Ruth 1:9

9 May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!" She kissed them and they cried openly.

Ruth 1:9 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 1:9

The Lord grant you
Some make a supplement here, the Targum a perfect reward, Aben Ezra an husband; and so Josephus says {c}, she wished them happier marriages than they had with her sons, who were so soon taken from them; but a supplement seems needless, for what follows is connected with the wish, and contains the sum of it:

that you may find rest;
each of you:

in the house of her husband;
that is, that they might each of them be blessed with a good husband, with whom they might live free from brawls and contentions, as well as from the distressing cares of life, having husbands to provide all things necessary for them, and so from all the sorrows and distresses of a widowhood estate:

then she kissed them;
in token of her affection for them, and in order to part with them; it being usual then as now for relations and friends to kiss at parting:

and they lifted up their voice and wept;
to think they must part, and never see one another more; their passions worked vehemently, and broke out in sobs, and sighs, and tears, and loud crying.


FOOTNOTES:

F3 Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 1.

Ruth 1:9 In-Context

7 And so she started out from the place she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law with her, on the road back to the land of Judah.
8 After a short while on the road, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, "Go back. Go home and live with your mothers. And may God treat you as graciously as you treated your deceased husbands and me.
9 May God give each of you a new home and a new husband!" She kissed them and they cried openly.
10 They said, "No, we're going on with you to your people."
11 But Naomi was firm: "Go back, my dear daughters. Why would you come with me? Do you suppose I still have sons in my womb who can become your future husbands?
Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.