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.