8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. I can imagine how hard this was for all of
them. A woman in those days had no means of supporting themselves. They were
turning to the unknown. Which even in today's time is unsettling. I hope one
day to be the mother in law who is loved like Naomi was by her daughter in
laws.
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John Burnett:
6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his
people by providing food for them, she and her daughters-in-law prepared
to return home from there. 7 With her two daughters-in-law she left the place
where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to
the land of Judah.
8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go
back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you kindness, as you
have shown kindness to your dead husbands and to me. 9 May the Lord grant
that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.”
Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept
aloud 10 and said to her, “We will go back with you to
your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why
would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your
husbands? 12 Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have
another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a
husband tonight and then gave birth to sons— 13 would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried
for them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because
the Lord’s hand has turned
against me!”
14 At this they wept aloud again. Then Orpah
kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. This is sad because Orpah was returning to her godless land and
would probably return worshiping their idols and would suffer the consequences
of doing such a thing. Ruth on the other hand, clung to her mother in law
and knew that following her back to Judah was the right thing to do as we will
see later in the book. Ruth’s faithfulness to her mother in law is to be
admired. Many times people revert back to what they know (sin) instead of
following the One (Jesus) who will save us from our sin.
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Tomorrow’s reading for Ruth 1:15-22
16 But Ruth replied, “Don’t urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. 17 Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if even death separates you and me.” 18 When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi,[b]” she told them. “Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty[d] has made my life very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted[e] me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”
22 So Naomi returned from
Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, arriving in
Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.
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