Ruth 1:16 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Ruth 1:16
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:
to stop (usually over night) · verb, qal imperfect, 2nd person feminine singular
lodge
אָלִ֔ין'a.Lin
H3885
to stop (usually over night) · verb, qal imperfect, 1st person common singular
people
עַמֵּ֣ךְ'a.Mekh
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
people
עַמִּ֔י'a.Mi
H5971
a people (as a congregated unit) · noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix
God
וֵאלֹהַ֖יִךְve.lo.Ha.yikh
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · conjunction + noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix, 2nd person feminine singular
God
אֱלֹהָֽי'e.lo.Hai
H430
gods in the ordinary sense · noun, common masculine plural construct + pronominal suffix
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Samuel 15:21 And Ittai answered the king, and said, As the LORD liveth, and as my lord the king liveth, surely in what place my lord the king shall be, w…
Ruth 2:11-12 And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine h…
2 Kings 2:2-6 And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Beth-el. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, an…
Psalms 45:10 Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
Matthew 8:19 And a certain scribe came, and said unto him, Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest.
John 13:37 Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake.
1 Thessalonians 1:9 For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true…
Isaiah 14:1 For the LORD will have mercy on Jacob, and will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land: and the strangers shall be joined with th…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Ruth 1:6-18
See here, I. The good affection Naomi bore to the land of Israel, Rut 1:6. Though she could not stay in it while the famine lasted, she would not stay out of it when the famine ceased. Though the country of Moab had afforded her shelter and supply in a time of need, yet she did not intend it should be her rest for ever; no land should be that but the holy land, in which the sanctuary of God was, of which he had said, This is my rest for ever. Observe,
1. God, at last, returned in mercy to his people; for, though he contend long, he will not contend always. As the judgment of oppression, under which they often groaned in the time of the judges, still came to an end, after a while, when God ha…
the hand of the Lord is gone out against me--that is, I am not only not in a condition to provide you with other husbands, but so reduced in circumstances that I cannot think of your being subjected to privations with me. The arguments of Naomi prevailed with Orpah, who returned to her people and her gods. But Ruth clave unto her; and even in the pages of Sterne, that great master of pathos, there is nothing which so calls forth the sensibilities of the reader as the simple effusion he has borrowed from Scripture--of Ruth to her mother-in-law [CHALMERS].
Adam Clarke on Ruth 1:16
And Ruth said - A more perfect surrender was never made of friendly feelings to a friend: I will not leave thee - I will follow thee: I will lodge where thou lodgest - take the same fare with which thou meetest; thy people shall be my people - I most cheerfully abandon my own country, and determine to end my days in thine. I will also henceforth have no god but thy God, and be joined with thee in worship, as I am in affection and consanguinity. I will cleave unto thee even unto death; die where thou diest; and be buried, if possible, in the same grave. This was a most extraordinary attachment, and evidently without any secular motive.
The Targum adds several things to this conversation betwe…
Ruth, a foreigner, did not leave Naomi's side. See how much merit there is in standing by the deserted in solace. From her seed, Christ is born.
The constancy of Ruth, who because of the piety of her spirit and the memory of her husband preferred to her parents a woman worn out in old age and laboring in poverty, is praiseworthy.
Ruth, who surpassed the definition of the Law, and entered into the Church, and became an Israelite, and deserved to be counted among the greater ones of the Lord's family, because of the choice of her mind and not her body, is a great example for us, because in her the figure of our entrance into the Church of the Lord, who are gathered from the nations, preceded. Let us therefore imitate her; so that because she deserved this prerogative of being admitted into her society by her manners, as history teaches: we also, because of the choice of our manners, may be counted among the Church of the Lord, with the support of our merits... Therefore, Saint Matthew rightly mentioned in the Gospel that the Lord Himself, the author of the gathering of the gentiles, took on the generation of foreigners according to the flesh, so that even then there would be an indication that this generation would produce a caller of the gentiles, whom we all, gathered from foreigners, would follow, leaving behind our ancestral ways and saying to the one who would call us to the worship of God, for example, to Paul or to any bishop: Your people shall be my people, and your God my God (Ruth 1:16). Therefore, Ruth, like Leah and Rachel, forgetting her own people and her father's house, breaking the bond of the Law, entered into the Church.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Love To Man · Exemplified: Ruth — Exemplified: Ruth
Mother-In-Law · Beloved by Ruth — Beloved by Ruth
Proselytes · Required: To give up all heathen associates — Required: To give up all heathen associates
Readings, Select · LIGHTS AND SHADOWS — LIGHTS AND SHADOWS
Ruth · Her — Her
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on Ruth 1:16
And Ruth said, entreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee,.... Do not make use of any arguments to persuade me to go back: or "do not meet me", or "be against me" (h); do not meet me with objections, or be in my way, or an hinderance to me, in going along with thee; do not be against it, for to be against that was to be against her inclination, desires, and resolutions, and against her interest:
for whither thou goest I will go: let the country she was going to be what it would, though unknown to her, and though she should never see her own country any more:
and where thou lodgest I will lodge; though in ever so mean a cottage, or under the open air:
thy people s…
To the repeated entreaty of Naomi that she would follow her sister-in-law and return to her people and her God, Ruth replied: "Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return away behind thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou stayest, I will stay; thy people is my people, and thy God my God! where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also (lit. and so may He add to do)! Death alone shall divide between me and thee." The words יסיף ... יעשׂה י כּה are a frequently recurring formula in connection with an oath (cf. Sa1 3:17; Sa1 14:44; Sa1 20:13, etc.), by which the person searing called down upon himself a severe punishment in case he s…
Ruth swore an oath in the name of the Lord to seal her firm commitment to Israel’s God (cp. 2:11-12) and to Naomi.
Rashi on Ruth 1:16
Do not urge me. Do not press me.
For wherever you go, I shall go. From here our Rabbis of blessed memory derived24In Maseches Yevamos 47b. that if a [prospective] proselyte comes to convert, we inform him of some of the punishments [for violating the commandments] so that is he decides to renege [from his intention to convert], he can renege; for out of the words of Rus, you can learn what Naomi said to her. [Naomi said.] “We may not venture outside the boundary [of 2000 cubits beyond city limits] on Shabbos.” She [Rus] replied to her, “For wherever you go I shall go.”25Alternatively, just as you are going to Eretz Yisroel for the sake of your religion, so it is my purpose to go there in or…
