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.