Ruth 1:9

The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.

The rest of marriage

1. Man’s Maker is the chief maker of all men and women’s marriages in the world. It is the work of God to provide an helpmeet for man, hence it is called the covenant of God (Proverbs 2:17), and therefore honourable to all (Hebrews 13:4). Religious Naomi looks up here unto God, saying in effect, “The Lord grant you good husbands.”Grace should be sought for, in the first place, in those seven qualifications of good matches and marriages: grace, race, face, arts, parts, portion, proportion.

2. A married state is a state of rest. So it is called here and Ruth 3:1. Hence marriage is called the port or haven of young people, whose affections while unmarried are continually floating and tossed to and fro like a ship upon the waters, till they come into this happy harbour. There is a natural propension in most persons towards nuptial communion, as all created beings have a natural tendency to their proper centre, and are restless out of it. (C. Ness.)

Rest in marriage

If it is to be wished that wives may find rest in the houses of their husbands, it must be the duty of husbands to do what they can to procure them rest, not only by endeavouring to provide for them what is necessary for their subsistence and comfortable accommodation, but by such a kind behaviour as will promote their satisfaction and comfort. Men and women may have affluence without rest, and rest without affluence. But let women also contribute to procure rest for themselves by frugality, by industry, by such behaviour to their husbands as will merit constant returns of kindness. (G. Lawson.)