all I We feel at such seasons that death would be blessed relief for us. The thought comes across us, “I have got to live;” to live on from day to day, attending to the minutiae of duty, and coming here and there so often on the little relics of the dead. Home again! That has music inb it for the school-children, who come back to the bright home; but to the widow, oh, how different! Home again, but how empty! Yet we may learn, even from Naomi, that rest and refreshment come to hearts that trust in God their Savior; and we may learn too what mistakes we make. Naomi said, “Why call ye me Naomi, seeing that the Lord hath testified against me?” Natural enough; but life was still to have a pleasant side for her.W.M.S.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Rth 1:15. Thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods It is not by any means a just consequence from hence, that Orpah had never been proselyted to the Jewish religion. The contrary is a much more natural deduction; for if she had not once left them, she could not have returned to them. Ruth continued steadfast to the faith that she had embraced; Orpah returned back to Moab and to Chemosh. They who consider the friendless and forlorn state of Naomi, will not wonder much at her solicitude that her daughters should remain in their own country, and amidst their friends; where, doubtless, they might have continued to profess the true religion had they been inclined to do so. That state of Naomi, however, adds great lustre to the piety and filial affection of Ruth.

REFLECTIONS.Naomi, having heard that plenty was again restored to Israel,

1. Resolves to return to her own country. Moab was now a land of sorrow to her; every object around her renewed the bitter remembrance of her losses, and no comforter was near, who, with discourse of holy resignation to Israel’s God, could alleviate her griefs. Note; (1.) They, who are compelled for a time to dwell among those who are strangers to God, ought to embrace the first moment of liberty to return to God’s people and ordinances. (2.) Change of place is often a useful assistant in calming the griefs which are exasperated by the sight of objects that remind us of those who are taken from us. (3.) When God afflicts, it is good to examine whether something in us has not brought his rod upon us. (4.) It is even a mercy to have this land of our sojourning embittered to us, that we may be more weaned from earth, and have our conversation in heaven.

2. Her daughters accompany her to the borders of Moab; and there Naomi with tender affection intends to dismiss them, praying God to give them a comfortable settlement, each in the house of her husband; and acknowledging, to their great commendation, the affection that they had shewn to the living and the dead, as good wives and dutiful daughters. They kiss, embrace, then burst into a flood of tears, the involuntary effusion of tenderness, which cannot bear the heart-breaking separation from those we love. Note; (1.) When friends part in prayer, they may comfortably hope, either in time or eternity, to meet in praise. (2.) They, who conscientiously fulfil their relative duties in life, will have the comfort of it in a parting hour. (3.) Though the parting of tender and affectionate friends is painful, it is a kind of pleasing pain, of which we wish not to be insensible.

3. Unable to support the thought of parting, they both resolve to accompany her; but Naomi, fearful lest they should afterwards repent the hasty resolution, and perhaps to try whether they had any desire after the worship of the God of Israel as their motive, seeks to dissuade, and advises them to weigh the matter well before they determined. They could hope for nothing with her. God’s afflicting hand was upon her, her circumstances distressed, and no provision for them in Beth-lehem, which grieved her more for their sakes than her own. Such a remonstrance produced a fresh torrent of tears. Orpah, though affectionately attached to Naomi, discouraged now by the difficulties, kisses her, and returns. Ruth, more determined, refuses to go back, and resolves to cleave to her. Note; (1.) Hasty resolutions are easily broken. (2.) Tender hearts can better bear want themselves, than see those whom they love exposed to it. (3.) They who would follow Christ ought first to count the cost. (4.) Many say, I will go with thee, who, on the first difficulties, turn back, and walk no more with Jesus. (5.) The difficulties of the way will bind the faithful soul closer to the Saviour.

4. To make the last essay of Ruth’s determined purpose, Naomi again urges her to return, and pleads her sister’s example, who was returned to her people and her gods. But Ruth was fixed, and her choice unalterable. She begs her mother to desist from dissuading her. “Though the place be distant, and the country unknown, I will go with thee; if thy lodging be a cottage, I seek no better covering; thy people shall be my people, in their manners, customs, and religion; and thy God, my God, renouncing every abomination of Moab, and owning Israel’s God alone: Never will I quit thee; on the same spot our dying eyes shall close, and in the same grave our kindred dust shall mingle, and make the clods of the valley sweeter by the union.” Such is her purpose; and, to prevent farther entreaty, she binds her soul by a solemn vow, never but by death to part from her. Note; (1.) Nothing will be able to separate the faithful heart from Jesus; no, not death itself. (2.) They are truly our enemies who seek to turn us back from God and godliness. (3.) When we give up our hearts to God, and choose our portion among God’s poor people, then in life or death we shall surrender ourselves up to be disposed of by him as shall please him, content in every station, and welcoming every cross.

5. Naomi, satisfied now, attempts no more to dissuade her: happy, no doubt, to hear her daughter’s pious choice; and glad, amidst every distress, to bring her to the worship of Israel’s God, and to the communion of his people.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

DISCOURSE: 278
THE CHARACTER OF RUTH

Rth 1:15-17. 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 scenes, they bring before us circumstances which are of daily occurrence, or which, at least, are well adapted to shew us how to act, when such circumstances occur. The partings of friends and relatives are common: and, inasmuch as they give birth to a great variety of emotions in the mind, they elicit the inward character with great fidelity. Such is the incident which we are now about to consider, and which will reflect peculiar light on the dispositions of one, who, though a Moabitess by birth, was one of the progenitors of our blessed Lord.

From this farewell scene, and the distinguished excellence of Ruths behaviour, I shall be led to mark her character,

I.

Simply as here depicted

In the circumstances before us, she approves herself a pattern,

1.

Of filial piety

[Her mother-in-law, Naomi, had long endeared herself to her; and now was about to part with her, and to return to the land of Israel. But Ruth would not suffer her to depart alone, but determined to adhere to her to the latest hour of her life. Nor in this determination was she biased by any selfish hopes of future aggrandizement. Her love was altogether pure and disinterested. She well knew, that, though Naomi was once possessed of opulence, she was now reduced to poverty: nor had Naomi any surviving son, who might be united to her, and raise up seed to his departed brother. All this was faithfully represented by Naomi, both to her and to her sister Orpah, in the most affecting terms: 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? Turn again, my daughters; go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband also to-night, and should bear sons, 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. And they lift up their voice, and wept again [Note: ver. 1114.]. But nothing could shake the resolution of Ruth: she determined to renounce all her old relatives, and the prospects she might have in her native land, and to cleave steadfastly to Naomi, even unto death. And the manner in which she refused to acquiesce in her mothers proposal was tender and affectionate in the extreme: Entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee. This, in other words, was as if she had said, You know that any request of thine, however difficult or self-denying it were, would be obeyed with the utmost alacrity: but to ask me to forsake thee, this is too much: it would break my heart: I could not do it: I pray you to forbear putting me to so severe a trial: Entreat me not to leave thee; for the alternative, of parting with thee or disobeying thy command, is as a sword in my bones, a wound which I cannot possibly endure. Be the sacrifice ever so great, I am ready to make it; I shall delight in making it.

Thus did this duteous female, from love to her mother, make, in effect, the very reply which St. Paul, many hundred years afterwards, gave, from love to the Saviour, and on an occasion not very dissimilar: What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus [Note: Act 21:13.].]

2.

Of vital godliness

[This was at the root, and was the true spring of her determined resolution: Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. She had been instructed by her mother in the knowledge of the true God; and she determined to consecrate herself to his service, and to take her portion with his people. This was very particularly noticed by Boaz, as no less conspicuous than her filial piety: It hath fully been shewn me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband; and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore: the Lord recompense thy work; and a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust [Note: Rth 2:11-12.]. Her desire after God was paramount to every other consideration under heaven. She believed that his people were happy above all other people: and, whatever she might endure in this life, she determined to unite with them, and, as far as possible, to participate their lot. Her views of religion might not be clear: but it is evident that a principle of vital godliness was rooted in her heart, and powerfully operative in her life. In fact, she acted in perfect conformity with that injunction that was afterwards given by our Lord, Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple [Note: Luk 14:33.].]

But her character will appear in yet brighter colours, if we consider it,

II.

As compared with that of Orpah and Naomi

Compare it with that of Orpah
[Orpah loved her mother-in-law; and, at first, determined not to part from her. In answer to the suggestions of Naomi, she joined with Ruth in saying, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people [Note: ver. 10.]. But, when a faithful representation was given her respecting the sacrifices she would be called to make, she repented of her good intentions, and, taking an affectionate leave of her mother-in-law, returned to her own people, and to her idol-gods [Note: ver. 15.]. Like the rich youth in the Gospel, she departed, reluctantly indeed, yet finally and for ever [Note: Mat 19:21-22.]. Orpah, it is said, kissed her mother-in-law: but Ruth clave unto her [Note: ver. 14.]. Happy Ruth! thou didst choose the better part: and never was it taken from thee [Note: Luk 10:42.], nor ever hadst thou reason to regret thy choice. It was wise as that of Moses, when he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season [Note: Heb 11:25.]. We congratulate thee on the strength of thy principles, or rather, on the grace given thee of the Lord. Unhappy Orpah! we know not what was thy condition in after life: but, whatever it was, dost thou not now bemoan thine instability? Dost thou not now wish that thou hadst been faithful to thy convictions, and hadst cast in thy lot with Gods chosen people? As for thee, Ruth, thou favoured saint, even if thou hadst been as miserable in after life as thou wast happy, we should have pronounced thee blessed: but doubly blessed wast thou in the distinctions conferred upon thee in this world, as earnests of the glory which thou inheritest in the realms of bliss, even in the bosom of thy descendant, thy Saviour, and thy God.]

Compare it, also, with that of Naomi
[That Naomi was a pious character, we have no doubt; and amiable too: for by her conduct she conciliated the regard of both her daughters-in-law, who, though Moabites by birth, were through her convinced of the superior excellence of the Jewish religion, and the superior happiness of those who were imbued with it. And we cannot but earnestly call the attention of Christian parents to this trait of Naomis character. For there are too many, who, whilst they profess godliness, make it odious to all who come in contact with them, and especially to those who are dependent on them. Their tempers are so hasty, so imperious, so ungoverned, that their very daughters are glad of an occasion to get from under their roof. I must tell all such professors, that they are a disgrace to their profession; and that if religion do not make us lovely and amiable in all our family relations, it does nothing for us, but deceives us to our ruin.
Yet I cannot think very highly of Naomis character, when I see the advice which she gave to her daughters. She loved them, it is true: but her love was of too carnal a nature: for she had more respect to their temporal welfare than to the welfare of their souls. Some would offer an apology for her; that she only intended to try the sincerity of their love. But, supposing she had done this in the first instance, which yet she had no right to do, especially when they had both said, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people: (I say again, she had no right to cast a stumbling-block in their way, and by repeated entreaties to urge their return to their idolatrous friends and their idol-gods:) but when she saw, unhappily, that she had prevailed with Orpah, had she any right to urge Ruth to follow her sad example? Should she not rather have rent her garments, yea, and torn the very hair from her head with anguish, at the thought of having so fatally prevailed to ruin her daughters soul? Should she not rather have striven to undo what she had done to Orpah, than continue to exert the same fatal influence with Ruth? Should not the advice of Moses to Hobab have been hers to both of them, Come with me, and God will do you good [Note: Num 10:29-32.]? Naomi, thou hast given us a picture too often realized in the present day: in thee we see a mother more anxious about the providing of husbands for her daughters, than the saving of their souls. Thou didst love thy daughters, it is true; but thy concern for their temporal welfare overpowered all other considerations, and not only kept thee from leading their minds to God, but actually induced thee to exert thine influence in opposition to their good desires: thou wast a tempter to them, when thou shouldest have done all in thy power to keep them from temptation, and have had thy whole soul bent on securing their everlasting salvation. Beloved Ruth, we bless God that thou wast enabled to withstand the solicitations given thee, though from so high a quarter: for we are told by our Lord and Saviour, He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me [Note: Mat 10:37.]. Thou didst well, in that thy refusal was so tender, so affectionate, so respectful: but still thou didst well, also, that thou wast firm. Thy firmness has reflected a lustre on thy character: for whilst it detracted nothing from thy filial piety, seeing that we must obey God rather than man, it has shewn how much more pure thy love was than that of thy mother, and how much more rigid and firm thy piety.]

Address
1.

To parents

[Learn, I pray you, from Naomi; learn to instruct your children and dependents in the knowledge of the true God, and to conciliate their regards by the most unwearied efforts of tenderness and love. But beware how you discourage in them any good desire. I will grant that there are in Scripture other instances of persons labouring to counteract the movements of personal affection. Ittai, the Gittite, when following David in his flight from Absalom, was urged to leave him [Note: 2Sa 15:19-21.]; as Elisha also was repeatedly by Elijah previous to his assumption to heaven [Note: 2Ki 2:2; 2Ki 2:4; 2Ki 2:6.]. But there was no positive duty lying upon them, or, at all events, none which David and Elijah were not at liberty to dispense with. But Naomi had no right whatever to discourage the pious purposes of her daughters: if she had chosen to dispense with their attendance on her, she had no authority to dissuade them from devoting themselves to God. Remember, then, the true limits of your authority: it may be, and should be, energetically used for God: but it must not, even in advice, be used against him. Your influence is great; and on it may depend the salvation of your offspring. Oh, what a grief must it have been to Naomi, in after life, that she had given such fatal counsel to her apostate daughter! And who can tell what cause you may have to bewail the discouraging of pious emotions in your children, even in one single instance? And think not that even piety renders this caution unnecessary. Rebekah was pious; yet when she feared that her beloved Jacob would lose the birthright, what a device did she suggest, and with what horrid impiety did she urge him to adopt it [Note: Gen 27:12-13.]! Beware, I say, of following Naomi in this respect; and rather use your influence, like Lois and Eunice, for the training of your Timothy to the highest attainments of piety and virtue [Note: 2Ti 1:5.].]

2.

To young people

[Cultivate, to the utmost, an affectionate and obediential spirit towards your parents. This is a frame of mind peculiarly pleasing to God. When he enjoined it in the Decalogue, he wrote it with his own finger on a tablet of stone: and it is distinguished above all the other commandments by this, that it was the first commandment with promise [Note: Eph 6:2.]. The exercise of this spirit pre-eminently characterized our blessed Lord in his early days: He went down with his parents to Nazareth, and was subject unto them [Note: Luk 2:51.]. This is the best return that you can make to your parents for all the care which they take of you, and all their labours for your good. Especially, if, like Naomi, they be brought into affliction and penury, forsake them not then; but rather redouble your attentions to them; and account no sacrifice too great to make, if by any means you may be a comfort to them in their declining years.

At the same time be attentive to the concerns of your souls. Embrace the God of Israel as your God; and worship him, and serve him, and cleave unto him with full purpose of heart [Note: Act 11:23.]. And let no hopes of improving your temporal condition, either in marriage or in any other way, draw you aside from him. Renounce all for God; and count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus your Lord. If others turn from the Lord, and go back unto the world, do not ye follow them. Even though they be your near relatives, with whom you have been bound in ties of the closest amity, let them not prevail: yea, though their prudence be proposed to you as the fittest pattern to follow, and the proposal come from the highest authority, still be faithful to your convictions; and be faithful to your God. This will issue most to your satisfaction; this will bring you peace at the last: for so it is written; Hearken, O daughter, and incline thine ear: forget, also, thine own people, and thy fathers house: so will the King greatly desire thy beauty; for He is thy Lord; and worship thou him [Note: Psa 45:10-11.].]

Fuente: Charles Simeon’s Horae Homileticae (Old and New Testaments)

And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

This verse throws a light upon the real design Naomi had in view in all her discourse, when seemingly persuading her daughters-in-law to go back. For when she talked of the gods to which Orpah was returned, nothing can more decidedly shew how much she desired Ruth to follow the true God of Israel; however it might at first view appear that she recommended Ruth to follow her example.

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Rth 1:15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

Ver. 15. Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back. ] A great temptation to Ruth – Heb 11:37 , “they were tempted” – as it was likewise to the disciples, when many fell off; Joh 6:66 to the primitive Christians, when Hymenaeus and Philetus made defection; 2Ti 2:17 to Galeacius, when forsaken of all.

And unto her gods. ] Her devil gods, Baalpeor, Chemosh, Milchom, &c. In finita deorum lerna ad triginta millia Hesiodi tempore excreverat. The Chinese are said to have a hundred thousand.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Loves Steadfast Choice

Rth 1:15-22

This young woman was to be an ancestor of David and in the line of our Lords descent. Moabite though she was by birth, Ruth was designated for the high honor of introducing a new strain into the Hebrew race, that was to enrich it and through it the world. Indeed, we may almost detect in her noble and beautiful words some anticipation of the Psalms, which have gone singing down the ages. But how stern is the discipline through which those must pass who are called to the highest tasks! The death of her husband in their early married life, the anguish of Naomi, the separation from her own people, the loneliness of a foreign land-these were part of the great price that Ruth paid.

May not something also be said for the mother? It was because of her that Ruth was led to her supreme self-giving. She had never seen a suffering soul bear itself so heroically. She felt that, in the Hebrew faith, there was something which Chemosh had never imparted, to her people; she craved for herself some of the holy radiance that lingered on the worn face of Naomi. More people watch our bearing than we think. Let us attract them to Jesus!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

gone back: Psa 36:3, Psa 125:5, Zep 1:6, Mat 13:20, Mat 13:21, Heb 10:38, 1Jo 2:19

and unto: They were probably both idolaters at this time. That they were proselytes is an unfounded conjecture; and the conversion of Ruth now only commenced.

her gods: Jdg 11:24

return: Jos 24:15, Jos 24:19, 2Sa 15:19, 2Sa 15:20, 2Ki 2:2, Luk 14:26-33, Luk 24:28

Reciprocal: Gen 35:2 – strange Num 10:30 – General 2Ki 3:13 – get

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Rth 1:15. Is gone back to her people and to her gods By this it appears, if Orpah had been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, she afterward apostatized. Those that forsake the communion of saints will certainly break off their communion with God. Return thou after thy sister-in-law This she said to try Ruths sincerity and constancy, and in order that she might intimate to her that if she went with her she must be firm in her attachment to the true religion.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1:15 And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: {g} return thou after thy sister in law.

(g) No persuasion can convince them to turn back from God, if he has chosen them to be his.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

C. Ruth’s profession of faith in Yahweh 1:15-18

Ruth concluded that her prospects for loyal love and rest (Rth 1:8-9) were better if she identified with Israel than if she continued to identify with Moab. She had come to admire Israel’s God, in spite of Naomi’s present lack of faith. Elimelech and his family had evidently earlier fulfilled God’s purpose for His people while living in Moab. They had so represented Yahweh that Ruth felt drawn to Him and now, faced with a decision of loyalty, she chose to trust and obey Him rather than the gods of Moab. Ruth the Moabitess exercised faith, but Naomi the Israelitess lived by sight. Ruth trusted God and obeyed the Mosaic Covenant, but Naomi did not. [Note: See Charles P. Baylis, "Naomi in the Book of Ruth in Light of the Mosaic Covenant," Bibliotheca Sacra 161:644 (October-December 2004):413-31.] Ruth was a descendant of Lot, who chose to leave the Promised Land because he thought he could do better for himself elsewhere (Gen 13:11-12). The "cities of the valley" (Gen 13:12), including Sodom and Gomorrah, lay outside (to the east of) the territory that God originally promised Abram (Gen 12:7). Later God revealed that He would give Abram’s descendants even more land including the Jordan Valley (Gen 13:14-15; Gen 15:18; et al.). Ruth now reversed the decision of her ancestor and chose to identify with the promises of Yahweh that centered in the Promised Land. [Note: See Harold Fisch, "Ruth and the Structure of Covenant History," Vetus Testamentum 32:4 (1982):427.] The ancients believed that a deity had power only in the locale occupied by its worshippers. Therefore to leave one’s land (Rth 1:15) meant to separate from one’s god. [Note: Huey, p. 523.]

The place of a person’s grave in ancient Near Eastern life was very significant (cf. Genesis 23; Gen 25:9-10; Gen 50:1-14; Gen 50:24-25; Jos 24:32). It identified the area he or she considered his or her true home. So when Ruth said she wanted to die and be buried where Naomi was (Rth 1:17), she was voicing her strong commitment to the people, land, and God of Naomi (cf. Luk 14:33). Naomi’s life may have influenced Ruth to trust in Naomi’s God. The name for God in Rth 1:20, "the Almighty" (Heb. sadday, transliterated "Shaddai"), was the one God had used to reveal Himself to the patriarchs in Genesis (Gen 17:1; Gen 28:3; Gen 35:11; Gen 43:14; Gen 48:3; Gen 49:25; cf. Exo 6:3).

"Significantly, though the oath formula normally has Elohim, Ruth invoked the personal, covenantal name Yahweh-the only time in the book in which she does so. Since one appeals to one’s own deity to enforce an oath, she clearly implies that Yahweh, not Chemosh, is now her God, the guardian of her future. Hence, while the OT has no fully developed idea of conversion, Rth 1:16-17 suggest a commitment tantamount to such a change. As a result, one expects the story subsequently to reveal some reward from Yahweh for this remarkable devotion. . . .

". . . Ruth’s leap of faith even outdid Abraham’s. She acted with no promise in hand, with no divine blessing pronounced, without spouse, possessions, or supporting retinue. She gave up marriage to a man to devote herself to an old woman-and in a world dominated by men at that! Thematically, this allusion to Abraham sets this story in continuity with that one. Thus, a sense of similar destiny hangs over Ruth’s story. The audience wonders, May some larger plan emerge from it, too?" [Note: Hubbard, pp. 120-21.]

"There is no more radical decision in all the memories of Israel." [Note: P. Trible, "Two Women in a Man’s World: A Reading of the Book of Ruth," Soundings 59 (1976):258.]

God had always welcomed non-Israelites into the covenant community of Abraham’s believing seed. Even in Abraham’s day his servants who believed underwent circumcision as a sign of their participation in the Abrahamic Covenant (Genesis 17). At Sinai, God explained again that the Israelites, as priests, were to bring other people to God (Exo 19:5-6). Ruth now confessed her commitment to Yahweh, Israel, and Naomi, a commitment based on her faith in Yahweh. [Note: See Thomas L. Constable, "A Theology of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth," in A Biblical Theology of the Old Testament, p. 110.]

Rth 1:15-18 are a key to the book because they give the reason God blessed Ruth as He did.

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)