Ruth 1:13
Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me. Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.
The verse belongs to Naomi's return from Moab to Bethlehem after her husband Elimelech and her two sons Mahlon and Chilion had died. The family had left Bethlehem for Moab about ten years earlier because of famine in Israel near the close of the time of the judges, the sons had married Moabite women Orpah and Ruth, and when Naomi heard prosperity had returned to Bethlehem she started back with her daughters-in-law at first proposing and going with her. In the verse Naomi uses every argument to dissuade Orpah and Ruth from accompanying her to Bethlehem. She urges them to leave her and remain with and return to their own kindred and mother in Moab as being every way to their earthly advantage.
Her stated reason is that she has no more sons to become their husbands, is too old to marry again, and sees no prospect of providing them husbands. She expresses deep grief for their sakes because the hand of the Lord has gone out against her, a suffering she feels as especially painful because she believes the Lord's hand is against her. The appeal reflects unselfish concern lest the young widows face hardship without any temporal benefit in following her. At this point Naomi is old and poor with no son to preserve the family inheritance so that it appears lost, and Ruth's decision to go with her brings a last hope because Naomi still has kinsmen in Bethlehem.
The urging to turn back was not the best course but a test of fidelity, like Elijah's Tarry here to Elisha. Orpah withstood the test for a time with tears and then kissed Naomi and went back to her mother and to her people and to the gods of Moab, and her connection with the people of God ceased forever with her name mentioned no more. Ruth withstood the test amid Naomi's grief and loss and refused to leave or return from following Naomi, choosing where Naomi went to go, where she lodged to lodge, her people for her people and her God for her God, and where she died to die and be buried, with nothing but death parting them.
Only hearts that are steadfast like Ruth's are accepted in the sight of the Lord. So Ruth was honored with a place in the chief family in Israel, made one of the ancestors of Jesus Christ, given a history preserved in the Bible as a precious legacy to the people of God, and her name written in the Lamb's book of life.