And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
The verse belongs to the pastoral story of Ruth, set in the time of the judges, whose close gives the ancestry of Jesus and includes Ruth, a Moabite woman. About ten years earlier Naomi's family had left Bethlehem for Moab because of famine in Israel. After her husband Elimelech and her sons Mahlon and Chilion died in Moab, Naomi determined to return to her former home in Bethlehem because she heard conditions there were prosperous. That return from Moab to Bethlehem after husband and sons died is the setting to which the verse belongs, and Ruth's going with her placed Ruth in the line through which Jesus was shown to descend from Abraham.
Both of her widowed Moabitish daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, who had married her sons, at first sincerely declared with tears that they would leave Moab and return with her to her people, and they started out with her toward Bethlehem. Their declaration was made as they weighed duty to their widowed mother-in-law against leaving their own families, home, and religion. Naomi answered with every argument to dissuade them and to test their resolve and fidelity. She counseled that they would do better to remain with their own people and kindred in Moab, since it was every way to their earthly advantage, for she had no more sons and was too old to marry again, warning that they would gain no husband or possessions by going with her.
Orpah withstood for a time but then broke her word, kissed Naomi, and went back to her people and to her gods, so that her connection with the people of God ceased forever. Ruth kept her word and would not turn back even when entreated to do so, choosing to leave Moab and return with Naomi to Bethlehem and cleaving to Naomi, to her people, and to her God even unto death. Ruth's steadfast choice gave Naomi a last ray of hope because she still had kinsmen in Bethlehem who might redeem the family inheritance. Ruth was therefore honored with a place in the chief family in Israel, becoming the mother of Obed, David's grandfather, and a Moabite ancestress in the line through which Jesus was shown to descend from Abraham, preserved as an example proving that only steadfast hearts are accepted.
The verse belongs to the pastoral story of Ruth, set in the time of the judges, whose close gives the ancestry of Jesus and includes Ruth, a Moabite woman. About ten years earlier Naomi's family had left Bethlehem for Moab because of famine in Israel. After her husband Elimelech and her sons Mahlon and Chilion died in Moab, Naomi determined to return to her former home in Bethlehem because she heard conditions there were prosperous. That return from Moab to Bethlehem after husband and sons died is the setting to which the verse belongs, and Ruth's going with her placed Ruth in the line through which Jesus was shown to descend from Abraham.
Both of her widowed Moabitish daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, who had married her sons, at first sincerely declared with tears that they would leave Moab and return with her to her people, and they started out with her toward Bethlehem. Their declaration was made as they weighed duty to their widowed mother-in-law against leaving their own families, home, and religion. Naomi answered with every argument to dissuade them and to test their resolve and fidelity. She counseled that they would do better to remain with their own people and kindred in Moab, since it was every way to their earthly advantage, for she had no more sons and was too old to marry again, warning that they would gain no husband or possessions by going with her.
Orpah withstood for a time but then broke her word, kissed Naomi, and went back to her people and to her gods, so that her connection with the people of God ceased forever. Ruth kept her word and would not turn back even when entreated to do so, choosing to leave Moab and return with Naomi to Bethlehem and cleaving to Naomi, to her people, and to her God even unto death. Ruth's steadfast choice gave Naomi a last ray of hope because she still had kinsmen in Bethlehem who might redeem the family inheritance. Ruth was therefore honored with a place in the chief family in Israel, becoming the mother of Obed, David's grandfather, and a Moabite ancestress in the line through which Jesus was shown to descend from Abraham, preserved as an example proving that only steadfast hearts are accepted.