Passage

Ruth 1.11

Book: Ruth · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

9. Jehovah grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept. 10. And they said unto her, Nay, but we will return with thee unto thy people.

11. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

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; 13. would ye therefore tarry till they were grown? would ye therefore stay from having husbands? nay, my daughters, for it grieveth me much for your sakes, for the hand of Jehovah is gone forth against me. (Ruth 1:9-13, ASV)

WEB

9. May Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept. 10. They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”

11. Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

Go back, 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 tonight, and should also bear sons; 13. would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for Yahweh’s hand has gone out against me.” (Ruth 1:9-13, WEB)

KJV

9. The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voice, and wept. 10. And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

11. And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

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; ^{should have: or were with an husband} 13. Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me. ^{tarry: Heb. hope} ^{it grieveth: Heb. I have much bitterness} (Ruth 1:9-13, KJV)

YLT

9. Jehovah doth grant to you, and find ye rest each in the house of her husband;' and she kisseth them, and they lift up their voice and weep. 10. And they say to her, 'Surely with thee we go back to thy people.'

11. And Naomi saith, 'Turn back, my daughters; why do ye go with me? are there yet to me sons in my bowels that they have been to you for husbands?

Turn back, my daughters, go, for I am too aged to be to a husband; though I had said, There is for me hope, also, I have been to-night to a husband, and also I have borne sons: 13. for them do ye wait till that they grow up? for them do ye shut yourselves up, not to be to a husband? nay, my daughters, for more bitter to me than to you, for the hand of Jehovah hath gone out against me.' (Ruth 1:9-13, YLT)

See this page's graph and discover linked topics

Setting

Speaker: Naomi, in direct speech within the narrator's account
Audience: her two Moabite daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth
Location: on the road from Moab toward the land of Judah (Ruth 1:7)
Time period: the days when the judges judged (Ruth 1:1), after about ten years in Moab (1:4)

Theological reading

"Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?" Naomi's question assumes the custom the law later spells out for a man who dies without a son: "her husband's brother shall go in unto her ... that his name be not blotted out of Israel" (Deuteronomy 25:5-6). Naomi has no sons left to give, and she presses the point to its end in the next two verses: even a husband and sons tonight would come too late (1:12-13).

Her words release the young women rather than bind them. She has already prayed that Jehovah would give each of them "rest ... in the house of her husband" (1:9), and she judges that such a house can only be found in Moab.

"Turn again" is the return verb, Strong's H7725 in the KJV (shuv), which the KJV tags fifteen times in this short book. Naomi uses it to send her daughters-in-law back to Moab, while the narrator uses it for her own journey back to Judah (1:6, 1:22). The question "have I yet sons in my womb" is answered at the end of the book in a way Naomi does not foresee, when the women of Bethlehem say, "There is a son born to Naomi" (Ruth 4:17).

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

H7725 - shuv, shuv, Strong's H7725
H1121 - ben, ben, Strong's H1121

Notes

Your annotations.

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.