Ruth 1:9

9 May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.” And she kissed them as they wept aloud

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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Ruth 1:9 In-Context

7 Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah.

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me.

9 May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.” And she kissed them as they wept aloud

10 and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?