Ruth 1:7

7 So she set out from the place {where she was}^[a] and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

Ruth 1:7 Meaning and Commentary

Ruth 1:7

Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was
What part of Moab she had dwelt in, and now removed from, is not said; it is called the country or field of Moab, she returned from; hence some have thought, that she and her husband, and her sons, did not live in any of the cities of Moab, but in a field; either because the Moabites would not suffer them to dwell in their cities, only allowed them to pitch their tents in their fields; or they chose to dwell there, that they might as much as possible avoid conversation with them, and be preserved from their idolatry, and other corruptions:

and her two daughters in law with her;
who, out of respect to her, accompanied her some part of the way, as relations and friends usually did:

and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah;
they went along with her to the border of the land of Judah, in her return thither; for returning can only be said of her with any propriety, because her two daughters had never been there; that was not the country from whence they came, and therefore could not be said to return thither.

Ruth 1:7 In-Context

5 But {both} Mahlon and Kilion died, and the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.

6 And she got up, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the countryside of Moab, because she had heard in the countryside of Moab that Yahweh had {come to the aid of} his people to give food to them.

7 So she set out from the place {where she was} and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, each [of you] return to her mother's house. May Yahweh {show kindness to you} [just] as you did with the dead and with me.

9 May Yahweh {grant that you} find a resting place, each [in] the house of her husband." And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice[s] and cried.

Footnotes

• [a] Literally "which she was there"