Ruth 1

21. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance. This plot might be easily executed, as, in the East, festivals are often held in the fields or gardens, and the men rarely participate in the women’s amusements.

22. Be favourable, etc. Or, as R.V., “Grant them graciously unto us: because we took not for each man,” etc. The meaning is, “The case is so pressing, that it behoves all parties quietly to submit. By not giving your daughters or sisters voluntarily, you have avoided the guilt of violating your solemn vow.” See ver. 18. Although they escaped the literal breach of their vow, this expedient was in fact an actual evasion of it; whilst at the same time it tended to give license to fraud and violence.

THOUGH this Book is placed in our English version among the historical books, its true position would appear to be that which it occupies in the Hebrew Bible, where it forms part of the Hagiographa. It was the second of the five Megilloth or Festal Rolls, one of which was publicly read at each festival. Ruth was read at the Feast of Pentecost.

Yet it has its place in the history of Israel, as showing the ancestry of David, and in the history of the Christian Church, as giving one important link in the genealogy of the Saviour (cp. Matt. i. 5). The fact that Ruth was a Gentile, a Moabitess, was a lesson against Jewish exclusiveness, and to the Christian it is a reminder that both Jew and Gentile have their place in the kingdom of God and in the progress of humanity.

Naomi is surely a historic figure. Leaving the land of Canaan with her husband, on account of famine, she is soon left a widow with her two sons. But, though among a heathen population, she does not forget the God of her fathers, and her life influences for good both Orpah and Ruth. She is an example of the power of consistent faithfulness.

Orpah illustrates the sadness of a lost ideal. When Naomi indicates her intention of returning to Canaan, Orpah as well as Ruth desires to go with her. But she only went part of the way. She returned “to her people and to her gods,” back to the degradation of Moabitish idolatry.

Ruth’s is the glory of a heavenly choice. Hers was no self-seeking decision. She was going among strangers. It was a life of poverty and toil that she had to face—gleaning in the fields after the reapers. But her faith in God is shown in the words, “Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God,” and again where Boaz says to her (ii. 12), “the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.”

The whole Book is an idyll of womanhood, of family affection, of faith rewarded. “The place of Ruth in Holy Writ needs no other vindication than this—that, in her, love grew to heroism. But if it did, an ample vindication might be found in the facts that this Book shows us that every pure and unselfish affection leads to God, and is acceptable to Him; that it reveals Him to us as no less pleased by the goodness of a heathen than by that of a Hebrew; and that it also shows us that, in their better moods, the very Jews knew that there was no respect of persons with Him” (Dr. Samuel Cox: Ruth, in Devotional Commentary).

1. Beth-lehem-judah. The small town so well known in Scripture history, about six miles south of Jerusalem, originally called Ephratah, both names referring to the “fruitfulness” of the soil around this “House of Bread.” It is here called Beth-lehem-judah, perhaps in distinction from Beth-lehem in Zebulun (Josh. xix. 15).

went to sojourn, etc. Indicating that the famine did not extend beyond the land of Israel.

4 took them wives of the women of Moab.

Though this was not an infraction of the letter of the law in Deut. vii. 3, which specifies only Cananitish women, it was a violation of its spirit, the law being designed to prevent all admixture with idolatrous nations. The Moabites were under a special ban. See Deut. xxiii. 3. Mahlon, the elder brother, married Ruth (iv. 10).

13 would ye tarry. Alluding to the custom mentioned in Gen. xxxviii. 8; Deut. xxv. 5.

15 return thou. Some have regarded this advice as showing a want of enlightened piety in Naomi. It must, however, be remembered that she had commended both Orpah and Ruth to the care of the Eternal (8).

16 thy God my God. It is clear that Ruth was determined to adopt the religion as well as the people of her mother-in-law. Her constancy evidently touched the hearts of the people of Bethlehem (see ver. 22; ii. 6, 11), and so opened the way for the reward which God designed for her.

19 they said. The feminine form is used in the Hebrew, “the women said.”

20. Naomi. “My sweet one.”

Mara. “Bitter.”

22 barley harvest. That is, about April.