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Ruth 1:12

in Ruth 1

Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should even have a husband to-night, and should also bear sons;

KJV

Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;

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This verse in Ruth 1

Commentary

4 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

Surely we will return with you to your people

on Ruth 1:10-13

Naomi argues from the levirate law of Deuteronomy 25:5, where a brother raises up offspring for the dead, and shows it cannot reach them. She lays the whole of it on God, "the hand of the LORD has gone out against me", and carries that reading until chapter 4.

This site's exposition

I am too old to have another husband

Naomi builds her case as a rising series of conditions: a husband tonight, sons from that night, and long years of waiting while they grow. Each step makes the hope less likely. The argument is built to close the door, and verse 18 shows it failed with Ruth.

The record, by era

The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

Observe, [1.] She judges herself chiefly aimed at in the affliction, that God's quarrel was principally with her: " The hand of the Lord has gone out against me. I am the sinner; it is with me that God has a controversy; it is with me that he is contending;

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — odd-straight-quotes

Turn again, my daughters, go your way,....

How the passage was read

What the Jewish commentators add

On the verses either side of this one

Would you wait for them. This is a question posed in wonder, “Would you perhaps wait for them until they grew up?” 17 The feminine form of them [להן] is used, because Naomi was hinting that perhaps she would bear daughters instead of sons, so why wait for “them”?
Rashi: France, 1040–1105 · Rashi on Ruth 1:13:1, via Sefaria, The Metsudah Five Megillot, Lakewood, N.J., 2001
1 more on this passage, in their own words ▾
"Are there yet any more sons in my womb?" Many of our colleagues thought that this response was directed at those who deny (the custom), not realizing that our ancestors transmitted that levirate marriage (yibbum) applies to brothers from the father, not from the mother. She was simply saying to them, if I had sons in my womb, I would give them to you in place of the deceased.
Ibn Ezra: Spain, 1089–1167 · Ibn Ezra on Ruth 1:11:1, via Sefaria, Sefaria Community Translation

This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.

Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 4 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.

The words behind it

19 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • שֹׁ֤בְנָהgo back

    shoenahH7725 →1056 times

  • בְנֹתַי֙O daughters my

    venotaiH1323 →588 times

  • לֵ֔כְןָgo

    lekhenaH1980 →1546 times

  • כִּ֥יfor

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • זָקַ֖נְתִּיI am [too] old

    zakantiH2204 →

  • מִהְי֣וֹתfor belonging

    mihyotH1961 →3559 times

  • לְאִ֑ישׁto a husband

    leishH376 →1663 times

  • כִּ֤יif

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • אָמַ֙רְתִּי֙I said

    ʾamartiH559 →5305 times

  • יֶשׁ־there

    yesh-H3426 →

  • לִ֣יfor <the> me

    li

  • תִקְוָ֔ה[is] hope

    tikvahH8615 →

  • גַּ֣םalso

    gamH1571 →769 times

  • הָיִ֤יתִיI belonged

    hayitiH1961 →3559 times

  • הַלַּ֙יְלָה֙this night

    halaylahH3915 →233 times

  • לְאִ֔ישׁto a husband

    leishH376 →1663 times

  • וְגַ֖םand also

    vegamH1571 →769 times

  • יָלַ֥דְתִּיI bore

    yaladtiH3205 →496 times

  • בָנִֽים׃sons

    vanimH1121 →4930 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

Related verses

2 in all, six open

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Genesis 17:17

    Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

    it leads to

    • Genesis 18:12

      So she laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out and my master is old, will I now have this pleasure?”

    • Genesis 21:6

      Then Sarah said, “God has made me laugh, and everyone who hears of this will laugh with me.”

    • John 8:56

      Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see My day. He saw it and was glad.”

    • Genesis 17:3

      Then Abram fell facedown, and God said to him,

    • Romans 4:19–20

      Without weakening in his faith, he acknowledged the decrepitness of his body (since he was about a hundred years old) and the lifelessness of Sarah’s womb.

  • Through

    1 Timothy 5:9

    A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, the wife of one man,

    it leads to

    • 1 Timothy 3:2

      An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,

    • Luke 2:36–37

      There was also a prophetess named Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher, who was well along in years. She had been married for seven years,

    • 1 Timothy 5:11

      But refuse to enroll younger widows. For when their passions draw them away from Christ, they will want to marry,

Where this verse is studied

About Ruth

Naomi and Her Daughters-in-Law — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Naomi and Her Daughters-in-Law — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Ruth: the study guide →Read Ruth 1 →

This page draws on John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Ruth 1 →