News came to Na-o'mi that the famine was ended in the land of Ju'dah, and she began to feel a strong impulse to return to her native land and kindred. For ten years she had lived in a foreign land without complaint, but now she longed to go home. Tenderly she told Ruth and Or'pah of her decision, and advised them to return to their parents. They were young, so Na-o'mi expressed the hope that they would find good husbands among their own people, and that the blessings of God would rest upon them.
Ruth and Or'pah loved Na-o'mi so deeply, and their relations with her had been so friendly, that they could not bear the thought of being separated from her. They begged Na-o'mi either to stay with them in Mo'ab, or else to let them go back with her to the land of Ju'dah. When she insisted in returning to her native land, they both journeyed with her to the border between Mo'ab and Is'ra-el. It was truly a touching scene when they reached the place and time for final partings. Or'pah yielded to the advice of her mother-in-law, bade her a fond farewell, and went back to live among her own people. But Ruth clung to Na-o'mi, refused to leave her, and poured the depth of her love into these beautiful words:
"Entreat me not to leave thee,
Or to return from following after thee:
For whither thou goest, I will go;
And where thou lodgest, I will lodge;
Thy people shall be my people,
And thy God my God:
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."
Na-o'mi graciously accepted this wonderful appeal, and the two women journeyed together on the road to the Dead Sea, walked along the borders of this Sea to the north, crossed the Jor'dan, and made their way up the rugged mountain road to the little town of Beth'le-hem.
The scene changes again to this lovely Jewish town and the surrounding country side. Ruth, in her wholehearted love for Na-o'mi and for Na-o'mi's God, had given up her nationality, the gods of her fathers, and the hope of marriage among her own people; by these sacrifices she proved her desire to become an Is'ra-el-ite in spirit and in practice. With noble unselfishness she began a life of toil and self-denial in her new home, thinking only of the welfare and security of her mother-in-law.
With many fond hopes Na-o'mi took Ruth into the full enjoyment of her rights as an Is'ra-el-ite, and planned for her marriage to some member of the family of E-lim'e-lech in order to provide an heir to the rights and honors of Ruth's deceased husband.
