What Does Ruth 1:10 Mean in the King James?
And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same verb Naomi uses to send them back becomes their vow to go with her.
THE MEANING
Belonging can begin as a choice to move with someone toward a community that is not yet yours. Here, both women make that promise before its cost and outcome are clear.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that displacement leaves a person with no one: Naomi’s daughters answer her departure by promising to go with her.
THE ROOT
נָשׁוּב
nashuv
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
To turn back, return.
English can make “return” sound like a simple trip back. Hebrew שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return) is the same verb Naomi uses to urge them to go back, and they reuse it for a different direction: with her, toward her people. The word holds a choice of belonging inside what can sound merely geographic.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: Return, turning back.
תְּשׁוּבָה
This noun carries the root’s sense of reorientation, illuminating how the women describe a change of direction as well as a journey.
meshubah: Backsliding, turning away.
מְשׁוּבָה
This branch names movement away from the path of return, giving the root a choice of direction that resonates with the women’s response to Naomi.
THE PATTERN
Return is a relational movement toward belonging, not only a route back to a place.
Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.THE THREAD
And Ruth said, Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God:Ruth uses the same root שׁוּב (shuv, turn or return) for the possibility of turning back from Naomi, then names where her chosen direction leads: “thy people shall be my people.” That makes the promise in verse 10 more than travel; it is the first shared language of belonging.
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