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.