Ruth 1:6-22 · Read 10 min · think and write 15 min
At the end of the last lesson, Naomi was in Moab, “bereaved of her two children and of her husband” (Ruth 1:5). Only her two Moabite daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, were left with her.
In this lesson, three widows set out together. Partway along the road, one turns back and one stays.
6Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.
7She went out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. They went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9May the LORD grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept.
10They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”
11Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons,
13would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for the LORD’s hand has gone out against me.”
14They lifted up their voices and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her.
15She said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”
16Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God.
17Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”
18When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19So they both went until they came to Bethlehem. When they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was excited about them, and they asked, “Is this Naomi?”
20She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.
21I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
22So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.
News from home. Naomi decided to go home because “she had heard in the country of Moab how the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread” (v. 6). The family had left because of a famine; now the famine was over. The three widows set out together: “They went on the way to return to the land of Judah” (v. 7).
Urged to go back. On the road, Naomi stopped and urged her daughters-in-law: “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house” (v. 8). She blessed them: “May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me” (v. 8). The two wept and said they would go with her (v. 10), and she urged them again: “Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?” (v. 11). Looking at her own future, she saw nothing left, and did not want two young women to wait with her for nothing.
One goes back, one stays. “Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her” (v. 14). The passage does not blame Orpah. She went back as her mother-in-law told her; Naomi herself said she had “gone back to her people and to her god” (v. 15). Ruth did not go.
Ruth’s words. “Where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay” (v. 16). Ruth is not only following a person: “Your people will be my people, and your God my God” (v. 16). She includes even death and burial: “Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried” (v. 17). When she swears, she swears by the LORD’s name: “May the LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me” (v. 17). The passage goes on: “When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her” (v. 18).
Don’t call me Naomi. In Bethlehem, “all the city was excited about them, and they asked, ‘Is this Naomi?’” (v. 19). Naomi said, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me” (v. 20). In the last lesson she lost one thing after another; in this lesson she says it out loud: “I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty” (v. 21). The passage records her bitter words unchanged, and does not say she was wrong to speak them.
Empty, but not alone. Naomi says she has come home empty, yet the last verse reads: “So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her” (v. 22). Ruth is still beside her. The passage adds one more line: “They came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest” (v. 22). In the next lesson, Ruth goes out to the fields.
When Naomi urged Ruth to go back, she said Orpah had “gone back to her people and to her god” (v. 15). In Naomi’s words, going back to one’s own people also meant going back to that people’s god.
Ruth’s answer speaks of both together: “Your people will be my people, and your God my God” (v. 16). A woman of Moab swears by the LORD’s name (v. 17) and goes with an Israelite widow to Bethlehem. In the last verse of this lesson, the passage still calls her “Ruth the Moabitess” (v. 22).
Perhaps you too feel, like Naomi, that you have ‘come home empty’: you had much when you went out, and nothing when you came back. Perhaps you too have said bitter words to God. The passage did not delete Naomi’s words; you too can bring your words to God.
Perhaps there is a ‘Ruth’ beside you as well: someone who did not leave you when you were emptiest. You may not see it yet, but at the very moment Naomi says ‘empty,’ the passage has already written Ruth in beside her.
This week: Think of the hardest season of your life. Who did not leave you? This week, write them a few lines, or thank them in person.
Scripture: World English Bible.