Ruth 1:15-17 ASV

The Pulpit Commentary - Ruth 1:16-17

"Entreat me not to leave thee." A mother and a daughter-in-law are to go together. The daughter wishes it, and petitions with most eloquent ardor that it shall be so. A mother-in-law is sometimes—alas, too often—the subject of criticism and satire. It is a difficult position to fill, and many bitterly unkind and untrue caricatures have been made upon the relationship. In this case Naomi had made herself beloved by both Orpah and Ruth, and it was only through Naomi's words, "Turn again," that... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Ruth 1:16-18

Constancy. For simple pathos and unstudied eloquence, this language is unsurpassed. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." Here is the fervent outpouring of a true heart. Love and resolution are at their height. Thousands of human souls have expressed their mutual attachment in these words. They are not words of extravagance or of passion, but of feeling, of principle, of a fixed and changeless mind. Constancy must be admired, even by the inconstant. I. THERE WERE ... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Ruth 1:17

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. She wished to be naturalized for life in Naomi's fatherland. Nor did she wish her remains to be conveyed back for burial to the land of her nativity. So may Yahveh do to me, and still more, but death only shall part me and thee. She appeals to the God of the Israelites, the one universal God. She puts herself on oath, and invokes his severest penal displeasure if she should suffer anything less uncontrollable than death to part her... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Ruth 1:15

Ruth 1:15. Is gone back to her people and to her gods By this it appears, if Orpah had been a proselyte to the Jewish religion, she afterward apostatized. Those that forsake the communion of saints will certainly break off their communion with God. Return thou after thy sister-in-law This she said to try Ruth’s sincerity and constancy, and in order that she might intimate to her that if she went with her she must be firm in her attachment to the true religion. read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - Ruth 1:16-17

Ruth 1:16-17 . Entreat me not to leave thee For all thy entreaties cannot shake that resolution which thy instructions, formerly given, have wrought in me. Whither thou goest, I will go Though to a country I never saw, which I have been taught to despise, and far distant from my own country. Where thou lodgest, I will lodge Though it be in a cottage; nay, though it be no better a lodging than Jacob had when he put the stones for his pillow. Thy people shall be my people For, judging... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - Ruth 1:1-22

1:1-22 TEN YEARS OF HARDSHIP IN MOABWhen a severe famine struck Israel, Elimelech took his wife Naomi and their two sons across the Jordan and south to the land of Moab, in the hope of finding a living there. But Elimelech died, and within ten years his two sons, who had married Moabite wives, died also (1:1-5).Naomi saw no future for herself in Moab, so, upon hearing that the famine in Israel had passed, she decided to return home. Her daughters-in-law loved her and decided to go with her to... read more

James Burton Coffman

Coffman Commentaries on the Bible - Ruth 1:15

RUTH GOES WITH NAOMI"And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto unto her god; return thou after thy sister-in-law. And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee; for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God; where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried; Jehovah do so to me and more also, if aught but death part thee and me. And when... read more

Thomas Coke

Thomas Coke Commentary on the Holy Bible - Ruth 1:15

Ruth 1:15. Thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods— It is not by any means a just consequence from hence, that Orpah had never been proselyted to the Jewish religion. The contrary is a much more natural deduction; for if she had not once left them, she could not have returned to them. Ruth continued steadfast to the faith that she had embraced; Orpah returned back to Moab and to Chemosh. They who consider the friendless and forlorn state of Naomi, will not wonder much... read more

Thomas Constable

Expository Notes of Dr. Thomas Constable - Ruth 1:15-18

C. Ruth’s profession of faith in Yahweh 1:15-18Ruth concluded that her prospects for loyal love and rest (Ruth 1:8-9) were better if she identified with Israel than if she continued to identify with Moab. She had come to admire Israel’s God, in spite of Naomi’s present lack of faith. Elimelech and his family had evidently earlier fulfilled God’s purpose for His people while living in Moab. They had so represented Yahweh that Ruth felt drawn to Him and now, faced with a decision of loyalty, she... read more

John Dummelow

John Dummelow's Commentary on the Bible - Ruth 1:1-22

The Exile and the Return of Naomi1. Beth-lehem-judah] two hours’ journey S. of Jerusalem, is to be distinguished from Bethlehem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15). It was but a short distance from Moab, which, in the days here referred to, was a fertile, highly cultivated country. Travellers still speak of it as a land of streams. Nothing short of the compulsion of famine could have induced a Hebrew to migrate into this foreign country where he would have no right of citizenship, this unclean land where... read more