Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

Naomi pronounces a blessing on the women (v. 8): “May the LORD show kindness [hesed] to you, as you have shown to your dead husbands and to me.” Naomi invokes a proportionate blessing of hesed on the women because of their hesed to the deceased (see the discussion of hesed in the Introduction to Ruth, pp. 489–92). As the women have shown covenantal loyalty, kindness, goodness, mercy, love, and compassion in voluntary acts of extraordinary mercy or generosity toward Naomi and her two sons, so Yahweh will show hesed to them. The reference to the dead is simply Naomi’s way of referring to her two sons, to whom Ruth and Orpah have shown loyalty and faithfulness during the ten years of their marriages. Naomi concludes with an additional blessing: “May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest [repose, menuhah] in the home of another husband.”52 In this ancient world, security and shalom for her and her daughters-in-law are tied to a marriage relationship.