_Ruth's Devotion: She Leaves Her Home and Follows Naomi to Judah_ 1 _.in the days when the judges judged_ The scene of the following story is thus placed in a distant age, which the writer pictures as a time of idyllic peace. Evidently the Book of Judges was known to him: the opening phrase is base... [ Continue Reading ]
_Elimelech_ i. e. _God_, or _my God, is king_; an ancient name in S. Palestine, occurring in the Amarna tablets, Ilu-milki 179, 36; 151, 45, though the form _Milk-ilu_is commoner; in Phoenician we find the corresponding _Baal-milk_=-Baal is king," _NSI._, p. 347. _Naomi_on the surface appears to mea... [ Continue Reading ]
_took them wives_ The idiom is a late one, 2 Chronicles 11:21; Ezra 9:2; Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 13:25 etc.; see Introd. p. xv. It is uncertain whether the names of the two wives have any bearing upon the parts which they play in the story. The Midrash Rabbah on this Book explains that _Orpah_was so cal... [ Continue Reading ]
_the Lord had visited his people_ i. e. shewn a practical interest in; cf. Genesis 1:24 f E, Exodus 3:16; Exodus 4:31 J; St Luke 1:68; Luke 7:16. Apparently the famine lasted ten years, Ruth 1:4. With _giving them bread_cf. Psalms 132:15.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to return_ Strictly only appropriate to Naomi, cf. Ruth 1:22 etc.; the author unconsciously reveals that he is writing from Palestine.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to her mother's house_ although Ruth's father was alive, Ruth 2:11; but the natural place for the female members of the family would be their mother's tent or house, cf. Genesis 24:28; Genesis 24:67; Song of Solomon 3:4. _the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt_ Cf. Psalms 18:25 -with the k... [ Continue Reading ]
_that ye may find rest_ Cf. Ruth 3:1; Naomi had in her mind another home for them, i. e. a second marriage. The story is told with much naturalness and delicacy.... [ Continue Reading ]
_have I yet sons … that they may be your husbands_?] Alluding to the custom of levirate marriage, i. e. marriage with a brother in law (Lat. _levir_) after the husband's death. The law on the subject is given in Deuteronomy 25:5-10; cf. St Matthew 22:24.... [ Continue Reading ]
_I am too old to have an husband_ Naomi does not seriously contemplate any application of the custom alluded to: not only has she no surviving sons, but she never can have any. _If I should say_etc.] Strictly, -that I should have said, I have hope" (scil. of children). For the grammar cf. Genesis 4... [ Continue Reading ]
_would ye therefore tarry till they were grown?_ The narrative in Genesis 38. shews that the custom of levirate marriage was presupposed for the patriarchal age, but in a more primitive form than that of the modified law in Deuteronomy 25. According to Genesis 38. a son, though not of marriageable a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Orpah kissed her mother in law_ and, it is implied, said good-bye.... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto her people, and unto her god_ i.e. Chemosh, the god of the Moabites, Numbers 21:29; 1 Kings 11:33. The ancient belief here receives its simplest expression: each land and people had its own Deity inseparably connected with it; outside lay the territory of another god. The Israelites, at any ra... [ Continue Reading ]
_will I die … be buried_ According to ancient thought union in life meant union in death and in the grave; the members of a family had a common burying-place, Genesis 47:30; Genesis 49:29. In the underworld they lived together, as families and by nations; cf. the expression -he was gathered to his p... [ Continue Reading ]
_all the city was moved] was in a stir_; so 1 Samuel 4:5; 1 Kings 1:45 (-rang again"). Beth-lehem was a small place; Naomi's return without her husband and sons could not escape notice; it aroused keen excitement, especially among the women a graphic touch, true to life.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Mara_ The word has the Aramaic, not the Hebr. fem. ending. _the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me_ Almost the same words as in Job 27:2. For _Almighty_the Heb. has _Shaddai_, perhaps an intentional archaism, see Genesis 49:25. Shaddaialone (not El Shaddai) occurs elsewhere only in poetry,... [ Continue Reading ]
_hath testified against me_ i. e. hath marked His displeasure by the misfortunes which have overtaken me; for the idiom cf. Numbers 35:30; 1 Samuel 12:3. The Targ. characteristically moralizes: it was on account of Naomi's sin (in migrating to a heathen country). The LXX. and Vulg., pronouncing the... [ Continue Reading ]
_which returned out of the country of Moab_ A superfluous expression after _Naomi returned_, and possibly an insertion from Ruth 2:6, unless we regard it as a standing description of Ruth. _in the beginning of barley harvest_ i.e. in April. Barley was the first crop to be cut, Exodus 9:31 f., 2 Sam... [ Continue Reading ]