The Pulpit Commentary — Ruth — Section 19

enjo_ycd. Their chief prerogatives were those ~rie:ntaJ countries, it lay very particu- epmtunl and morn!. TheiJ were !vis Messi- larly withm the province of mothers to make anic people. That is the key to unlock the arrangements in reference tc, their daughters. secret of the whole Old Testament Scriptures. Me.y Yahveh_ deal kindly with you, as ye Vor. 7.-And so she went forth out ot have dee.It with the deceased and with me. the ple.oe where she was. There is no I~ is benutifi:l gratitude, and at the same 11.ttempt on the part of the writer to localise time a touchmg monument to the faithful- tho spot. And her two daughters-in-law ness and gentleness that had char&ctcrised with her. They had kept, it seems, on and e.dorneJ the young widows. Her simple terms of affectiono.te sympathy with their Hebrew theology, moreover, comes finely mother-in-law. The jealousies that so often out. She assumes that her own Yahveh disturb the peace of households had no reigned in Moab as in Judah and that all place within the bounds of Naomi's juris- blessing descended from him~ There is a diction. The home of which she was the lit~le peculiarity in the Hebrew pronouns in matronly centre had been kept in its own this clause. They are masculine instea<l of beautiful orbit by the law of mutual re- feminine. The influence of the stronuer sex spect, deference, affection, and esteem-the overrides grammatically, for the m~ment law that insures happiness to both the loving the influence of the weaker. ' and the loved. "If there were more N aomis," Ver. 9.-May Yahveh grant to you that says Lawson, "there might be more Orpahs ye may find rest, each in the house of her and Ruths." And they went on the way to husband. Naomi again, when the current return to the land of Judah. Having left of her tenderest feelings was runnin" full her Moabitish abode, and got into the and strong, lifts up her longing heart t~ward frequented track which led in the direction her own Yahveh. He was the God not of of her native land, she journeyed onward the Hebrews only, but of the Gentiles like- for a stage or two, accompanied by her wise, and ruled and overruled in l\foab. daughters-in-law. Such is the picture. It The prayer is, in its form, full of syntactical must be subsumed in it that her daughters- peculiarity: "May Yahveh give to you," in-law had made up their minds to go with and, as the result of his giving, "may you her to the land of her nativity. The sub- find rest, each [in] the house of her husband." ject had been often talked over and discussed. The expression, "the house of her husband," Naomi would from time to time start objec- is used locatively. It is an answer to the tions to their kind intention. They, on suppressed question, "Where are they to their part, would try to remove her diffi- find rest ! " And hence, in our English culties, and would insist on accompanying idiom, we must insert the preposition, "in her. So the three widows journeyed onward the house of her husband.." As to the sub- together, wallcing. Adversity had pressed stance of the prayer, it has, es truly as the hard on their attenuated resources, and they grammatical syntax, its own tinge of Orient- -would not be encumbered with burdensome alism. Young females in l'rioab had but baggage. little scope for a life of usefulness and happi- Ver. 8.-And Naomi said to her two ness, unless shielded round and round within daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her the home of a pure and devoted husband. mother's house. She reverted, with deeper Naomi was well aware of this, and hence, earnestness, to their theme of discussion. in her motherly solicitude for her virtuous She acknowledged that most kindly had daughters-in-law, she gave them to under- they acted toward her. Her heart was filled stand that it would be the opposite of a griet with gratitude. It was likewise agitated to her if they should seek, in the one way with grief at the prospect of biddin,g them open to them in that comparatively unde- 11 final farewell Nevertheless, she fel f that veloped state of society, to brighten the it would be unreasonable e.nd unkind to homes of the lonely. In such homes, it invite them to be, to any further degree, circumstances were propitious, they would sharers of her adversity. Hence, thanking find deliverance from umest and an.xiety. them for their loving convoy, she would They would find rest. It would be a posi- remind them that every step further on tion in which they could ab-ide, and in which would only increase the length of their their tenderest feelings and most honourable return-journey ; and she said, Go, return desires would find satisfaction and rl!J)OSe. each to her mother's home. There, in the The peculiar force of the Hebre,v ;,pm? is females' apartment, and in the bosom of finely displayed by the texture of the associ- their mothers, they would surely find a ated expressions in Isa. xxxii. I 7, IS : "And welcome and a refuge. She judges of their the work of righteousness shall be peace; mothers by herself, and she refers rather to and the effect of righteousness quietness and them than to their fathers, partly, perhaps, assurance for ever; and my people shall because she bears in mind her own mother- dwell in a peaceable hab-itation, aud in hood.,. but principally, no doubt, becm1se, in sure dwellings, and in quiet rest ing-placea"  12 THE BOOK OF RUTH. [cu. 1. 6-14.