And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man went from Bethlehem-Judah, to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.
The book opens with a date and a crisis. Judges ruled Israel, and the land was starving. In one sentence a man leaves the town whose name means "house of bread" and moves to Moab. The whole story grows out of that move.
The book just before Ruth ends by describing those same days.
The opening verse tells us that the Book of Ruth deals with events that happened "in the days when the judges ruled." The last verse of the book before it tells us two things that marked the days of the judges. First, "in those days there was no king in Israel." Second, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes."
That era covers a long stretch of Israel's history.
No one can work out the exact date of this famine. It happened during the long period when "the judges ruled." That period stretched from about the death of Joshua to the start of the monarchy. Then Israel rejected the Lord as their King, and the "voice of the people" chose Saul to reign over them.
Bethlehem means "house of bread."
It seems a strange contradiction to have a famine at Bethlehem. If there is no food at the "house of bread," where can it be found? ... The land depended on the seasonal rains. If these failed there was no river, as in Egypt, to take their place. So the land was in a marked way dependent on heaven.
That dependence gave the famine a meaning beyond weather.
The famine named in the book's opening sentence is itself a hint of the degenerate state of the chosen people. In their case, famine was not a mere physical accident, but a mark of divine displeasure. ... A threat of starvation in such a fertile land implied that God's chastisement had fallen on the tribes. They had neglected His worship and broken His laws. ... The physical fact is stated, but not its moral cause.
The famine pushed him out of the land, and the next verse gives his name: Elimelech.
The pressure is of such a kind — or at least its effect is — that this Israelite, his wife and his sons end up outside the land of the Lord. The name of the man too seems clearly significant, Elimelech — he to whom God is King. Yet he was an outcast for want!
He may well have felt he had good precedent for the move.
When the first famine on record came in the land of Canaan, we read, "Abram went down to Egypt to sojourn there." Ruth 1:1 echoes those words. Isaac too sought refuge from famine in the land of the Philistines — a land not far off like Egypt, but next door like Moab. ... So Elimelech might have thought these examples from the forefathers matched his own case and justified his journey. Did he not have Scripture behind his plan? ... But a closer look at the history would have taught Elimelech that these incidents showed the slackness of the forefathers, not their integrity. Their conduct was to be avoided, not copied.
Of all the lands around Israel, he picked Moab, and the choice tells us something.
The countries that surround the promised land no doubt picture the world in different forms. Egypt stands for the world with its treasures of wealth and pleasures of sin ... Babylon stands for the world in its religious corruption. Moab shows another side of the world again. ... Moab stands for a life of ease. There a person seeks quiet retreat from every distraction. There is little movement, and life flows along without much change.
His plan and the outcome did not match.
He intended only to sojourn there, to spend a short time. But the end of verse 2 tells us they "remained there." What a picture of believers who leave the place God has given them! Their own reasoning tells them some other place might be better. ... Faith would stay with God despite the famine.
Yet this dark beginning is not the whole story.
The book of Ruth also tells us of the days of the judges, when there was no king in Israel. But it shows us the fair side of those days. We see it in the workings of the grace of God, who (blessed be His name!) never failed to work in the middle of the evil. We see it too in the steady progress of events towards the fulfilment of His promises in the Messiah, however far the general evil advanced at the same time.
- Dark days. The story happens when judges ruled — no king in Israel, and everyone doing what was right in his own eyes.
- Empty bread-house. Famine struck the "house of bread." That land lived on rain from heaven, so the hunger signalled God's displeasure, not bad luck.
- Denied name. Elimelech means "he to whom God is King," yet want drove him outside the Lord's land.
- Chosen ease. Moab pictures comfort rather than open sin — little movement, little change. A short stay there became a permanent one.
- Grace anyway. Even in this failure God keeps working, carrying His promises forward to the Messiah.
And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem-Judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.
Verse 2 is just a list of names: a man, his wife, two sons, and their home town. Yet each name carries a meaning, and this family ends the verse living in Moab.
The father's name is a small sermon, and it lands right after the closing line of the book of Judges.
Elimelech means "God the King" or "God is King." This name appears in Scripture only here. With this meaning in mind, it is striking to read in the last verse of the preceding book (Judges), "In those days there was no king in Israel." Then in the very next verse (Ruth 1:1) we find a contrast by design. Elimelech was a man in Israel who carried in his name the constant witness that "God is King." Yet the nation as a whole disowned the authority of Him who dwelled between the cherubim in the tabernacle.
The same name that fitted him at home became an embarrassment abroad. He "stood out as an honourable witness that God was the Sovereign Ruler of His redeemed people… 'Elimelech' seemed to be a suitable name for this man in the land of Judah; in the land of Moab it certainly was a misnomer, for he who bore it had forsaken the people of God in order to be there."
Her name carries a meaning too, and Scripture uses the same word elsewhere.
Her name appears to mean "pleasantness" or "sweetness." It points to the gracious manner that goes with spiritual beauty. The word is used by the psalmist when he writes of beholding the "beauty (pleasantness, graciousness) of the LORD" (Ps. 27:4)… Naomi (pleasantness) is also connected with wisdom, for Solomon says, "Her ways are ways of pleasantness" (Prov. 3:17). By her name, then, the gracious, good, and wise Naomi must have been a fitting partner for Elimelech. United, they would be a fine and noble pair, strong and pleasant in their life together.
The two boys break the pattern. Where the parents' names speak of strength and sweetness, theirs do not.
Different translators render Mahlon as "great infirmity," "painful," or "mild." Chilion may mean "consuming," or "consumption," or "pining." The general sense of both names is clear. Weakness and wasting marked the two sons of Elimelech. There was a recognised decline in the standing of the family.
Another writer reads the sons' names back into the parents' own condition:
Mahlon, "sick," and Chilion, "pining," lived up to names that seem to have described their parents' hearts long before. Their faith had been a sickly, pining thing before any outward sign of decline showed.
The verse ends by naming what they walked away from. Even the place names carry meaning.
Ephratah means "fruitful." A Christian whose soul is well fed and full of joyful praise is sure to be fruitful in his life… So Elimelech ("my God is King") and Naomi ("pleasantness"), Ephrathites ("fruitful"), live in Bethlehem ("house of bread") in Judah ("praise"). Happy combination! "What's in a name?" men ask. Everything often, we reply, when it is in Scripture.
Verse 1 said he went to stay for a while. Verse 2 ends differently. (Where the ESV says they "remained there," older translations read "continued there.")
Having abandoned the land of the LORD, he wanders into a place of his own choosing. And worse still, having arrived in the land of Moab, he "continued there." It is easier to continue in a false position than to stay in a true one. The place he chooses is significant. The countries around the promised land picture the world in different forms. Egypt stands for the world with its treasures of wealth and its pleasures of sin, and with the bondage of Satan that chasing pleasure always brings. Babylon shows the world in its religious corruption. Moab presents another side of the world. Moab stands for a life of ease. There a person looks for quiet retirement away from every distraction. Little moves, and life flows on without much change.
One writer turns the move into a warning for believers now:
He meant only to stay there a while, a short time. But the end of verse 2 tells us they "remained there." What a picture this is of believers who leave the place God has given them, because their own reasoning thinks another place might be better! Faith would stay with God despite the famine. We need to judge ourselves rather than reason our way around it.
One writer notes what Naomi still holds on to after the move.
Under divine government they seek refuge among the Gentiles. In the middle of this desolation, Naomi is still united with her husband and her children, despite everything. Her name has not changed, and she still bears it despite the ruin.
- Named — Elimelech means "God is King," a living witness in an age when Israel had no king.
- Fitted — Naomi is "pleasantness," a word Scripture uses for the beauty of the LORD. She and Elimelech were a fitting pair.
- Faded — Mahlon and Chilion, "sick" and "pining," mark a decline at work in the family long before anyone could see it.
- Forfeited — Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah means fruitful people of the house of bread and of praise. That is what they left.
- Fixed — they came for a short stay and remained. It is easier to continue in a false position than to stay in a true one.
And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.
A family left Bethlehem to escape a famine. Within a few verses the father lies buried in foreign soil. This one line records the first cost of that move. What happens when we take a step God never told us to take?
Elimelech went to Moab to stay alive. One writer sets this beside other cases where fear of a danger walked people straight into it.
Unbelief carries its own judgment, and constantly leads into the very evil one is trying to avoid. As it has been said, "The sons of men would build a tower so that they should not be scattered abroad, and the Lord scattered them because they built it. Abram, fearing that Pharaoh would take his wife, says she is his sister — as if God would not preserve him — and so Pharaoh takes her into his house." So again, at a later day and in similar circumstances, Elimelech leaves the land of God to escape the fear of death by famine. But death awaits him in the land of Moab.
The move looked sensible. That is the trap Proverbs warns about.
Twice in the book of Proverbs it says, "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." Following his own judgment, Elimelech chose the way that led to Moab to find the food that perishes. But there he also found his grave. In Moab the house of this family from Bethlehem became a house of mourning. There Naomi grieved for the husband she loved and respected. There Mahlon and Chilion lost forever the wisdom and strength their father's care had given them up to then.
The same writer asks one question about the journey: did Elimelech ever seek God's will? He then sets him beside Jesus, hungry in the wilderness.
To live for a time in Moab must have seemed to Elimelech the right course to take; but had he first sought to know the will of God? Did he wait to hear God's voice saying to him, "This is the way, walk in it"? He was seeking bread. But he should have remembered the words Moses had just written: "Man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." He no doubt found bread in Moab... But Elimelech had no word from God to justify his being in Moab; and he died there. In his independent act he stood in contrast with our Lord in the wilderness of Judea. There He was a hungry, dependent Man, who found enough food in the word and will of the One who sent Him.
Moab promised comfort. One commentator finds Moab's character in Jeremiah, and warns that this ease works out differently for God's people.
Then Elimelech died (v. 3). What a tragedy for Naomi — left in a strange country with her two sons! Jeremiah 48:11 tells us the character of Moab: "Moab has been at ease from his youth and has settled on his dregs; he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel... so his taste remains in him, and his scent is not changed." So Moab pictures a lazy, easy-going religion without the exercise of troubles that might empty him from vessel to vessel. Elimelech and Naomi had been attracted by what promised to be an easier path. God may allow unbelievers to have such ease without much trouble. But if believers seek such a path, it will not work out for them the way it seems to for the ungodly.
The verse ends with a widow and two sons. A commentator traces the chain from the empty chair to the marriages of the next chapter.
Elimelech went out in self-will, disregarding God's claims on him; and it was not very long before he died. When he died his wife was left without headship and without direction in the home, and the two sons married daughters of Moab — a thing God had expressly forbidden in His word (Deut. 7:1-4; 23:3)... A wife loses her husband, two sons lose their father, and death and famine come in — a very bleak picture indeed, and it can all be traced to disobedience.
Elimelech's name carries meaning. One writer reads the book as a picture of Israel. The husband's death is then the loss of a relationship, not just of a man.
As to the typical teaching of the book, there is little doubt that Naomi pictures the Jewish nation. Her husband's name was Elimelech, which means "my God the King," or "the one to whom God is King."... There Elimelech died, and Naomi became a widow. She, representing the nation, had lost her relationship with God the King, and was now bereaved and desolate... If God's people forget Him, He remembers them, and in various ways deals with them to bring them back to Himself.
The chastening is real, but it is not abandonment.
The Lord has indeed stripped her and brought her to desolation, but He has not forsaken her. The hand that struck this suffering woman was moved by a heart that loved her. The chastening of the Lord prepares the way for her restoration.
- Step — Elimelech left without a word from God; he sought bread and found a grave.
- Seeming — The route looked right, and that is the warning: a way can seem right and still end in death.
- Stripping — Naomi grieved for the husband she loved, and his sons lost the wisdom and strength his care had given them.
- Symbol — "My God the King" dies, and Naomi becomes a widow — a picture of a nation that lost its relationship with God as King.
- Sequel — The hand that struck her was moved by a heart that loved her; the chastening opens the road home.
And they took them Moabitish wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second Ruth and they abode there about ten years.
Verse 4 records two quiet decisions in Moab: the sons marry Moabite women, and a family that came only to sojourn stays ten years. Commentators see in this the hardening of a drift that began with one step away from Bethlehem.
Elimelech had died, yet nothing changed in the family's direction. One writer notes that the sons made these choices for themselves.
Bereavement did not drive the widowed Naomi and her sons back to Bethlehem. They settled down in Moab. The sons "took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years." Mahlon and Chilion acted as they pleased and on their own responsibility. If they had come to Moab at their father's bidding, they chose their wives of their own free will. If their father's intention was to "sojourn" in Moab, they now decided to stay in the land of idolatry indefinitely. Those who take a downward path soon speed up almost without noticing.
These were not neutral matches. Israel's law had already spoken.
The law of Moses forbade marriage with idolatrous nations (Deut. 7:3), and no Moabite could enter "the assembly of the Lord forever" (Deut. 23:3-4). But these two young men of weak piety and stubborn wills married Orpah and Ruth. They lived in Moab about ten years, and both died childless. By the death of the two sons the name and inheritance of Elimelech perished. This family of Bethlehem fulfilled the solemn warning that the apostle Paul wrote long afterwards: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7).
Orpah and Ruth had no command from God to break. The responsibility falls on the men who knew better — and that is where the lesson lands today.
Never forget that there is no blame attaching to the Moabite girls at all. The blame is entirely on the heads of Mahlon and Chilion, for they were the Lord's own people and the disobedience was theirs. In the same way, no blame attaches to the worldly person who becomes yoked with a child of God, whether in marriage, business or pleasure. But awful judgment hangs over the Christian who is party to such a yoke. The Word of God is clear and distinct on this important matter, and to disobey can only bring disaster.
A common defence of such alliances is that the believer will lift the other person. The ten years named in this verse test that claim.
The argument is often put forward that by joining company with the ungodly we can influence them for good. Take a lesson from this incident. Mahlon and Chilion lived there ten years, and neither of their wives, Ruth or Orpah, made one step towards God and His people, not one. And so it always is. The child of God gets dragged down and down. He never lifts the worldly partner, for God cannot bless disobedience to His Word.
The verse names both women. Each name points ahead to what that woman later does.
The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away that marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth does not, so far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clung to her. Ruth most probably means "having a shepherd." Her faith here shows that she is one of the sheep. Though a Gentile, she is to be brought into the fold.
Yet one of these Moabite women enters the family line of Israel's King.
Historically the Book of Ruth presents important links in the genealogy of the Lord Jesus after the flesh. The Book closes with a short genealogy of ten names ending with David the King. In the opening chapter of the New Testament these ten names have an honoured place in the genealogy of the King of kings. But there is one difference: along with these names the Spirit of God has introduced four women — one of them Ruth the Moabitess. It is significant that with each of these women there is a story of failure and shame. This only makes clear that "where sin increased, grace abounded all the more."
- Drift. A stay meant to be temporary hardened into settled life in Moab. Those on a downward path speed up without noticing.
- Disobedience. The marriages broke a written command. The blame rests on the two sons who knew God's Word, not on the Moabite women.
- Decade. Ten years of close company changed neither wife. The believer gets pulled down, never lifting the other up.
- Death. Both sons died childless. Elimelech's name and inheritance in Israel perished with them. They reaped what they sowed.
- Grace. Out of this failure God still took a Moabite stranger into the royal line. Where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.
And Mahlon and Chilion died also, both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband.
Three graves in Moab, and one woman left standing beside them with nothing of what she carried out of Bethlehem. Is this the end of Elimelech's family line, or the start of God's work in Naomi?
The father was already dead, and still the family stayed on in Moab. One writer also reads the two sons' names as a picture of the parents' hearts.
There has been dreadful chastening, but it seems to have had no effect. Instead of turning to God in her sorrow, the widowed mother stays on. She sees her two sons form permanent ties with the enemies of her people, in direct disregard of what God had forbidden. Clearly there is no remedy, no hope of turning back, for those who refuse even to hear God's rod of correction. Nothing remains but the final cutting off. Mahlon means "sick," and Chilion means "pining." The sons made those names good — names that seem to have described the state of their parents' hearts long before. Their faith had been a sick, pining thing before any outward sign of decline showed. Now death puts its seal on the unbelief of long years.
The sons did not choose Moab. Their parents took them there, and that makes this verse a warning to parents.
Their parents dragged the two sons down to Moab with them. There the sons marry Moabite women, and Jehovah slays them according to His word (Deut. 7:3-4). If Christian parents turn away from God in heart, the effect on their children is disastrous. We never fall without dragging others down with us.
These deaths cost the family more than two lives.
The law of Moses forbade marriage with nations that worshipped idols (Deut. 7:3), and no Moabite could enter "the assembly of the LORD forever" (Deut. 23:3-4). But these two young men, weak in godliness and stubborn in will, married Orpah and Ruth. They stayed in Moab about ten years, and both died childless. By the death of the two sons the name and inheritance of Elimelech perished. This family of Bethlehem proved true the solemn warning the apostle Paul wrote long afterwards: "Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap" (Gal. 6:7). So Naomi became a childless widow in a strange land!
The verse says the woman was left. One writer asks who did not leave her.
A little while, and the one she loves best in the world is taken from her side and laid in the cold tomb. The Lord knows how to touch a heart by a sorrow like that. He says: Child! I love you too much to let that pillar stay by your side for you to lean on. I will take that pillar away so that you may lean on Myself. Here comes the summary of her history: "the woman was left without her two sons and her husband" (v. 5). Thank God He did not leave her! Thank God that though you leave Him, He does not leave you.
Verse 5 is the lowest point of Naomi's story. One writer shows what God was doing in it.
Ten years pass, and then death claims the two sons. Naomi, robbed of husband and sons, is left a lonely and childless widow in a strange land. The Lord has indeed stripped her and brought her to desolation, but He has not forsaken her. The hand that struck this deeply afflicted woman was moved by a heart that loved her. The chastening of the Lord prepares the way for her restoration.
One writer sees more than one family's story here. He reads Naomi as a picture of Israel.
Here we see a proud Israelite who trusts himself. If he meets difficulties in Palestine, he will go and live elsewhere. He tries to run away from the hand of God, and death overtakes him. His two sons choose wives from the women of Moab, disobeying God's warning. The hand of God reaches them also. Then Naomi, humbled and weakened, submits to God's hand. In this she foreshadows the spirit of the remnant — those of Israel who will repent in the coming day. They will throw themselves on the mercy and faithfulness of Jehovah, and will find Him gracious to them.
- Stepped out. A move made to escape trouble became ten years in Moab, two marriages God had forbidden, and three graves.
- Stripped. Naomi lost husband and sons, and with them Elimelech's name and inheritance. Verse 5 is the emptying, not yet the answer.
- Left. Naomi lost her family, but God did not leave her. He took away the pillars she leaned on so that she would lean on Him.
- Loved. A heart that loved her moved the hand that struck her. The chastening opened the road to her restoration.
- Led home. Her emptiness makes her a picture of a people humbled under God's hand. In repentance they cast themselves on His mercy and find Him gracious.
And she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Moab; for she had heard in the fields of Moab how that Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread.
Naomi has buried her husband and both her sons in Moab. This verse is the turning point: news reaches her from home, and she gets up to go back. Commentators ask what moved her — the emptiness of Moab, or the report of what God had done in Bethlehem. (Where the ESV reads "given them food," older translations read "bread," and the writers quoted below use that word.)
The news Naomi hears is not that harvests improved but that the LORD acted. One writer makes this single fact the foundation of the whole book, and follows the phrase forward to the Messiah.
On hearing the news that the Lord had shown grace to His people, Naomi rose up and set out to return to her own land. Israel's condition had not changed. But God Himself had ended the days of judgment He had sent on the nation. This poor widow, weighed down by grief, could hope again for better days. As we have said, grace is the first and dominant note of Ruth. Every blessing in this book depends on one thing: "the LORD had visited His people to give them bread." The Old Testament uses this well-known expression for the blessings the Messiah will bring to Israel: "I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread" (Psalm 132:15). If only the nation had wanted them, these blessings would have been hers for good when Christ appeared among them, multiplying bread for five thousand and for four thousand men.
Loss had not moved her. A report of plenty did. That distinction decides what we think brings a wanderer home.
What moved her to return? Was it the sorrows she had endured and the losses she had sustained? No! It was the good news of the Lord's grace that drew her back... Sorrows will not move us to return to the Lord. They may teach us how bitter it is to wander, and so prepare the heart to listen to the good news concerning the Lord and His grace to His people... And with the Lord before her she is lifted above all her failure, and she rose to return.
The message travelled to where she was. Another writer sets that beside the son in Jesus' parable who remembered his father's house.
Though she had left the Lord, He had not left her. The prodigal heard there was bread enough in his father's house. In the same way the report reached Naomi: "the Lord had visited His people and given them bread." And, like the prodigal, "she set out from the place where she was." Wonderful indeed is the grace of our God, who never forsakes the wanderer, but draws and restores with cords of love.
Notice where the bread is — and where it is not.
How gracious the Lord is to spare her to the last! Now that she is free to do as she wishes, she hears a message: the Lord has visited His people and given them bread — not in Moab but "in the land." Bread is found only "at the house of Bread" (the meaning of Bethlehem), and it is for all God's people. Naomi hears this glad message and she believes it.
Commentators differ on how pure Naomi's turning was. Some read it as grace drawing her; another sees a self-interested motive.
But the rekindling of faith makes at first only a feeble flame, with more smoke than light. A selfish motive makes her return, much like the one that stirred the prodigal to turn his face toward his father's house. There does not seem to have been any sense of wrong in having left the "house of bread," or of having sinned in turning to the people of Moab. Even our repentance has nothing in it that we can boast of — all is tainted.
Naomi was not the only one who heard. The same report reached Ruth, a Moabite. One writer takes it forward to the message preached today.
Ruth was a sinner in the far-off country of the Moabites. There she heard the good report, "that the LORD had visited His people and given them bread." She believed this report. This testimony of the goodness and mercy of the God of Israel won her heart and stirred her whole soul. And, dear reader, what is the report now? Is it not that God has sent His Son to be the Saviour of the lost? Is it not that He has provided "living bread" for poor, dying, perishing sinners?
- Visit — God acts first. The famine ends because the Lord visits His people, and every blessing in Ruth traces back to that visit.
- Report — the news travels to Moab and reaches Naomi there. God never forsakes the wanderer, but draws and restores with cords of love.
- Draw — losses did not bring Naomi home; hearing of plenty did. Sorrow prepares the heart, but grace moves the feet.
- Place — bread is given in the land, not in Moab; the "house of bread" is where God feeds His people, and it is for all of them.
- Reach — the same report won Ruth, an outsider from Moab. The report now is that God has sent His Son, the living bread for dying sinners.
Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
Naomi has heard that there is bread in Judah again, and here the news turns into movement. She takes the road home with both daughters-in-law beside her — but what turns a wanderer back, and does starting a journey mean you will finish it?
The verse does not say Naomi wished herself home; it says she left the spot where she had been living. One writer treats that as the first step of recovery, and notes its effect on the two women with her.
Her first step on the homeward path was to break completely with her wrong ties in Moab. "She set out from the place where she was" (v. 7). And this very practical step had an immediate effect on others. Her two daughters-in-law went "with her." To speak against a wrong place while still living in it will have no effect on others. If the place is wrong, the first step must be to separate from it. That is what happened with Naomi. She set out, and her two daughters-in-law with her. They leave their wrong ties behind, and the right place is now before them, for "they went on the way to return to the land of Judah."
Ten years of loss had not brought Naomi out of Moab. News of God's giving did. The same writer draws the line between what teaches us and what draws us.
What moved her to return? Was it the sorrows she had endured and the losses she had suffered? No! It was the good news of the Lord's grace that drew her back. Sorrows will not move us to return to the Lord. They may still teach us how bitter it is to wander. That prepares the heart to listen to the good news about the Lord and His grace to His people. It was not the misery of the far country that drove the prodigal son back, but the grace of the Father's heart that drew him back.
The road to Judah starts here, but the traveller is not yet a restored woman. One commentator is blunt about how little there is to admire in her reasons for going.
But the rekindling of faith makes at first only a feeble flame, with more smoke than light. A selfish motive leads her to return. It is much the same motive that stirred the prodigal son to turn his face toward his father's house. She seems to have had no sense of wrong in leaving the "house of bread," and no sense of sin in turning to the people of Moab. Even our repentance has nothing in it we can boast of — all of it is tainted.
Three women are walking this road. At this stage nothing marks Orpah out as different from Ruth.
We see the form of godliness strikingly shown in Orpah. First, she identified herself with Naomi, a true believer. We read of both Ruth and Orpah that they went "with her," and again, "they went on the way" (v. 7). It looked as if Orpah had made a clean break with her old life and had started for Immanuel's Land.
What later divides them is not attachment to Naomi, since both women show that. Another writer finds the difference in how each one reacts when the road offers her nothing.
In appearance there is no difference at all between them. Both leave with Naomi and walk with her, showing their attachment to her. But it is possible to have a very likeable character without having faith. Faith makes a gulf between these two women who are so alike in so many ways. Faced with things that look impossible, the natural heart draws back. Faith feeds on those same impossibilities and grows stronger.
Commentators differ on Naomi's influence here. One sees her step out of Moab and draw others after her. Another sees a woman not yet restored enough to help anyone else.
They had gone with her on the way home. It looked as if they meant to tie themselves fully to her future. Faith would have seen God's mercy to these women of a foreign nation in this. Faith would have encouraged them to follow. But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and so could be no help to others.
- Bread heard. Grace, not grief, turns the wanderer around — ten years of loss kept Naomi in Moab; news of God's giving moved her out.
- Place left. Recovery begins with a real step out of the wrong place, not with regret from inside it.
- Company gained. That one step pulled two others onto the road. Speaking against a wrong place only counts once you have left it.
- Motives mixed. Naomi set out with a weak, self-interested faith and no sense of the wrong she had done. Even our repentance is tainted.
- Faith tested. Both daughters-in-law started well. Only the one with faith kept walking when the road promised her nothing.
And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. Jehovah deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.
Naomi has turned homeward from Moab. Her two widowed daughters-in-law set out on the road with her. Then she stops and tells them to go back. Her words sound warm and generous. But commentators differ: is this thoughtful kindness, or the voice of a faith that has grown cold?
Naomi was going home. The two young women would be leaving home.
In leaving Moab, the elder widow felt that the case of her young companions was very different from her own. She was an Israelite, and was returning to the land of her birth, of her family inheritance, and of her God. But Orpah and Ruth had no such prospect in Judah. In fact, they would leave behind in Moab their relatives, their own nation, and their idols. And Naomi felt she ought not to expect them to give up their natural ties with Moab for her sake. So she advised them each to return "to her mother's house," while asking the LORD to bless them both for their kindness to her and to the dead (Ruth 1:8-9).
The law itself also stood against them.
But the poor woman seems to have thought that Israel had nothing for these two Moabite widows. In fact, a Moabite could not enter the assembly of Israel even to the tenth generation (Deut. 23:3), so it seemed a hopeless prospect for either Ruth or Orpah.
Other writers read the same words as a failure of faith. Naomi asks the Lord to bless them, then sends them back to the land where He is not known.
Yet Naomi's words seem kind and plausible: "May the LORD deal kindly with you" (verse 8); "The LORD grant that you may find rest" (verse 9). What mockery! Turn your back on Him, and look for rest!
She tied that rest to the very thing that had already collapsed in her own life.
Her daughters-in-law get up to come with her to the land of Judah. But living in Moab had done its sad work in her desolate heart. Instead of leading them to Judah's God, she says, "Go, return to your land and your gods." She wished them to find rest in the house of a husband — the very thing on which God had written death.
Naomi was on her way back, but she had not arrived. It showed as soon as someone else needed help.
Faith would have seen mercy toward these foreign women in this, and would have encouraged them to follow. But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and so she could be no help to others. Her own resources had failed, so she thinks God has failed too. She has nothing to set before these women to encourage them to seek the Lord.
What Naomi said in words, a cold believer says by manner and appetite.
But such is unbelief, never more evil than in a saint. It can see no hope for others because it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who are seeking God. If believers are out of touch with the Lord themselves, they not only suffer personally but become stumbling blocks to anyone seeking the Lord. The cold, wretched spiritual state of God's people repels the seeking soul instead of attracting it. If not in words, then in manner and actions, God's people too often let the world think that there is nothing in the things of God to satisfy the cravings of the soul.
The root of it is a shifted gaze — from God to the situation.
They do not encourage others to come to where the Lord is, because they think there is nothing there to attract them! They are thinking of the circumstances rather than of the Lord Himself. Can He not satisfy the hungry soul?
God used even this discouraging word. "Go, return each of you to her mother's house" became the sieve that separated real faith from warm feeling.
Both Ruth and Orpah make a profession of devotedness to Naomi... But, as always, profession is put to the test. Naomi says, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house" (v. 8). They have the opportunity to go back. This brings to light whether their inward thoughts agree with their outward profession. If they are "mindful" of the country they came from, they have the chance to return (Heb. 11:15). It is significant that Ruth mentions Naomi's God, but with Orpah it is only Naomi, and Naomi's people.
- Kindness — Naomi's words are courteous and even prayerful. Commentators differ: real care for two Moabite widows, or a faith too weak to offer them more?
- Circumstances — she measured their future by what she could supply, not by what God could. A hopeless prospect on paper became a hopeless message on her lips.
- Rest — she wished them rest in a husband's house, the one place death had already emptied for her. She pointed them back to Moab instead of forward to God.
- Repelling — a believer out of touch with the Lord does not suffer alone. By manner as much as by words, he tells seeking souls, "go back."
- Sifting — God turned that discouragement into a test. Ruth named Naomi's God; Orpah spoke only of Naomi and her people.
Jehovah grant you that ye may find rest, each in the house of her husband. And she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice and wept.
As she leaves Moab, Naomi turns to her two widowed daughters-in-law and prays that each will find rest in a husband's home. The prayer is warm, but everything turns on where she points them to look for that rest.
Naomi's reasoning was that her road home and their road home were not the same. One writer traces her thinking and links her prayer to the kindness the two women had shown:
As she left Moab, the older widow felt that her young companions were in a very different position from her own. She was an Israelite, returning to the land of her birth, of her family inheritance, and of her God. But Orpah and Ruth had no such prospect in Judah. They would leave behind in Moab their relatives, their own nation, and their idols. So Naomi told them each to return "to her mother's house," and at the same time she asked the LORD to bless them both for their kindness to her and to the dead.
Commentators differ over how much blame she deserves. The same writer allows that her heart was unselfish, but weighs what her words told these women about God:
No doubt the grieving woman was speaking unselfishly. But she claimed to have faith in the LORD, the God of Israel. So when she spoke to these women of Moab, her witness to His unchanging care and unfailing goodness was feeble, and even false. It was feeble that after ten years she was still smarting under the bitterness of her own loss. It was false of her to say that the hand of the LORD was against her. His hand had not led the family to Moab; they had turned away by their own choice from the land where His hand would have kept them alive through the days of famine.
Other writers are blunter. They fasten on where she was sending the two women:
Her daughters-in-law set out to go with her to the land of Judah. But dwelling in Moab had done its sad work in her desolate heart. Instead of leading them to Judah's God, she said as it were: Go, return to your land and your gods. She wished them to find rest in the house of that husband on which God had written death.
Behind the words lies her own state of soul. Having lost everything in Moab, she assumed God had nothing left to give:
But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and therefore could be no help to others. She urges them to go home, and hopes they may find rest in the house of a pagan husband! Her own resources have failed, so she thinks God has failed too. She has nothing to set before these women to encourage them to seek the Lord.
The warning is aimed at anyone who has drifted and is then asked the way back by someone else:
She kissed them, but both of them wept and told her they wanted to return with her to her people. When Naomi saw this concern on their part, was it faith for her to discourage them? No, it was not. But she was like so many believers who get away from the Lord. They do not encourage others to come to where the Lord is because they think there is nothing there to attract them! They are thinking of the circumstances rather than of the Lord Himself. Can He not satisfy the hungry soul?
The kiss and the weeping in this verse become a test. Both women wept, but the test showed what lay underneath:
Both Ruth and Orpah claim to be devoted to Naomi... Naomi says, "Go, each of you return to her mother's house." They are given the chance to go back. This will show whether their real thoughts match their outward claim... Orpah's heart clings to the land of her birth. Ruth, as we shall see, wants "a better country." Orpah makes a fair claim, but it is only a claim. Her feelings ran deep, for she lifted up her voice and wept. Her affection showed, for she "kissed her mother-in-law." And her words sounded right, for she said, "Surely we will return with you to your people."
Naomi says the word "rest" twice in this book, and the second time she has been corrected:
"Shall I not seek rest for you?" Ruth had been gleaning food, but only through constant toil, and only for the needs of the moment. She was now to have rest, all her needs met, her work over. What a change in Naomi! At the start, her unbelief would have sent Ruth back to find rest in the pagan home of some Moabite husband.
That rest has an address anyone can use:
And where does she advise her to seek rest? At the feet of Boaz. And to you, dear friend who is not yet saved, I say: at the Saviour's feet there is peace for you, pardon for you, forgiveness for you, life for you, rest for you.
- Rest asked. Naomi prays a real blessing, but sends it to Moab — to a home God had already marked with death.
- Rest misplaced. Her own losses convinced her God had failed too, so she had nothing to offer the two women beside her.
- Rest tested. The same words expose both hearts: tears, a kiss and fair words from Orpah, whose heart clung to Moab; a better country in view for Ruth.
- Rest relocated. Later Naomi seeks rest for Ruth again — this time at the feet of Boaz.
- Rest offered. What a discouraged believer could not give, Ruth found at the feet of Boaz — and the Saviour offers that same rest to you.
And they said to her, We will certainly return with thee to thy people.
Naomi has told her two widowed daughters-in-law to go home. Both answer with the same words. One will keep that promise; one will not. So what turns a fair start into a finished journey?
At this moment nothing separates Orpah from Ruth. Both are leaving Moab. Both are facing Israel. Both say the same sentence. One writer traces how far that sameness goes before it breaks:
Both Ruth and Orpah make a profession of devotedness to Naomi. Both profess to leave the land of their fathers, and both have their faces towards the land of the LORD. But, as ever, profession is put to the test. They are given the chance to return. That will show whether their inward thoughts match their outward profession... Orpah's heart clings to the land of her birth. Ruth, as we shall see, desires "a better country." Orpah makes a fair profession, but only profession. Her feelings ran deep, for she cried aloud and wept. Her affections were stirred, for she "kissed her mother-in-law." Her words were fair, for she said, "Surely we will return with you to your people."
Smith quotes an older translation here; the ESV opens the sentence with "No" rather than "Surely."
The promise names Naomi's people. It does not name Naomi's God. That silence is the whole difference between this verse and the words Ruth speaks six verses later:
She only thinks of Naomi's people, take note. Ruth has Naomi's God before her. She says, "your God my God." Orpah is like many a so-called "convert" of the present day. They make a start, apparently, but soon go back to their former idols and associates. In their thinking they never get beyond joining some religious group of "people," like poor Orpah. The real convert, like Ruth, has had to do with God Himself, and such abide.
Orpah's love for Naomi is real, and so is her wish to go. Something else is missing:
Naomi's daughters-in-law go with her, moved by the thought of returning with her to her people. But this good intention is not enough. Nothing less than faith will do to enter into relationship with grace... Orpah, the Moabite, also loves Naomi's people... But it is possible to have a very likeable character without having faith. Faith makes a gulf between these two women who are so similar in so many ways. Faced with impossibilities, the natural heart draws back. Faith feeds on impossibilities and so grows stronger.
Naomi's reply in the next verses puts a price on the offer these two have just made:
So now she brings out this — if you go with me, your worldly prospects will all be ruined; go back, and the Lord give you something in the world. Worldly prospects all ruined; I think I see Orpah's face. I cannot stand that, she says; I never thought of that. This brings Orpah to the point. And now, dear reader, comes the point of whether you really want Christ or not... The moment you are wholly for Christ, your old companions will look down on you and leave you.
They spoke these words together. Now each must act alone:
Naomi's plain speaking was a strict trial of their inward motives. Should they forsake their mother-in-law, or their own mothers? Should they leave the land of Moab for the land of Israel? Should they seek the LORD, the God of Naomi and her fathers? Or should they go on serving the gods of their own people and their own childhood? Each decided for herself what to do.
Naomi gave these two women discouragement, not encouragement. Even that served a purpose:
On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without excusing her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two... The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her.
- Same words. Orpah and Ruth speak the same sentence. Nothing outward tells them apart.
- Same feelings. Tears and a kiss are genuine in Orpah — but "it is possible to have a very likeable character without having faith."
- Different object. The promise reaches only as far as Naomi's people. Ruth alone goes on to say "your God my God." That is what makes a convert who abides.
- Different cost. Naomi names what the journey will cost, and Orpah finds she never counted on that.
- Different ending. The test shows what was already in each heart. One goes on; the other turns back — as Orpah's name, "her back," suggests.
And Naomi said, Return, my daughters why will ye go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb, that they could be your husbands?
On the road out of Moab, Naomi asks her two widowed daughters-in-law a question that has only one answer. Behind the arithmetic of a widow with nothing left lies the real test: did these women want a husband, or the God of Israel?
At its simplest, the verse is a woman listing what she cannot supply. She had buried her husband and both sons, so a second marriage into Israel was the one thing she could not offer them.
She was, as we know, full of complaint about her lot, and tried to talk her daughters-in-law out of sharing it. They would have better prospects, she urged, in Moab than with her. In Canaan, and among her people, they would be only strangers, and she had no more sons to restore the link that death had broken. Why should they go?
Commentators differ on how to read her motive. Some hear a woman who had watched a hasty family decision go badly and did not want another one made in a rush.
Naomi had learned wisdom from her own experience. She no doubt remembered her late husband's rash decision to leave "the house of bread" and look for bread elsewhere. She recalled its unhappy results. At any rate, she begged her daughters-in-law to make no such hasty choice. They would gain nothing in this world by following a woman who was, sadly, lonely and abandoned. They must not expect a second marriage into the house of Israel.
Others read the same words as discouragement, not care.
Surely faith would have recognised mercy to these daughters of a foreign people in their wish to come with her, and would have encouraged them to follow. But Naomi was not yet restored in her own soul, and so could be no help to others. She urges them to return home, and expresses the hope that they may find rest in the house of a heathen husband! Her own resources having failed, she thinks God has also failed, and has nothing to set before these women to encourage them to seek the Lord.
If that reading is right, the warning reaches further than Naomi.
Such is unbelief, never more evil than in a believer. It can see no hope for others because it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who are seeking God. Let those who wander among God's people beware. If they are out of communion themselves, they not only suffer personally, but become stumbling blocks to any who might be seeking the Lord.
The question exposes the difference between two women who until now looked the same.
But it is possible to have a very likeable character without having faith. Faith makes a gulf between these two women who are so similar in so many ways. Faced with impossibilities, the natural heart draws back. Faith feeds on impossibilities and grows stronger. Orpah gives up a path that leads nowhere. What could Naomi offer her? She was ruined, stricken by God, and filled with bitterness; did she still have sons in her womb to give as husbands to her daughters-in-law?
Even the discouragement served a purpose, and the two names carry the outcome.
God's sovereignty makes use of all things. Naomi's coldness becomes the test of whether her daughters-in-law really have faith. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away that marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth does not, as far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clung to her.
One writer turns Orpah's moment on the reader.
So now she brings out this — if you go with me, you will lose every prospect in this world. Go back, and may the Lord give you something in the world. Worldly prospects all ruined; I think I can see Orpah's face. I cannot stand that, she says; I never thought of that. This brings Orpah to the point, and now, dear reader, comes the point of whether you really want Christ or not.
Naomi was right that neither woman had any claim on Israel's blessing. That is where grace starts.
There was really no message for Ruth or Orpah, for they were not Jews... The law said, "No Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD," yet they come anyway, trusting grace and not law. So it always is with us who are not Jews. We have no claim, no right, no portion. All we have in Christ rests on pure grace, first to last.
- Empty hands. Naomi tells the truth about herself: no sons, no prospects, nothing to give.
- Empty faith. Because her own resources failed, she assumed God's had failed too. So she had nothing to offer a seeking soul.
- Empty offer. Take away every natural attraction, and the natural heart draws back. Faith feeds on impossibilities and grows stronger.
- Two backs turned. Orpah turns hers on Naomi; Ruth turns hers on Moab. One discouragement, two opposite decisions.
- Empty is where grace starts. Neither woman had any right to Israel's blessing. Everything an outsider receives rests on grace, first to last.
Return, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, should I even have a husband to-night, and should I also bear sons,
On the road back to Bethlehem, Naomi tells her widowed daughters-in-law to turn back. She is too old to marry and has no sons to give them as husbands, and her count of what she has leaves God out.
The hope she speaks of is a second marriage for them, and she says there will be none. One writer sees hard experience behind the warning.
Naomi had learned wisdom out of her own experience. She no doubt remembered her late husband's rash decision. He left "the house of bread" to look for bread elsewhere, and she recalled the unhappy results. At any rate, she begged her daughters-in-law to make no such hasty choice. They would gain no earthly benefit by following a forlorn and forsaken woman as, sadly, she was. They must not expect a second marriage into the house of Israel.
Commentators differ on how to judge her. Another writer hears a believer who has drifted from God, counting only what she herself can offer.
When Naomi saw this concern on their part, was it faith for her to discourage them? No, it was not. But she was like so many believers who get away from the Lord. They do not encourage others to come to where the Lord is because they think there is nothing there to attract them! They are thinking of the circumstances rather than of the Lord Himself. Can He not satisfy the hungry soul? Naomi said she was too old to have a husband and bear sons who might marry these widows (v. 12). Did she think she must be their only resource in Israel? But faith becomes extremely weak when one has backslidden.
Unbelief in a believer harms more than the believer.
But such is unbelief, never more evil than in a saint. It can see no hope for others because it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who are seeking God. Let the wanderers among God's people beware. If out of communion themselves, they not only suffer individually, but are stumbling-blocks to any who might be seeking the Lord.
God used her discouragement to reveal what was in each young woman.
On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without excusing her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two. There is evident natural affection in both; in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth. The names of these two are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth does not, as far as we read, kiss Naomi, but she clung to her.
Naomi's picture of her future left Orpah nothing to hope for.
When the natural heart meets impossibilities, it draws back. Faith feeds on impossibilities and grows stronger. Orpah gives up a path which has no outcome. What could Naomi offer her? She was ruined, stricken by God, and filled with bitterness; did she still have sons in her womb to give as husbands to her daughters-in-law?
Nothing in Ruth's circumstances pointed her toward Israel's God.
How little does Naomi here commend her God, of whom Ruth speaks! There was the famine in Bethlehem, which mocked its name as the "house of bread". There was the withdrawal of Elimelech, which denied what his name expressed. There was his death. There were the marriages in Moab, one of them her own. Then the quick widowhoods. Now the mother-in-law's appeal to go back, as Orpah had gone back, to her people and her gods. This is all we know of her surroundings, but which of them is favourable to faith? It is God who favours it and upholds it; and all the opposition only rouses it into a passion of longing and resolve.
Naomi's last argument is what it will cost them to come.
So now she brings out this — If you go with me, your worldly prospects will all be ruined (verses 11-13); go back, and the Lord give you something in the world. Worldly prospects all ruined; I think I can see Orpah's face. I cannot stand that, she says; I never thought of that. This brings Orpah to the point.
- Nothing to offer. Naomi tells the plain truth: no husband, no sons, no gain in following her.
- Nothing to commend. She counts only her own resources. A believer out of touch with God blocks seekers instead of helping them.
- Nothing wasted. God uses even her coldness as the test that brings the real state of both women's hearts to light.
- Nothing gained. Orpah meets an impossibility and draws back. Faith feeds on the same impossibility and grows stronger.
- Nothing needed. Ruth clings where no circumstance favours faith, because it is God who upholds it.
would ye wait on that account till they were grown? Would ye stay on that account from having husbands? No, my daughters, for I am in much more bitterness than you; for the hand of Jehovah is gone out against me.
Naomi is heading back to Bethlehem, and on the road she tells her two Moabite daughters-in-law to go home, since she has no more sons to give them. Her hardest words come last: she reads her losses as the LORD's hand turned against her, and commentators differ over whether she was right.
Her words are practical before they are theological. She lists what she cannot supply, and one writer hears in that list the memory of a decision she wishes had never been made.
Naomi had learned wisdom out of her own experience. She no doubt remembered her late husband's rash decision to leave "the house of bread" and look for bread elsewhere. She recalled its unhappy results. At any rate, she begged her daughters-in-law to make no such hasty choice. They would gain nothing here on earth by following a lonely, forsaken woman, which is what she was. They must not expect a second marriage into the house of Israel. Besides, Naomi added sadly, with a touch of complaint, she was in far more bitterness than they were, for the hand of the LORD had gone out against her.
One reading calls her statement a poor witness. She had spoken as a believer in the God of Israel, and what she told these Moabite women about Him was not accurate.
It was feeble for her after ten years still to be smarting under the bitterness of her own bereavement. It was false of her to declare that the hand of Jehovah was against her. His hand had not led the family to Moab. They turned away by their own choice, away from the land where His hand would have kept their souls alive through the days of famine.
What she could not see was that a hand can press hard while the heart behind it is kind.
She was grieved that the hand of the Lord had gone out against her (v. 13), but she did not realize that in all her trials, the heart of the Lord was for her. In the end she did learn that her own lack of faith was what was against her.
Commentators differ here. Another writer takes Naomi's words at face value and finds in them a real principle: God disciplines the children He owns, precisely because they are His.
Many a child of God has lost the joy of his salvation through worldliness and sin. Yet, thank God, no one can lose the salvation itself once he has it. But just because I am His child, God will discipline me here on earth if I turn away from Him… It pays to walk straight, children of God — you may depend upon it. Naomi found this out. "The hand of the LORD has gone out against me," she says.
Two women were moving toward the people of God, and the one person who should have welcomed them talked them out of it. That failure has a long reach.
But such is unbelief, never more evil than in a saint. It can see no hope for others because it sees none for itself, and would even discourage those who are seeking God. Let those who wander from God beware. If they are out of touch with the Lord themselves, they suffer for it, and they also trip up anyone who might be seeking Him. Sadly, the cold, miserable spiritual state of God's people drives seeking souls away instead of drawing them in.
One writer sees the same failure in believers who drift away from God.
They do not encourage others to come to where the Lord is because they think there is nothing there to attract them! They are thinking of the circumstances rather than of the Lord Himself. Can He not satisfy the hungry soul?
God used even this. Naomi's bleak speech became the sieve that separated the two women.
On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of all things, and the coldness of Naomi becomes the test of the reality of faith in her daughters-in-law. Without excusing her, the discouragement she offers brings to light the state of heart of the two. There is clear natural affection in both; in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth.
The test comes down to cost.
So now she brings out this: if you come with me, you will lose every worldly prospect (verses 11-13). Go back, and may the Lord give you something in the world. All worldly prospects ruined — I can see Orpah's face. I cannot stand that, she says; I never thought of that. This brings Orpah to the point.
(Note: the older translations these writers used read "I am in much more bitterness than you"; the ESV reads "it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake.")
- Departure. Naomi's emptiness began with a choice. The family left the land where God's hand would have kept them alive through the famine.
- Bitterness. After ten years she is still smarting from her loss, and one writer calls that a feeble witness to God.
- Blame. She calls the LORD's hand her enemy. Writers differ: a false witness, or a true reading of God's discipline of His own child? All agree His heart was for her.
- Discouragement. A believer who drifts from God trips up others. Measure God by your circumstances, and you have nothing to offer a seeking soul.
- Test. God used even her coldness: the same words that sent Orpah back to her prospects revealed the faith that held on.
And they lifted up their voice and wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clave to her.
Two widows stand on the road out of Moab. Both weep. Both face the same choice, and they take opposite roads. This verse is the hinge of the book: it separates warm feeling from living faith.
Naomi has just told both women that she has nothing to offer them. That speech forces each woman to decide.
Naomi's discouraging words tested the hearts of the young women. They "lifted up their voices and wept again," looking for some relief or help in tears, as women do. But there they stood at the parting of the ways, and they had to decide right then. Naomi's plain speaking was a searching trial of their inward motives. Should they forsake their mother-in-law, or their own mothers? Should they leave the land of Moab for the land of Israel? Should they seek Jehovah, the God of Naomi and her fathers, or should they continue to serve the gods of their own people and of their own childhood? Each decided for herself what to do.
Orpah is not painted as a villain. She had tears, affectionate words, and a farewell kiss — and still went back.
Orpah makes a fair profession, but only profession. Her feelings were moved, for she lifted up her voice and wept (v. 9). Her affections were stirred, for she "kissed her mother-in-law" (v. 14). Her words were fair, for she said, "We will return with you to your people" (v. 10). It is, however, significant that Ruth makes mention of Naomi's God, but with Orpah it is only Naomi, and Naomi's people. So despite her words, her tears, and her kisses, she turns her back on Naomi, on Naomi's God, and on the land of blessing. She returns to "her people," "her gods," and the land of the shadow of death.
Both women felt real affection. Only one had faith, and a dead end shows the difference.
Good intentions are not enough, for nothing less than faith will do in order to enter into a relationship with grace. It is possible to have a very likeable character without having faith. Faith makes a gulf between these two women who are so similar in so many ways. Faced with impossibilities, the natural heart draws back. Faith feeds on impossibilities and so grows stronger. Orpah gives up a path which has no outcome. What could Naomi offer her? She was ruined, stricken by God, and filled with bitterness.
The word used for Ruth carries weight everywhere else Scripture uses it. (Older translations read "clave" here.)
To cleave is the word God used at the very start of human history. It named the undivided and unchanging affection a man should keep for the wife of his choice (Gen. 2:24). This love is so close and unifying that by cleaving the "two shall become one flesh" (Eph. 5:31). Cleaving also expresses the loving obedience and worshipping service which should mark the people of God. Six times Moses and Joshua urged the children of Israel to cleave to Jehovah their God (Deut. 10:20; 11:22; 13:4; 30:20; Joshua 22:5; 23:8). Her choice sprang not from a passing mood of friendly emotion, but from a settled conviction of her soul. Her eye was on the God of Israel rather than on the mother of her dead husband.
The outward show in this verse belongs to Orpah, not Ruth.
With Orpah there was only the outward expression of love. She could kiss and leave Naomi, even as, at a later date, Judas could kiss and betray the Lord. Of Ruth it is never said that she kissed Naomi. But if there was no outward expression of love, there was the reality of love, for we read Ruth "clung to her" (v. 14). Love, if real, cannot give up the one it loves, and must be in that person's company.
Their names sum up the two paths.
Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," suggests the turning away which marked her. She kissed Naomi, but returns to the land of Moab. Ruth most likely means "having a shepherd." Her faith here shows that she is one of the sheep, though a Gentile, who is to be brought into the fold.
Faith did more here than divide two women.
This faith separates and it unites. We have seen how, when tested, Orpah turned her back on Naomi and the people of God. This also separated her from her sister-in-law, for they were going in opposite directions. It is always so. Faith separated Abraham from home and country, as it did Moses from the honours and rewards of Egypt. Even the ties of human affection cannot hold together souls drawn apart by opposite motives. One goes heavenward, the other earthward.
- Test. Naomi's bleak honesty was the trial that showed what each woman's heart really wanted.
- Tears. Orpah had weeping, warm words and a kiss — feeling that reached as far as Naomi, but never as far as Naomi's God.
- Grip. Ruth's word is "clung," the same word used for a husband's lifelong love and for Israel's call to hold fast to the Lord.
- Reality. The quieter woman loved more. Outward display proved nothing; holding on proved everything.
- Result. Faith parted two sisters-in-law and sent them opposite ways. It bound a Moabite woman to the people and the God of Israel.
And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people and to her gods return after thy sister-in-law.
Naomi has already told her two widowed daughters-in-law to turn back, and now one of them has gone. Now Naomi points to Orpah walking away and tells Ruth to follow her — back to Moab's people and Moab's gods.
Talk ends here. Both women had walked the same road, and both faced the same questions.
Naomi's discouraging words exercised and tested the hearts of the young women. There they stood at the parting of the ways, and they had to decide at once. Naomi's plain speaking was a severe test of their inward motives. Should they forsake their mother-in-law, or their own mothers? Should they leave the land of Moab for the land of Israel? Should they seek the God of Naomi and her fathers? Or should they go on serving the gods of their own people and their own childhood? Each decided for herself what to do.
Naomi herself points Ruth toward Moab's gods. One writer can only ask how a believer could say such a thing.
Ruth clung to her and would not be talked out of it. Naomi urged her further, telling her that Orpah was going back to her people and her gods, and that she should do the same. Can believers be so lacking in faith that they advise unbelievers to choose idol worship rather than the worship of the true God?
Orpah's tears and her kiss were real. So were her ties to Naomi.
The natural heart may attach itself to God's people without actually belonging to this people. A woman like Naomi is certainly worthy of sympathy, but sympathy is not the sign of faith at work. Faith first separates us from idols, makes us give up our gods, and turns us to the true God... Orpah, on the other hand, turns away from Naomi and the God of Israel to return to her people and her gods.
Earlier both women had said they would return with Naomi to her people. Only one of them ever spoke of Naomi's God — and that difference decided everything.
She only thinks of Naomi's people, take note. Ruth has Naomi's God before her. She says, "Your God my God." Orpah is like many a so-called convert today. They seem to make a start, but soon go back to their former idols and companions. In their thinking they never get beyond joining some religious body of "people," like poor Orpah. The real convert, like Ruth, has had to do with God Himself, and such people last.
Orpah's record looked good right up to the moment she turned back.
She had identified herself with Naomi. She had her tears, her fair words, and her kisses. Even so, she returns to her people, her gods, and her land, and we hear no more of Orpah. Her profession was fair; she had the form of godliness, but she lacked the power of godliness — simple faith in God.
The same thing happens today when people hear the good news and do not believe it.
They hear. For a little while they seem interested in religious people and things. But when temptation comes, they go back again to their people and their gods. They hear, but THEY DO NOT BELIEVE... Their feelings are moved for the time, but their consciences never come before God about their own state. So their hearts, after all, really cling to their people and their gods. In every nation the ungodly have their gods — favourite objects of their hearts. These change as circumstances change and life goes on. There are household gods and public gods, gods for youth and gods for old age — not always visible, I grant, but no less real.
From here the two women travel in opposite directions. Nothing can hold them together.
We have seen how, when tested, Orpah turned her back on Naomi and the people of God. This also separated her from her sister-in-law, for they were going in opposite directions. It is always so. Faith separated Abraham from home and country, as it did Moses from the honours and rewards of Egypt. Even the ties of human affection cannot hold two souls together when opposite motives pull them apart. One goes heavenward, the other earthward.
- Test. Naomi's discouraging words forced each woman to choose: Moab's gods, or Naomi's God.
- Tears. Orpah's grief and her kiss were real; sympathy for God's people is not the same as faith in God.
- People. Orpah's eye was on Naomi's people; Ruth's was on Naomi's God — and that is why one lasted and one turned back.
- Form. She had every outward mark of godliness except its power: simple faith in God.
- Parting. From this verse the two roads divide for good. Faith separates hearts that aim at opposite ends.
And Ruth said, Do not intreat me to leave thee, 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;
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee!
Naomi has told Ruth to go home, and Ruth answers with a vow that reaches past the journey to the grave itself. She is a woman of Moab, a nation outside Israel, yet she swears by Israel's God that only death will part them.
Two daughters-in-law set out with Naomi, but only one went on. Writers put the difference down to faith, not natural feeling:
It is not mere nature, but faith in the living God that speaks in her reply... So it was real faith that spoke in Ruth's reply, a faith that used the covenant name Jehovah. It had stood the test, because nothing on offer appealed to nature.
Sympathy for God's people can look like faith. Writers point to a different first test:
The natural heart may attach itself to God's people without belonging to them. A woman like Naomi is certainly worth our sympathy, but sympathy is not the sign of faith at work. In the first place faith separates us from idols, causes us to give up our gods, and turns us to the true God.
Ruth swears by the God of Israel. To use that name she had to break with the many gods of Moab:
The gods of Moab were many, the God of Israel was one; and that one God was the true God... The principle of idolatry is an insult to God. It is an insult to His majesty. It stands against His affections, and He wants His people all for Himself. Then Ruth says, "...and your God my God." She made this definite decision. She was cutting herself off from all the gods of Moab, and finding her joy and centre in the one true God.
Ruth held on to the one person who linked her to God. Writers see the same pattern in faith itself:
Just as Ruth clung to Naomi, so faith clings to the Mediator, the one God's purposes centre on. He alone can give a sure relationship with the true God and an unshakable place before Him.
Notice what Ruth asks for. Not a home and a life, but a night's shelter and a grave:
When she made this memorable decision she knew nothing of Boaz, a picture of Christ in His present position of power. She knew nothing of the place of favour and honour that was waiting for her. Her love for Naomi controlled her, and notice that she was content not to settle and live, but to "lodge" and to "die" with Naomi. She took the path of a stranger, and what made up for it was the pleasure of Naomi's company.
Ruth does more than promise. She swears, and the oath ends the argument:
She confirmed this strong declaration with a solemn oath: "May the LORD do so to me and more also if anything but death parts me from you." The devotion, resolve and eagerness of this speech convinced Naomi of Ruth's honesty and determination. "And when Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more."
The same finality is heard in plain terms: her decision had no exit clause built into it.
I am going to go right on to the end. There is no giving up, no turning back; I have made my decision, I have cast in my lot with you, your people and your God, and I am determined to go on.
How does a woman from Moab end up inside Israel's blessing? Not by any right of her own:
Ruth had no claim to the place of blessing; she came in on the ground of sovereign mercy.
The story does not stop with her getting in:
But the law does not keep Ruth out. A Moabite woman though she is, she does enter into the congregation of the Lord. The law is set aside in her favour. Her descendants are not shut out to the tenth generation; her child of the third generation sits on Israel's throne.
- Choice — Ruth's words are the language of faith, not family feeling. The natural heart can love God's people and still not belong to them.
- Break — "Your God my God" meant leaving the gods of Moab behind for good; there was no keeping both.
- Cost — she asked to lodge and to die with Naomi, not to live in comfort. She took a stranger's life before she knew Boaz existed.
- Oath — she asked God to judge her if anything but death parted them. Naomi stopped arguing.
- Outcome — she had no claim to Israel's blessing. Mercy brought her in, and her great-grandson sat on Israel's throne.
And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.
Two widowed women stand on the road out of Moab, and one of them has just refused, under oath, to turn back. In verse 18 Naomi stops arguing. Her silence says more about Ruth's choice than any further words could.
Naomi had spent the whole scene urging her daughters-in-law to go home. What stopped her was not an argument but the force of Ruth's reply.
Inward anxiety and unrest were now pressing Ruth to leave her idols and seek the favour of the living God of Israel. But she feared that Naomi's repeated attempts to talk her out of it might turn her from her purpose. So her fervent outburst of devotion and determination came swiftly in reply, and she confirmed it with a solemn oath. The devotion, resolve, and enthusiasm of this speech convinced Naomi of Ruth's integrity and determination.
The same discouragement fell on Orpah and Ruth alike, and it produced opposite results. Even their names carry the difference.
On the other hand, God's sovereignty makes use of everything, and Naomi's coldness becomes the test of whether the faith of her daughters-in-law is real. Without excusing her, the discouragement she offers brings out the true state of both hearts. There is clear natural affection in both — in fact Orpah shows more than Ruth. Their names are suggestive. Orpah, "her neck," or "her back," points to the turning away that marked her. Ruth most likely means "having a shepherd." Her faith shows she is one of the sheep, though a Gentile, to be brought into the fold.
Naomi's husband Elimelech had taken the family away from Bethlehem in a famine, and it all went wrong. Nothing Ruth had seen recommended the God of Israel to her.
Ruth's faith is a beautiful thing to think about. It is striking proof that what God has planted can flourish among contrary circumstances and opposition of every kind. How little Naomi here commends the God Ruth speaks of! The famine in Bethlehem mocked its name as the "house of bread." Elimelech withdrew, denying what his own name expressed, and then he died. There were the marriages to Moabite women, one of them her own, and then the sudden widowhoods. Now her mother-in-law urges her to go back to her people and her gods, as Orpah had gone back. This is all we know of her surroundings. Which of them favours faith? Ah, it is God who favours it and upholds it; and all the opposition only stirs it into a passion of longing and resolve.
Three marks stand out in Ruth's speech. Where the ESV says she was "determined," older translations read "steadfastly minded" — the mark that looks forward.
First, in simple and beautiful "faith" she turns her back on her native land to travel to Jehovah's land. She accepts the pilgrim path, for she says, "Where you go I will go." She takes the place of a stranger with no settled home, for she says, "Where you lodge I will lodge." She identifies herself with the people of God: "Your people shall be my people." She expresses her confidence in God as she adds, "Your God" shall be "my God." Moreover she is marked by devoted love. Orpah may indeed kiss Naomi, but of Ruth we read, she "clung to her." … Last, "hope" marked her too, for we read, "She was steadfastly minded to go." In the light of another world, as it were, she gave up the present one.
Up to now the two younger women had walked one road. Here it forks.
When they come to this point, they must decide; and then comes the dividing line. "I am not ready for that," says one. "I had not counted the cost," says Orpah; "goodbye, Naomi, goodbye. I will always feel kindly towards you, and I hope we shall meet again some day; but I cannot go with you at that cost" — and she turns her back on God and on blessing. From that moment Ruth goes one way and Orpah another; one is decided for God, the other for the world.
Ruth could not see past the next day's walk. Her one choice reached much further.
Here was a wonderful decision. Three good decisions run through this story — one by Naomi, one by Ruth and one by Boaz — and blessing follows each one. Linked together they all end in blessing… The last chapter gives the family line (Ruth 4:18-22), and if we turn to Matthew 1:16 we find that the chain ends in Christ… I am quite sure that neither Naomi, nor Ruth, nor Boaz knew what was happening that day — that they were links in a chain stretching centuries beyond their own time.
- Tested. Naomi's discouragement was not kindness, but God used it to show what was really in each heart.
- Divided. Orpah kissed and went back; Ruth clung and went on. Affection was in both — only one was settled.
- Silenced. Naomi stopped speaking. Ruth's words carried their own proof: devotion, resolve, and an oath.
- Sustained. Every circumstance argued against Israel's God. Ruth's faith held, because God Himself upheld it.
- Crowned. A choice made in the dark on a road out of Moab became a link in the chain that ends in Christ.
And they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they came to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and the [women] said, Is this Naomi?
Two women finish a long walk from Moab and step into Bethlehem, and a whole town stops what it is doing. The stir turns into one question about a woman they once knew, and commentators hear that question in more than one way.
Ruth's decision to stay with Naomi ended the argument, and the pair travelled on together. The townspeople did not see one returning widow. They saw a pair, and the woman from Moab drew as much notice as Naomi.
This settled the mother's mind, and they are next seen approaching Bethlehem. The whole town was stirred over Naomi. But be sure of this — they were stirred just as much by a strange sight. Here was a woman of Moab who had turned her back forever on her gods, her land, and every natural tie. She had come to take her place beside a desolate widow, under the shadow of the Lord.
The question is not confusion over her identity. It is shock at what the years have done to her — the town remembered a different woman.
After being away more than ten years, Naomi returned to Bethlehem. Her arrival with Ruth, the stranger from Moab, stirred the interest and curiosity of the townspeople. Many of them had probably known her before the great famine. Back then her late husband was, it seems, a man of standing and influence in the city. Those who recognised Naomi were astonished at the change in her.
The town asks the question out loud, so Naomi has to answer it herself. Her own reply is the evidence that the ten years in Moab left a mark.
When they reach Bethlehem, the whole place is stirred: "Is this Naomi?" What damage her departure had done! She has to admit the sad truth herself. How much her few words tell.
Others hear something warmer in the commotion. The noise around a returning wanderer matches a far greater celebration elsewhere.
So they go on together to Bethlehem. And when they arrive, "the whole town was stirred because of them." There was a great stir in the place. In the same way, when a sinner repents, all heaven is stirred over the event. "There will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents." It delights God's heart to see a sinner turn to Him. Heaven rings with music over every case of real conversion.
So commentators hear the same crowd in two ways. Some hear a sting of exposure in the question. Others hear an echo of heaven's joy.
One writer turns the town's reaction into a question for the reader. If a welcome normally follows restoration, then a cold welcome may explain why so few wanderers come back.
The story of Naomi also shows us something wonderful. When someone is restored to the Lord, a welcome among the Lord's people rightly follows. So we read, "when they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them." Why is there so little restoration today? May it not be that too often the people of God are so little moved about those who have wandered? May the Lord let us taste a little more of the compassion in His heart. That compassion led Him to go after a wandering sheep until He found it.
Two small words carry the difference between belonging somewhere and living there.
Naomi, who truly was "of" Bethlehem, now comes "to" Bethlehem. She was "of" Bethlehem the whole time she was in Moab, but coming "to" that city changed her entire life. Here we see the difference between being a Christian and living the Christian life.
Another writer finds no warm welcome in this homecoming. He reads the scene on a larger scale: a return that begins in shame and ends in harvest.
There is no light beyond. No Father's arms welcome her. No Father's house opens to let her in. She comes back, as Israel will come back. People point the finger at her and speak the question aloud: Is this Naomi? And yet the cry "I have sinned" is heard, and Bethlehem shall answer to its name. The fields are white and the reapers are ready: it is the beginning of barley harvest.
- Two came. Ruth's refusal to turn back put a woman of Moab on the road to Bethlehem, and the town was stirred as much by her as by Naomi.
- One question. "Is this Naomi?" is the sound of people who knew her before — astonished at the change ten years away had made.
- The cost shows. The question forces Naomi to speak, and her own few words admit the damage her departure had done.
- The stir welcomes. The commotion echoes heaven's joy over one sinner who repents. It also rebukes God's people when wanderers stir them so little.
- Arrival changes everything. She was always of Bethlehem. Coming to Bethlehem changed her life. She arrived just as barley harvest began.
And she said to them, Call me not Naomi -- call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
Naomi comes home to Bethlehem after ten years in Moab, and the whole town knows her — but she will not take her old name. She asks for a name that matches her grief, and she lays that grief at God's door.
Her old name and her new one are opposites.
When they reach Bethlehem, the whole place is stirred: "Is this Naomi?" What damage her departure had done, and she has to admit the sad truth herself. How her few words tell the story, her heart not yet fully restored. "Do not call me Naomi (pleasant), call me Mara (bitter): for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me." She calls Him by that name of dread, which points to His power and not to His love and care. As she thinks of her once happy home, she forgets her own part in the change, and she seems to charge the Almighty with it all.
The word she picks names undrinkable water. Scripture uses it again for what it is to leave the Lord.
The primary root means "to flow"; from this comes the idea of the gum that flows from the tree. But since this is extremely bitter, it gives its name to "bile" and other bitter things — the bitter water of Marah, the water of jealousy (Num. 5:18). Naomi called herself Mara, "for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me." … The prophet declares that it is "evil and bitter" to forsake the LORD your God (Jer. 2:19).
Naomi names God "the Almighty." One explanation of that title points to supply rather than force.
Some interpret the name as "Almighty in sustaining resources" (as the mother's breasts for her baby).
Commentators differ over how to read her words. One reading listens to what she left out.
She magnified her own sorrows and trials. She had not one word to say about the goodness of Jehovah, who brought her back safely to His own land, to her own family and city. Whatever her testimony for God may have been in the land of Moab, it was very weak when she stood once more on her own doorstep. … Such were the strange words of complaint against God spoken by a woman of faith!
The other reading takes the same sentence as evidence that God never let go of her.
She admits that however much she had failed, the Lord had not given her up. Speaking of the days of her wandering she admits, "The Almighty has dealt … with me." We may stop having dealings with Him, but He loves us too much to stop dealing with us.
Her phrase "very bitterly" describes how God's correction feels while it lasts.
She says not only that the Lord had dealt with her, but that He had dealt with her "very bitterly." If the Lord deals with us when we wander from Him, we will find that "for the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it."
Her bitterness had a starting point: a move to Moab that looked sensible at the time.
Ten years she and her family had been away from Judah; yet she should never have left Judah, the place where God was known. It was quite natural she should go when there was a famine there, you say. Yes, quite natural, for nature always turns its back on God; but see the folly of it. Could not God have kept them in Bethlehem? … A soul that has slipped away from the Lord and got back into the world wakes up, sooner or later, to find itself in misery and wretchedness.
The name she demanded did not last.
Only yesterday she had said, "The Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me" (1:20). But today Naomi saw that He was dealing very graciously with Mara, the name she had given herself. The love of God was lifting the veil of unbelieving complaint from Mara's heart. And soon Mara the bitter would once again be Naomi the pleasant.
Writers also read Naomi's emptiness as a portrait of Israel.
Anyone who accepts the prophetic character of Scripture can hardly question that Naomi pictures Israel under the first covenant. Israel too had lived through a famine in the land. Israel had lost husband, sons, everything out of it. "Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me."
- Departure — the bitterness began with leaving Judah, the place where God was known. The move looked natural. It was folly.
- Bitter — Naomi means pleasant. Mara means bitter, from the root that names the undrinkable water of Marah. Scripture uses that word again for leaving the Lord.
- Almighty — she names God by His power, not His love. Some read that same title as "Almighty in sustaining resources," like a mother feeding her baby.
- Dealt — commentators differ. Some hear complaint from a woman of faith. Others hear her own admission that God never stopped dealing with her.
- Restored — the name did not stick. The God she called bitter was already dealing kindly with her, and Naomi the pleasant returned.
I went out full, and Jehovah has brought me home again empty. Why do ye call me Naomi, seeing Jehovah has brought me low, and the Almighty has afflicted me?
Naomi comes back to Bethlehem after ten years in Moab. She meets the townspeople with a new name and a one-line summary of her life: full when she left, empty when she came back. Commentators hear two things in her words — an honest confession, and an unfair charge against God.
She blames the Almighty for her loss. Then her next words tell the truth about how she left. (The commentators quote an older translation: "I went out full… the Almighty has afflicted me." The ESV reads "I went away full… brought calamity upon me.")
She calls God "the Almighty" — a dread name that puts His power in front of His love and care. She thinks of her once happy home and forgets her own part in the change. So she seems to charge the Almighty with it all. But the next words confess the truth, "I went out full." She chose to go. No one forced her, and she was full when she went… We may make many excuses for leaving God. Circumstances were against us. Friends grew cold. We were misunderstood. Multiply the excuses as we will, one short sentence gives the one reason for leaving God: "I went out full."
The narrative says her husband made the move to Moab. She does not say so.
Naomi takes all the blame for her wanderings, and she does it beautifully. She says, "I went out." The story itself said that "a certain man went to sojourn in the country of Moab." Yet she says no word against her husband. She does not blame others, and she does not excuse herself.
Notice who acts in each half of her sentence. She went; the Lord brought her back.
Naomi takes all the blame for her backsliding. She is right to give the Lord all the credit for her restoration. She can say, "The Lord has brought me back." I did the going out and the Lord did the bringing back… In our moments of self-confidence we may think we can return to the Lord whenever we choose. But no backslider would ever return unless the Lord restored him.
Restoration was real, but it did not undo what the years in Moab had cost her.
Still, she has to admit something that touches the heart. The Lord brought her home, but He "brought me home again empty."… Like everyone who wanders, Naomi has to suffer. Her restoration is real. She truly gets back to her home, the Lord's people and the Lord's land. But she never gets back her husband and her sons. They are gone for ever. She sought ease and rest from conflict and exercise; she found only death and loss.
Yet emptiness was the one condition in which God brings a wanderer back.
We would never come back ourselves. It is only the power of unchanging grace that restores the wanderer; but for that we would still remain in the land of Moab. Grace could not bring us back in any other condition than empty. There must be the brokenness that word suggests, to make the soul willing to yield to God's love.
Commentators differ on how much of her speech to accept. Some hear a good confession. Others hear a charge against God that will not stand.
She spoke as someone who professed faith in Jehovah, the God of Israel. Judged that way, her witness to the Moabite women about His constant care and unfailing goodness was weak, and even false… It was false of her to declare that the hand of Jehovah was against her. His hand had not led the family to Moab. They turned away by their own choice from the land where His hand would have kept their souls alive through the days of famine.
By the last chapter the women of Bethlehem speak again, and their words answer hers.
The women seem to have Naomi's complaint in mind. She had said she went away full, with a husband and two sons, and came back empty, with neither a husband nor a son. But Jehovah, whom she had blamed, had seen her "low estate." He had dealt with her not "bitterly" but generously… In him, the newborn grandson, her dying family possessions had living hope again.
The scene is also read as a picture of a whole people returning under God's testimony against them.
She admits that Jehovah has brought her back empty. In doing this, He has testified against her… She comes back, as Israel will come back, to have people point at her and ask out loud: Is this Naomi? And yet the cry, "I have sinned," goes up, and Bethlehem will answer to its name. The fields are white, and the reapers ready: it is the beginning of barley harvest.
- Out — "I went out" is her confession. She chose to leave, and she blames no one else, not even her husband.
- Home — she went out, but the Lord brought her back. No wanderer returns unless the Lord restores him.
- Empty — the loss was real and permanent. Yet God brings a soul back empty, and that brokenness makes it willing to yield to His love.
- Bitter — she calls herself Mara, and the name "the Almighty" puts God's power in front of His love. One writer calls her charge false: His hand never led the family to Moab.
- Harvest — she comes back as the barley harvest begins. By the end of the book, the women of Bethlehem say God dealt with her not bitterly but generously.
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the fields of Moab; and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of the barley-harvest.
The chapter ends with a bitter widow, a foreign daughter-in-law, and a town at the start of its harvest. Three details carry the rest of the book: the return, the title "the Moabitess," and the season.
Naomi called herself empty. Note the season she said it in.
Barley ripened early, well before wheat... In the sheltered valleys of Bethlehem, barley would usually be ripe and ready for the reaper in the first weeks of Nisan (March–April)... This was also the appointed season for offering God the firstfruits of the harvest. The law of Moses required this. So around the time Naomi arrived, godly people of Bethlehem would have been bringing their sheaf of the firstfruits of the barley harvest to the priest as a wave offering to Jehovah. But Naomi had no such offering to bring. She had come back, as she said, "Empty." She confessed that she was the poorest of the poor in Israel.
Empty hands are not the end of the story.
But if the Lord brings us back empty He will bring us back to a place of plenty. It was so with Naomi, for when Naomi returned it was "the beginning of barley harvest."
Naomi had just said God had turned against her. The date of her arrival says otherwise.
No, the Lord was not against Naomi, though she thought so. He blocked her path. But He did it to bring her to Bethlehem "at the beginning of barley harvest." She went out in days of famine, and she came back as the barley harvest began. How little did the prodigal expect the ring, and the robe, and the fatted calf!
The month itself carried a message she had not yet read.
Still, Naomi, who had wandered, had returned to Bethlehem at the beginning of a New Year. The month Nisan had its message of hope for her. The deadness of her winter was past; new life and fruitfulness were before her, if only she knew it. Mara the bitter — sullen, poor, childless widow — was about to find plenty around her and joy within her, and once more she would be Naomi the pleasant, in Bethlehem, "the house of bread."
Ruth has already confessed Naomi's God, yet the verse still labels her by her nation. Writers see this as deliberate.
The law cannot bring the Moabitess in; it must keep her out. It is written that no Moabite may enter the assembly of the LORD forever. Throughout the story this is the title that everywhere comes into prominence. Despite all Ruth's attractiveness and godliness, the book always names her, with emphasis, Ruth the Moabitess. And the law, faced with this admitted fact, can make no exception in her favour. The law is wholly against her — it accuses, convicts, and cannot justify.
Naomi and Ruth share a loss, but not a claim. One writer also asks why the verse says Ruth "returned."
Ruth and Naomi are linked because both are widows. But they differ: Ruth is a Moabitess, so she has no claim at all to the national rights and privileges of Israel. This shows that Israel has forfeited all its rights, and God will accept the remnant on the basis of pure grace. Ruth 1:22 says that Ruth "returned" to Bethlehem. We have no reason to think Ruth had ever been to Bethlehem before, but she is clearly identified with Naomi's return.
Commentators also read the two women as a picture of Israel.
Naomi is back in Bethlehem, empty and bitter in spirit. She calls herself "Mara," which means bitter. This pictures Israel's return in unbelief. And it was at the time of the barley harvest. The harvest, as our Lord tells us, is the end of the age. That end comes after God has gathered the true church home. Then Israel will return, like Naomi, with a believing, trusting remnant clinging to her, pictured in Ruth.
Writers press this home to anyone whose best years look like they are behind them.
Dear friends, look at that poor, desolate widow. She is crushed with what seems hopeless sorrow, her brightness all behind her. See in her a picture of the soul that wanders from God. How many blighted lives, filled with bitter, useless regrets, are there among the saints of God.
- Return. Naomi comes home the long way, through famine and loss. The chapter ends in Bethlehem, not in Moab.
- Empty. She arrives with nothing to offer in the season when Israel brought God its firstfruits. She calls herself the poorest of the poor.
- Timing. The date answers her charge that God was against her. She left in famine and came back as the barley ripened, at the start of a new year.
- Grace. Ruth is still "the Moabitess." The law can make no exception for her, so what she receives in Bethlehem is pure grace.
- Harvest. Commentators see the two widows entering the "house of bread" as a picture of Israel's future return, with a believing remnant. The harvest points to the end of the age.