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Ruth 1:11

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But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands?

Commentaries

Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.

Keil-Delitzsch Old Testament Commentaryv. 11

Naomi endeavoured to dissuade them from this resolution, by setting before them the fact, that if they went with her, there would be no hope of their being married again, and enjoying the pleasures of life once more. "Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?" Her meaning is: I am not pregnant with sons, upon whom, as the younger brothers of Mahlon and Chilion, there would rest the obligation of marrying you, according to the Levitate law (Deu 25:5; Gen 38:8). And not only have I no such hope as this, but, continues Naomi, in Rut 1:12, Rut 1:13, I have no prospect of having a husband and being blessed with children: "for I am too old to have a husband;" year, even if I could think of this altogether improbable thing as taking place, and assume the impossible as possible; "If I should say, I have hope (of having a husband), yea, if I should have a husband to-night, and should even bear sons, would ye then wait till they were grown, would ye then abstain from having husbands?" The כּי (if) before אמרתּי refers to both the perfects which follow. להן is the third pers. plur. neuter suffix הן with the prefix ל, as in Job 30:24, where הן is pointed with seghol, on account of the toned syllable which follows, as here in pause in Rut 1:9 : lit. in these things, in that case, and hence in the sense of therefore = לכן, as in Chaldee (e.g., Dan 2:6, Dan 2:9,Dan 2:24, etc.). תּעגנה (vid., Isa 60:4, and Ewald, 195, a.), from עגן ἁπ. λεγ. in Hebrew, which signifies in Aramaean to hold back, shut in; hence in the Talmud עגוּנה, a woman who lived retired in her own house without a husband. Naomi supposes three cases in Rut 1:12, of which each is more improbable, or rather more impossible, than the one before; and even if the impossible circumstance should be possible…

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Matthew Henry Bible Commentaryv. 11

In this epistle the apostle congratulates Gaius upon the prosperity of his soul (Jo3 1:1, Jo3 1:2), upon the fame he had among good Christians (Jo3 1:3, Jo3 1:4), and upon his charity and hospitality to the servants of Christ (Jo3 1:5, Jo3 1:6). He complains of contemptuous treatment by an ambitious Diotrephes (Jo3 1:9, Jo3 1:10), recommends Demetrius (Jo3 1:12), and expresses his hope of visiting Gaius shortly (Jo3 1:13, Jo3 1:14).

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