RUTH. 
259 
of ten years, the mother and her daughters-in-law were ahke wid- 
owed. Naomi then determines to return to her own country ; 
both her daughters-in-law set out with her. Orpah and Ruth 
had alike been faithful to the Jewish family : " The Lord deal 
kindly with you as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me," 
says Naomi, as she urges them to leave her and go back to their 
own friends. Both the young women wept, and both answered, 
" Surely we will return with thee unto thy people." Naomi again 
urges their leaving her : " Turn again, my daughters, why will 
ye go with me?" "And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but 
Ruth clave unto her." This is the first sentence that betrays the 
difference between the young women ; both had been kind and 
dutiful to their husbands and mother-in-law, but now we see one 
turning back, and the other cleaving to the poor, and aged, and 
solitary widow. No positive blame is attached to Orpah, but 
from that instant we love Ruth. Read over her passionate re- 
monstrance with her mother-in-law : " Thy people shall be my 
people ; thy God my G-od. Where thou diest will I die, and 
there will I be buried." We follow the two Avomen to Bethle- 
hem, the flative town of the family : " And all the city was moved 
about them, and they said. Is this Naomi ?" ''And she said, Call 
me not Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty hath dealt very bit- 
terly with me : I went out full, and the Lord hath brought me home 
again empty." It was at the beginning of the barley harvest when 
they came to Bethlehem, and now we find Ruth preparing to 
glean. Probably gleaning was at this time a custom among the 
neighboring nations also, for the proposal comes from Ruth her- 
self, and not from her Jewish mother-in-law, who merely signifies 
her assent: "Go, my daughter." The young widow went, and 
