Ruth 1:16 – 17 “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. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. […]

Ruth 1:15 “Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.” Poor Ruth. She was trying her best to do what she thought was right. She was clinging to Naomi, clinging to her decision to stay with her mother-in-law. And yet, Naomi was trying to persuade […]

Ruth 1:14 “At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her.” Here we are at the turning point. The crossroad. The place of decision. Naomi has urged her daughters-in-law to turn back. Orpah, broken hearted, kissed her mother-in-law good-by, and turned around. Ruth, on the other hand, clung […]

Ruth 1:9b – 13 “Then she kissed them and they wept aloud and said to her, “We will go back with you to your people.” 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? Return home, my daughters; […]

Ruth 1:8 – 9 “Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, ‘Go back, each of you, to your mother’s home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.  May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of another husband.’ Then […]

Ruth 1:6 – 7 “When she heard in Moab that the Lord had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there. With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that […]

Ruth 1:3 – 5 “Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.” Oh, Eli. […]

Ruth 1:2 “The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.” In the ancient Hebrew society, names were of great significance. This is why the author includes them. Elimelech means, […]

Ruth 1:1 “In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab.” This first verse of Ruth is kind of like a news report. It tells […]