Ruth 1:15
New International Version
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her.”

New Living Translation
“Look,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. You should do the same.”

English Standard Version
And she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

Berean Standard Bible
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

King James Bible
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

New King James Version
And she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

New American Standard Bible
Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

NASB 1995
Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

NASB 1977
Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

Legacy Standard Bible
Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

Amplified Bible
Then Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; turn back and follow your sister-in-law.”

Christian Standard Bible
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

American Standard Version
And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god: return thou after thy sister-in-law.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And her mother in law said to her: “Behold, your sister in law returned to her people and to the house of her people. Return you also after your sister in law”

Brenton Septuagint Translation
And Noemin said to Ruth, Behold, thy sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods; turn now thou also after thy sister-in-law.

Contemporary English Version
Naomi then said to Ruth, "Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and to her gods! Why don't you go with her?"

Douay-Rheims Bible
And Noemi said to her: Behold thy kinswoman is returned to her people, and to her gods, go thou with her.

English Revised Version
And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god: return thou after thy sister in law.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods. Go back with your sister-in-law."

Good News Translation
So Naomi said to her, "Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go back home with her."

International Standard Version
Naomi told Ruth, "Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Follow your sister-in-law!"

JPS Tanakh 1917
And she said: 'Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back unto her people, and unto her god; return thou after thy sister-in-law.'

Literal Standard Version
And she says, “Behold, your sister-in-law has turned back to her people, and to her god, turn back after your sister-in-law.”

Majority Standard Bible
“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

New American Bible
“See now,” she said, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!”

NET Bible
So Naomi said, "Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law back home!"

New Revised Standard Version
So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.”

New Heart English Bible
She said, "Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.

Webster's Bible Translation
And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law hath gone back to her people, and to her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law.

World English Bible
She said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

Young's Literal Translation
And she saith, 'Lo, thy sister-in-law hath turned back unto her people, and unto her god, turn thou back after thy sister-in-law.'

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Ruth's Loyalty to Naomi
14Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.” 16But Ruth replied: “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.…

Cross References
Joshua 24:15
But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the LORD, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD!"

Judges 11:24
Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us.

Ruth 1:14
Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

Ruth 1:16
But Ruth replied: "Do not urge me to leave you or to turn from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

2 Kings 2:2
and Elijah said to Elisha, "Please stay here, for the LORD has sent me on to Bethel." But Elisha replied, "As surely as the LORD lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you." So they went down to Bethel.


Treasury of Scripture

And she said, Behold, your sister in law is gone back to her people, and to her gods: return you after your sister in law.

gone back

Psalm 36:3
The words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit: he hath left off to be wise, and to do good.

Psalm 125:5
As for such as turn aside unto their crooked ways, the LORD shall lead them forth with the workers of iniquity: but peace shall be upon Israel.

Zephaniah 1:6
And them that are turned back from the LORD; and those that have not sought the LORD, nor inquired for him.

her gods

Judges 11:24
Wilt not thou possess that which Chemosh thy god giveth thee to possess? So whomsoever the LORD our God shall drive out from before us, them will we possess.

return

Joshua 24:15,19
And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD…

2 Samuel 15:19,20
Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, Wherefore goest thou also with us? return to thy place, and abide with the king: for thou art a stranger, and also an exile…

2 Kings 2:2
And Elijah said unto Elisha, Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Bethel. And Elisha said unto him, As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee. So they went down to Bethel.

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Ruth 1
1. Elimelech, driven by famine into Moab, dies there
4. Mahlon and Chilion, having married wives of Moab, die also
6. Naomi, returning homeward
8. dissuades her two daughters-in-law from going with her
14. Orpah leaves her, but Ruth with great constancy accompanies her
19. The two come to Bethlehem, where they are gladly received














(15) Naomi, now armed with a fresh argument, urges Ruth to follow her sister-in-law's example.

Her gods.--Naomi doubtless views the Moabite idols as realities, whose power is, however, confined to the land of Moab. She is not sufficiently enlightened in her religion to see in the Lord more than the God of Israel.

Verse 15. - And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people, and to her gods: return thou after thy sister-in-law. The expression that stands in King James's version thus, "and to her gods," is rendered by Dr. Cassel "and to her God." The same interpretation, it is noteworthy, is given in the Targum of Jonathan, who renders the expression, "and to her Fear" (וּלְוַת דְּחַלְרָּהּ). Such a translation assumes that the Moabites were not only theists, but monotheists. And yet in the mythology, or primitive theology, of Moab, we read both of Baal-Peor and of Chemosh. As to the former, see Numbers 25:8, 5; Deuteronomy 4:3; Psalm 106:28; Hosea 9:10. As to the latter, see Judges 11:24; 1 Kings 11:7, 33; Jeremiah 48:7, 13. In Numbers, moreover, 21:29, and in Jeremiah 48:46, the Moabites are called the people of Chemosh, and frequently is their national god called Chemosh in the inscription of King Mesha on the Moabitish Stone, so recently discovered and deciphered. It is supposed, not without reason, that the two names belonged to one deity, Chemosh being the old native name. Nevertheless, the translation "to her god" is an interpretation, not a literal rendering, and, on the other hand, the translation "to her gods" would, on the hypothesis of the monotheism of the Moabites, be unidiomatic. The original expression, "to her Elohim," does not tell anything, and was not intended by Naomi to tell anything, or to hint anything, of a numerical character concerning the object or objects of the Moabitish worship. It was an expression equally appropriate whether there was, or was not, a plurality of objects worshipped. It might be liberally rendered, and to her own forms of religious worship. The word elohim was a survival of ancient polytheistic theology and worship, when a plurality of powers were held in awe. "For," says Fuller, "the heathen, supposing that the whole world, with all the creatures therein, was too great a diocese to be daily visited by one and the same deity, they therefore assigned sundry gods to several creatures." The time arrived, however, when the great idea flashed into the Hebrew mind, The Powers are One and hence the plural noun, with its subtended conception of unity, became construed with verbs and adjectives in the singular number. It was so construed when applied to the one living God; but it readily retained its original applicability to a plurality of deifies, and hence, in such a passage as the one before us, where there is neither adjective nor verb to indicate the number, the word is quite incapable of exact rendering into English. Orpah had returned to her people and her Elohim. Return thou after thy sister-in-law. Are we then to suppose that Naomi desired Ruth to return to her Moabitish faith? Is it with a slight degree of criticism that she referred to Orpah's palinode? Would she desire that Ruth should, in this matter, follow in her sister-in-law's wake? We touch on tender topics. Not unlikely she had all along suspected or seen that Orpah would not have insuperable religious scruples. And not unlikely, too, she would herself be free from narrow religious bigotry, at least to the extent of dimly admitting that the true worship of the heart could reach the true God, even when offensive names, and forms, and symbolisms were present in the outer courts of the creed. Nevertheless, when she said to Ruth, "Return thou after thy sister-in-law," she no doubt was rather putting her daughter-in-law to a final test, and leading her to thorough self-sifting, than encouraging her to go back to her ancestral forms of worship. "God," says Fuller, "wrestled with Jacob with desire to be conquered; so Naomi no doubt opposed Ruth, hoping and wishing that she herself might be foiled."

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
“Look,”
הִנֵּה֙ (hin·nêh)
Interjection
Strong's 2009: Lo! behold!

said Naomi,
וַתֹּ֗אמֶר (wat·tō·mer)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Qal - Consecutive imperfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 559: To utter, say

“your sister-in-law
יְבִמְתֵּ֔ךְ (yə·ḇim·têḵ)
Noun - feminine singular construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 2994: A sister-in-law

has gone back
שָׁ֣בָה (šā·ḇāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

to
אֶל־ (’el-)
Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

her people
עַמָּ֖הּ (‘am·māh)
Noun - masculine singular construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 5971: A people, a tribe, troops, attendants, a flock

and
וְאֶל־ (wə·’el-)
Conjunctive waw | Preposition
Strong's 413: Near, with, among, to

her gods;
אֱלֹהֶ֑יהָ (’ĕ·lō·he·hā)
Noun - masculine plural construct | third person feminine singular
Strong's 430: gods -- the supreme God, magistrates, a superlative

follow
שׁ֖וּבִי (šū·ḇî)
Verb - Qal - Imperative - feminine singular
Strong's 7725: To turn back, in, to retreat, again

[her] back home.”
אַחֲרֵ֥י (’a·ḥă·rê)
Preposition
Strong's 310: The hind or following part


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OT History: Ruth 1:15 She said Behold your sister-in-law is gone (Ru Rut.)
Ruth 1:14
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