This is yet another example of improperly dividing the Scripture text by those who gave us the chapter and verse divisions. The Scriptures are inspired, but the chapter and verse divisions were distinctly human inventions.

The words of Naomi’s blessing were essentially these: “Go, return each to her mother’s house: the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me. The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.

Naomi then asked Yahweh (or Jehovah using the older German transliteration) to treat Orpah and Ruth with kindness, just as they showed her two dead sons, and as they showed her. But here is where the matter gets interesting.

The next part of Naomi’s blessing might actually address the afterlife. We MAY have a glimpse of part of how the afterlife was seen, “May Yahweh grant to you [plural, as in both daughters-in-law] that you find quiet, or a settled spot, each in the house of her husband.” One of two events is being described. Either Naomi is projecting that they will marry again, or that the women will share their afterlife with their now-dead husbands, hopefully in peaceful terms.

Verses 11–13 handle the situation of the impracticality of producing two more sons for them to marry in the place of the two sons that died. More will be said about that later, but that remark will place out of bounds a continuation, a removal of widowhood, of things as they were from Naomi’s perspective. Naomi, as was noted in verse 5, “was left of her two sons and her husband.” Naomi, by her own devices in the land of Moab was at the end of her resources. The blessing then was the hope that God would provide for the daughters-in-law.

The wording of this has fabulous flexibility. Telling the story in places where the social custom was that widows cannot remarry because it would break the marriage ties, such as our common “till death do you part” realized in their perspective as meaning both the husband and wife, this then is a prayer of uniting comfort even when the widow is not yet gone. In the remainder of your life, therefore, you will have trouble, but when you die you will have peace and union with your husband.

Naomi was undoubtedly assuming a remarriage. Going back to their respective mothers, she is hoping that they will still be found desirable to the men of their community and marry again. Finding rest or peace in a husband’s house would then be a living husband and a house in this life. Assuming that Naomi meant remarriage, she would be contextually wishing something good, not scandalous, for these two women.

Many societies like this, such as what we malign to call “primitive” would expect that widows would either suffer in solitude (such as widows in Afghanistan under the Taliban), or would rejoin their natal families (“return each to her mother’s house”), or resort to menial servanthood just a step away from the social status of a slave, or live illicitly by stealing or prostitution. The remarriage prospect was a more noble hope of Naomi, for in few societies does it become acceptable for a girl to return to her mother’s home and live the life of a prostitute or thief. The mother would desire a good standing among her people. Naomi was then wishing an honorable future when the prospects might easily be very, very dismal.

Commentary by Larry Swinford
Posted on: 5/27/2009 21:41 pm