SELECTIONS FROM THE BOOKS OF RUTH AND 1 SAMUEL: ANNOTATED AND PREPARED (WITH ONE MAP) FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. BY THE REV. H. M. CLIFFORD, M.A. London: PUBLISHED BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, ENTERED AT STATIONERS' HALL.] STEREOTYPED EDITION. Price 9d. [ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PREFACE TO THE BOOK OF RUTH. THE Book of RUTH brings before us a picture of the manners and customs of the Israelites in the time of the Judges-manners and customs so entirely different from our own, that they can only be rightly read and studied with a just appreciation of that difference. Bearing this in mind, the reader cannot fail to be charmed with this simple and touching insight into the home-life of Israel -the home-life of Naomi and Ruth, with their child-like dependence upon God, and the harvest-life of the wealthy Boaz, of whom it might truly be said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom there is no guile." The period of the history occupies perhaps at most ten years, and falls, in all probability, in the time of Gideon; but its especial bearing upon the Sacred History is the fact, that it brings before us the ancestry of our Lord, through Boaz and Ruth, Obed, Jesse, and David. Whilst belonging, therefore-perhaps more correctly-to the Book of Judges, it forms a by no means unfitting prelude to the Books of Samuel (the last of the Judges), and to the lives of Saul, of David, and of the kings of Israel. Its author is unknown; but it was probably compiled during David's reign, from documents that came down to the writer from the time of the Judges. It would seem from chap. 4. 7 that the custom of "drawing off the shoe" required explanation on the part of the compiler, as a custom which may "at that time" have fallen into disuse. H. M. C. A ? SELECTIONS FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH. TEXT, And Mahlon and Chilion died also both of them; and the woman was left of her two sons and her husband. 6 Then she arose with her daughters in law, that she might return from the country of Moab for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread. m Wherefore she went forth out of the place where she was, and her two daughters in law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah. 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. The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her hus NOTES. a R.V. And it came to pass in the days when the judges judged, "In the days" evidently refers to days some time past. • The events recorded in the Book of Ruth are by some supposed to have happened when Ehud was judge; by others in the days of Gideon, which is the more generally received opinion. d Perhaps the famine which must have ensued upon the oppression by Midian and Amalek, when (Judges 6. 4) "they destroyed the increase of the earth till thou come unto Gaza, and left no sustenance for Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor ass." • Elimelech an Ephrathite, of Beth-lehemJudah, was driven thereby to take refuge in Moab with his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. See Ruth 4, 11; 1 Sam. 17. 12; and Micah 5. 2* 9 For Moab had been subdued under the hand of Israel by Ehud (Judges 3. 29, 30), when 10,000 of their warriors were slain at the fords of Jordan, After awhile Elimelech, Naomi's hus Ruth, two women of Moab, and before the band dies; her sons marry Orpah and expiration of 10 years they also die, leaving Naomi alone with her two daughters-in law. R.V. Omits also. R.V. Children. The "bread-winners" being dead, Naomi resolves to return to her own people-the more so because she had heard that the famine was at an end, and the land, no doubt, at that time at rest. m R.V. And she went forth. Her daughters-in-law started with the intention of accompanying her to the land of Judah. • Thus she spoke in perfect unselfishness them to return, each to their own mother's in the belief that it would be better for care, and to be with their own people rather than accompany her to a land of strangers, and customs not their own. P There is a touching beauty in every word of this simple history-in her gratitude for their kindness to the dead, in her heart'sprayer to God for them, in her earnest desire that they might each find another protector-a husband in the place of him whom each had lost. *N.B.-References not in full in the NOTES will be found on page 9. |