Ruth 1:8

And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(8) Return.—Naomi’s love is all unselfish. The company of Ruth and Orpah would clearly have been a great solace to her, yet she will not sacrifice them to herself. They each had a mother and a home; the latter, Naomi might fail to secure to them.

Benson Commentary

Ruth 1:8. Return each to her mother’s house — She desires them to accompany her no farther, but to go back to their own home. And it seems it was usual in Moab, as well as in Israel, for widows to dwell with their parents. But she says, mother’s, rather than father’s house, because daughters used to converse more frequently with their mothers, and to dwell in the same apartments with them, which then were distinct from those parts of the house where the men dwelt. The dead — With my sons, your husbands, while they lived.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

1:6-14 Naomi began to think of returning, after the death of her two sons. When death comes into a family, it ought to reform what is amiss there. Earth is made bitter to us, that heaven may be made dear. Naomi seems to have been a person of faith and piety. She dismissed her daughters-in-law with prayer. It is very proper for friends, when they part, to part with them thus part in love. Did Naomi do well, to discourage her daughters from going with her, when she might save them from the idolatry of Moab, and bring them to the faith and worship of the God of Israel? Naomi, no doubt, desired to do that; but if they went with her, she would not have them to go upon her account. Those that take upon them a profession of religion only to oblige their friends, or for the sake of company, will be converts of small value. If they did come with her, she would have them make it their deliberate choice, and sit down first and count the cost, as it concerns those to do who make a profession of religion. And more desire rest in the house of a husband, or some wordly settlement or earthly satisfaction, than the rest to which Christ invites our souls; therefore when tried they will depart from Christ, though perhaps with some sorrow.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Accompanying their mother-in-law to the borders of their own land would probably be an act of Oriental courtesy. Naomi with no less courtesy presses them to return. The mention of the mother's house, which the separation of the women's house or tent from that of the men facilitates, is natural in her mouth, and has more tenderness in it than father's house would have had; it does not imply the death of their fathers Ruth 2:11.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

8. Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house—In Eastern countries women occupy apartments separate from those of men, and daughters are most frequently in those of their mother.

the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead—that is, with my sons, your husbands, while they lived.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Each to her mother’s house; not that they wanted fathers, Ruth 2:11, but because daughters used to converse more frequently with their mothers, and to be most endeared to them, and to dwell in the same apartments with them, which then were distinct from those parts of the house where the men dwelt.

With the dead; with my sons, your husbands, whilst they lived.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Naomi said to her two daughters in law,.... When they were come, as it is very probable, to the utmost limits of the land of Moab, and to the borders of the land of Israel:

go, return each unto her mother's house: the mother's house is mentioned, and not the father's, not because they had no father living; for it is certain Ruth had a father as well as a mother, Ruth 2:11 but because mothers are most affectionate to their daughters, and they most conversant together; and because women in those times had apartments to themselves, and who used to take their daughters to them when become widows; though such was the strong love of those young widows to their mother-in-law, that they chose rather to dwell with her, while she lived in Moab, than with their own mothers:

the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me; that is, with their husbands, who were dead; as the Targum is, that they refused to marry men after their death; or rather it respects their affectionate care of their husbands, and behaviour towards them when living, as well as the respect they showed to their memory, at and since their death; and also their filial duty to her, both before and since; and particularly, as the Targum expresses it, in that they had fed and supported her.

Geneva Study Bible

And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

8. to her mother’s house] although Ruth’s father was alive, Ruth 2:11; but the natural place for the female members of the family would be their mother’s tent or house, cf. Genesis 24:28; Genesis 24:67, Song of Solomon 3:4.

the Lord deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt] Cf. Psalm 18:25 ‘with the kind thou shewest thyself kind.’ Jehovah’s kindness was specially needed by the widow, for her condition was regarded as a reproach, Isaiah 4:1; Isaiah 54:4. The Book of the Covenant makes no provision for the widow (Exodus 22:22 is a later expansion); contrast the humanity of Deuteronomy 24:19-21; Deuteronomy 27:19.

On her marriage the wife united herself to her husband’s religion; when she returned to her own people as a widow, she returned to their religion if they were foreigners, Ruth 1:15 f. Yet Jehovah’s influence is not entirely confined to the land of Israel; Naomi can commend her daughters in law to His protection when they were back in their own land.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 8. - And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. She reverted, with deeper earnestness, to their theme, of discussion. She acknowledged that most kindly had they acted toward her. Her heart was filled with gratitude. It was likewise agitated with grief at the prospect of bidding them a final farewell, Nevertheless, she felt that it would be unreasonable and unkind to invite them to be, to any further degree, sharers of her adversity. Hence, thanking them for their loving convoy, she would remind them that every step further on would only increase the length of their return-journey; and she said, Go, return each to her mother's home. There, in the females' apartment, and in the bosom of their mothers, they would surely find a welcome and a refuge. She judges of their mothers by herself, and she refers rather to them than to their fathers, partly, perhaps, because she bears in mind her own motherhood, but principally, no doubt, because, in those Oriental countries, it lay very particularly within the province of mothers to make arrangements in reference to their daughters. May Yahveh deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the deceased, and with me. It is beautiful gratitude, and at the same time a touching monument to the faithfulness and gentleness that had characterized and adorned the young widows. Her simple Hebrew theology, moreover, comes finely out. She assumes that her own Yahveh reigned in Moab as in Judah, and that all blessing descended from him. There is a little peculiarity in the Hebrew pronouns in this clause. They are masculine instead of feminine. The influence of the stronger sex overrides grammatically, for the moment, the influence of the weaker. Ruth 1:8

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"On the way," i.e., when they had gone a part of the way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each one to her mother's house," - not her father's, though, according to Ruth 2:11, Ruth's father at any rate was still living, but her mother's, because maternal love knows best how to comfort a daughter in her affliction. "Jehovah grant you that ye may find a resting-place, each one in the house of her husband," i.e., that ye may both be happily married again. She then kissed them, to take leave of them (vid., Genesis 31:28). The daughters-in-law, however, began to weep aloud, and said, "We will return with thee to thy people" כּי before a direct statement serves to strengthen it, and is almost equivalent to a positive assurance.