Ruth 1:17

Rth 1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, [if ought] but death part thee and me.

Ver. 17. Where thou diest, &c] That both she and her mother should once die, she doubted not. {Heb 9:27} This many seem to do, whilst they so live as if their lives were riveted upon eternity. See Psa 49:10-11; Psa 49:13.

There will I be buried.] Burial is one of the dues of the dead; and dear friends desire to be buried together. {2Sa 19:37} Mezentius in Virgil begs to be buried by his son Lausus. {a}

The Lord do so to me, and more also.] Let him double and treble the evil wished upon me, which is here not mentioned by a usual aposiopesis, not unlike that of the prophet Amos in Amo 4:12; "And because I will do thus unto thee," Ubi non nominat mala, ut omnia timeant, {b} he nameth not any, that they may fear all. This is an oath bound with a curse, which yet is not particularly named, but left unto God. Indeed, every oath is with an execration, either understood or expressed.

{a} Aeneid., lib. x.

{b} Ribera.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Verse 17. The Lord do so to me, and more] May he inflict any of those punishments on me, and any worse punishment, if I part from thee till death. And it appears that she was true to her engagement; for Naomi was nourished in the house of Boaz in her old age, and became the fosterer and nurse of their son Obed, Ru 4:15-16.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(17) The Lord do so to me.—Ruth clinches her resolutions with a solemn oath, in which, if we are to take the words literally, she swears by the name of the God of Israel. With this Naomi yields; after so solemn a protest she can urge no more.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

17. will I die … be buried] According to ancient thought union in life meant union in death and in the grave; the members of a family had a common burying-place, Gen_47:30; Gen_49:29. In the underworld they lived together, as families and by nations; cf. the expression ‘he was gathered to his people,’ i.e. his fellow tribesmen, and see Eze_32:17-32.

the Lord do so to me, and more also] Jehovah has already become the God of Ruth, and she uses the name of Israel’s God in a solemn imprecation, which occurs only here and in the books of Samuel and Kings. When heathen utter this oath, Elohim is used instead of Jehovah, and the verbs are plural, 1Ki_19:2; 1Ki_20:10. Lit. the phrase here runs ‘Jehovah do so to me, and more also—(only) death shall separate me from thee’; the substance of the oath is an assertion, not a negation; similarly 1Sa_14:44; 1Sa_20:13, 1Ki_2:23 etc. in the Hebr.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried,.... She was determined to abide with her unto death, and not only was desirous to die as she did, but where she should die; in the same country, cottage, and bed, and be laid in the same grave, in hope of rising together at the resurrection of the just; having no regard at all to the sepulchres of her fathers, which people in all ages and countries have been fond of being laid in, as an honour and happiness. So with the Greeks and Romans, not only relations, but intimate friends, and such as had a strong affection for each other, were sometimes buried in the same grave, as Crates and Polemon (i), Paris and Oenome (k), and others (l); see Gal 2:20,

the Lord do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me; this is the form of oath she used for confirmation of what she had said, and to put an end to the debate on this subject; what she imprecates upon herself is not expressed, should she otherwise do than what she swears to; leaving Naomi to supply it in her own mind, and as being what was not fit to be named, and the greatest evil that could be thought to befall a perjured person.

(i) Lart. in Vita Cratet. (k) Strabo. Geograph. l. 13. p. 410. (l) Vid. Kirchman. de Funer. Roman. l. 3. c. 14. p. 433.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Lord do so and so, &c. A form of swearing usual in the history of the Old Testament, by which the person wished such and such evils to fall upon them, if they did not do what they said. (Challoner) --- It is not certain that they expressed what particular evils. (Calmet) --- They might be willing to undergo any punishment, if they should transgress. (Haydock) --- The pagans used a similar form of imprecation, 3 Kings xix., and 4 Kings xx. 10. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

17. The Lord do so to me — Here is the first occurrence of that common formula of an oath by which the person swearing called down upon himself a stroke of Divine judgment in case he kept not his word, nor carried out his resolution. Compare marginal references.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried. She wished to be naturalized for life in Naomi"s fatherland. Nor did she wish her remains to be conveyed back for burial to the land of her nativity. So may Yahveh do to me, and still more, but death only shall part me and thee. She appeals to the God of the Israelites, the one universal God. She puts herself on oath, and invokes his severest penal displeasure if she should suffer anything less uncontrollable than death to part her from her mother-in-law. "So may Yahveh do to me." It was thus that the Hebrews made their most awful appeals to Yahveh. They signified their willingness to suffer some dire calamity if they should either do the evil deed repudiated or fail to do the good deed promised. So stands in misty indefiniteness; not, as Fuller supposes, by way of "leaving it to the discretion of God Almighty to choose that arrow out of his quiver which he shall think it most fit to shoot," but as a kind of euphemism, or cloudy veil, two-thirds concealing, and one-third revealing, whatever horrid infliction could by dramatic sign be represented or hinted. And still more a thoroughly Semitic idiom, and so may he add (to do) There was first of all a full imprecation, and then an additional "bittock," to lend intensity to the asseveration. But death only shall sever between me and thee!" Ruth"s language is broken. Two formulas of imprecation are flung together. One, if complete, would have been to this effect: "So may Yahveh do to me, and so may he add to do, if ( aught but death sever between me and thee!

The other, if complete, would have run thus: I swear by Yahveh "that" (yKi) death, death only, shall part thee and me. In the original the word death has the article, death emphatically. It is as if she had said death, the great divider. The full idea is in substance death alone. This divider alone, says Ruth, shall sever between me and thee;" literally, between me and between thee," a Hebrew idiom, repeating for emphasis" sake the two-sided relationship, but taking the repetition in reverse order, between me (and thee) and between thee (and me).

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

There will I be buried - Not desiring to have so much as her dead body carried back into the land of Moab: but Naomi and she having joined souls, she desires they may mingle dust, in hopes of rising together, and remaining together forver. 18. Left speaking unto her - See the power of resolution! Those who are half- resolved, are like a door a-jar, which invites a thief. But resolution shuts and bolts he door, and then the devil flees from us.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

So may the Lord do to me as He has commenced to harm [me], for His hand has gone forth against me to slay my husband and to cause me to lose my property.

and so may He continue if anything but death separates me from you.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.