The Pulpit Commentary — Ruth — Section 11

There is only the apposition, for discrimin- but the vowel of union. The name woul<l ation's sake, of one geographical name to be originnlly significant of strong religion~ Another, just as we may say, in English, son~i!llents,. pe!haps mingl_cd wjt~ strong Foston, L;1u;o/nshire, or Ale.vandria, Dum- political prmc1ples. The 1mpos1tion of it bartonshire. The localisation of the main on a son would be something like e. mani- name is thus effectually indicated. There festo of the father's creed. And the name is another Alexandria in Egypt ; there of hi■ wife Naomi. Or rather "No-o-mi." is another Boston in the United States of The precise import of the word is not abso- America; and there was in Palestine an- lutely ascertained ; but it is probable that other Bethlehem, namely, in the canton it is somewhat abbreviated in its termin- of Zebulun (see Josh. xix. 15). Bethle- ation, and means "God is sweet," or, very hem, Judah, lies about six miles to the literally, "Jah is sweetness." It had been ~outh of Jerusalem. "Its appearance," originally imposed as a name by some grate- says Dr. Porter, "is striking. It is situated ful and happy mother, who, by gracious on a narrow ridge, which projects east- providences, or by other gracious revelations, ,rntd from the central mountain range, and had been led to think that " sweet are the breaks down in abrupt terraced slopes to ways, sweet are the dealings, and sweet is deep valleys on the north, east, and south. the character of God." The word does not The terraces, admirably kept, and covered ID;ean beautiful, as some suppose ; nor gi·a- mth rows of olives, intermixed l\':ith the fig cwus, as others suppose ; nor my delight, and the Tine, sweep in graceful curves round as others still suppose. It was not intended the ridge, regular as stairs" (' Syna and to describe the character of the person who Palestine,' p. 199). The valleys below are was to bear tho name. It was intended to exceptionally fertile, and have been so from signalise, in the spiJ.it of a manifesto, a much- time immemorial Hence indeed the name prized feature in the Divine character-that Beth-Zeh.em, or Bread-house. Its modem feature, namely, that is displayed when "he name is Beit-lahm, or Flesh-ho?J,Se. Went deals sweetly with men." Gesenius is don bt- to sojourn in the land of Moab. We have less right when he makes sweetness the no word in English that exactly corresponds fundamental idea of the whole group of to the verb •U rendered sojourn. The affiliated words (see his' Thesaurus,' invoc.). cognate noun ~ uniformly translated, in The cognate Hebrew adjective is rendered King James's version, stranger, and means sweet in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1 and Prov. xxiii. 8 fO'T'ei,gner. The verb means to dweU as a (comp. Prov. xvi. 24 and the margin of fO'T'ei.gner, bnt its root-idea is yet unde- 2 Sam. i 23). In the light of this inter- termined. The Latin peregrinari admir- pretation, and of it alone, can the full signi- ably corresponds. The man of Bethlehem, ficance of what Naomi s:tid on her return to Judah, went forth from his own country to Bethlehem be apprehended : " Call me not "peregrinate" (Greek, ,rapou:ijcra,) "in the Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty land of Moab;" literally, "in the fields of" luzth dealt very bitterly with me" (ver. 20). Moab," that is, "in the pastoral parts of the And the name of hie two eone. In our territory of Moab." It was not a very great idiom we should say, "and the names of way off, this land of his "peregrination." his two sons." The two sons, however, Its blue mountains, rising up luridly beyond were for the moment. regarded as a unity the silver thread of the Jordan and the among the other units of the hous~hQld. gleaming expanse of the Dead Sea, are dis- Mahlon, or rather '·' Machlon," and Chilion. tinctly visible from the Mount of Olives and We need not dip deeply into the etymological the- ~eights e.bo~t Bethlehem. He, and his import of these names, or attach to them, as wife, and his two . 1onli. ,The regumptive applied to Elimelech's children, any peculiar he is employed for the purpose of linking significance. The names, unlike those of on to him, in his "peregrination," the other the parents, are devoid of theological tinge, members of the little household. He emi- and, in these modern times at all events, grated "along with his wife and two sons." their import is liable to endless debate. One He had fought hard to keep the wolf of would at the first blush of consideration sup- h~!lger from his door, but was like to be pose that the one meant awklinesa, and the beaten. One after another the props of his other consumptivmesa, or conswmptiQ'fl,- hope that better days would soon dawn had rather uninteresting and melancholy ideas. been swe1at from under hlm, and he saw no But the7 are peculiarly confounding when alternative but to leave for a season the we consider that the individuals, so named land of his fathers. in our story, had apparently inherited a deli- Ver. 2.-A.nd the name of the man wu cate constitution, which developed in both Elimelech. That is, "God is King," not, of them into premature sickliness and decay. as the older critics were accustomed to in- The names have the aspect of being pro- teq,n:t it, '' My God is King." The inter- phetic. And yet, even though we should mediate i is not the possessive pronoun, assume that Elimelech, in virtue of somf) en. 1. 1-5.J THE BOOK OF RUTH. 3