Ruth 1:9

Rth 1:9 The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each [of you] in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

Ver. 9. The Lord grant you, that ye may find rest,] i.e., The Lord give you good husbands - {Rth 3:2-9} - with whom you may live contentedly and comfortably. God is the chief marriage maker: but now-a-days, Dowry not God { Dos, non Deus:} and it proveth accordingly. Bag and baggage go oft together, &c.

And they lifted up their voice, and wept.] And so answered the kindness of her kiss. See 1Sa 20:41 Act 20:37.

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.

Rth_1:9

The Lord grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.

The rest of marriage

1. Mans Maker is the chief maker of all men and womens marriages in the world. It is the work of God to provide an helpmeet for man, hence it is called the covenant of God (Pro_2:17), and therefore honourable to all (Heb_13:4). Religious Naomi looks up here unto God, saying in effect, The Lord grant you good husbands.Grace should be sought for, in the first place, in those seven qualifications of good matches and marriages: grace, race, face, arts, parts, portion, proportion.

2. A married state is a state of rest. So it is called here and Rth_3:1. Hence marriage is called the port or haven of young people, whose affections while unmarried are continually floating and tossed to and fro like a ship upon the waters, till they come into this happy harbour. There is a natural propension in most persons towards nuptial communion, as all created beings have a natural tendency to their proper centre, and are restless out of it. (C. Ness.)

Rest in marriage

If it is to be wished that wives may find rest in the houses of their husbands, it must be the duty of husbands to do what they can to procure them rest, not only by endeavouring to provide for them what is necessary for their subsistence and comfortable accommodation, but by such a kind behaviour as will promote their satisfaction and comfort. Men and women may have affluence without rest, and rest without affluence. But let women also contribute to procure rest for themselves by frugality, by industry, by such behaviour to their husbands as will merit constant returns of kindness. (G. Lawson.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Rth 1:9-11. That ye may find rest, &c. — That ye may be happily settled in houses of your own, with good husbands. That they may be your husbands — According to the ancient custom, (Gen 38:8,) and the express law of God, (Deu 25:4,) which doubtless she had acquainted them with before, among other branches of the Jewish religion.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:9 Naomi here speaks the first of the book’s several blessings.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Hereby it appeareth that Naomi by dwelling among idolaters, was waxen cold in the true zeal of God, which rather hath respect to the ease of the body, than to the comfort of the soul.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The Lord grant you that ye may find rest--enjoy a life of tranquillity, undisturbed by the cares, incumbrances, and vexatious troubles to which a state of widowhood is peculiarly exposed.

Then she kissed them--the Oriental manner when friends are parting.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(9) The Lord grant you . . .—A twofold blessing is invoked by Naomi on her daughters-in-law, made the more solemn by the twofold mention of the sacred name Jehovah. She prays first for the general blessing, that God will show them mercy, and secondly for the special blessing, that they may find rest and peace in a new home.

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

9. that ye may find rest] Cf. Rth_3:1; Naomi had in her mind another home for them, i. e. a second marriage. The story is told with much naturalness and delicacy.

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.

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.

(c) Antiqu. l. 5. c. 9. sect. 1.

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

Take. She proposes marriage to them, as a state more suitable to their years, (Haydock) and wishes that they may experience none of its solicitudes, (1 Corinthians vii. 28,) but be constantly protected by their husbands. Widows are exposed to many difficulties. (Menochius)

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).

Rest, i.e. a quiet and happy life, free from those cares, vexations, encumbrances, and troubles which widows are in a special manner exposed unto.

She kissed them, as the manner there was when friends parted.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

9. That ye may find rest — That is, that ye may be happily married again, and thereby obtain relief from the bereavement and sorrows which now afflict you. The estate of holy matrimony is well called a state of rest, for the natural affections and propensities instinctively yearn for it, and in it alone find their lawful gratification. The Rabbins say: “The man is restless while he misses the rib that was taken out of his side; and the woman is restless till she gets under the man’s arm, from whence she was taken.”

She kissed them — With such kisses as only a tender mother could imprint upon the objects of her lost sons’ love. But those kisses bound them to her so that they could not tear themselves asunder.

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

May Yahveh grant to you that ye may find rest, each in the house of her husband. Naomi again, when the current of her tenderest feelings was running full and strong, lifts up her longing heart toward her own Yahveh. He was the God not of the Hebrews only, but of the Gentiles likewise, and rifled and overruled in Moab. The prayer is, in its form, full of syntactical peculiarity: "May Yahveh give to you," and, as the result of his giving, "may you find rest, each in the house of her husband." The expression, "the house of her husband," is used locatively. It is an answer to the suppressed question, "Where are they to find rest?" And hence, in our English idiom, we must insert the preposition, "in the house of her husband." As to the substance of the prayer, it has, as truly as the grammatical syntax, its own tinge of Orientalism. Young females in Moab had but little scope for a life of usefulness and happiness, unless shielded round and round within the home of a pure and devoted husband. Naomi was well aware of this, and hence, in her motherly solicitude for her virtuous daughters-in-law, she gave them to understand that it would be the opposite of a grief to her if they should seek, in the one way open to them in that comparatively undeveloped state of society, to brighten the homes of the lonely. In such homes, it circumstances were propitious, they would find deliverance from unrest and anxiety. They would find rest . It would be a position in which they could abide, and in which their tenderest feelings and most honorable desires would find satisfaction and repose. The peculiar force of the Hebrew hjWnm is finely displayed by the texture of the associated expressions in Isa_32:17, 18: And the work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever; and my people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation , and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting-places" (tjoWnm). And she kissed them, locking them lingeringly and lovingly in a farewell embrace. Kissed them." The preposition to, according to the customary Hebrew idiom, stands before the pronoun. In kissing, Naomi imparted herself passionately to her beloved daughters-in-law, and clung to them. There would be full-hearted reciprocation, and each to each would cling "in their embracement, as they grew together" (Shakespeare, Henry VIII.). And they lifted up their voice and wept. The idea is not that all three wept aloud. The pronoun "they" refers to the daughters-in-law, as is evident both from the preceding and from the succeeding context. The fine idiomatic version of the Vulgate brings out successfully and unambiguously the true state of the case quae elevata voce flere coeperunt. The lifting, up of the voice in weeping must be thought of according to the measure of Oriental, as distinguished from Occidental, custom. In the East there is less self-restraint in this matter than in the West.

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

May God give to you. [May God give what to you?] A husband.

Ibn Ezra on the Tanakh — English translations: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0); and “Commentary of Ibn Ezra on Isaiah - trans. by M. Friedlander, 1873” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.