What Does Ruth 1:11 Mean in the King James?

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?

Ruth 1:11 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

This verse in the Selah Decoded Version

THE KEY

Naomi’s call to return is shaped by a bodily limit: she cannot give her daughters-in-law the sons who might become their husbands.

THE MEANING

You hear Naomi name the limit plainly: no sons can come from her womb to become husbands for her daughters-in-law. Her question makes the future with her concrete, and her request that they return comes from what she cannot provide.

THE ROOT

שֹׁבְנָה

shovnah

GROWS FROM

שׁוּב

shuv

turn, return, come back

“Turn again” in this verse is shovnah. This root holds the movement of return itself: Naomi is asking her daughters-in-law to go back. The same root can describe restoration, so return can mean both going back and being brought back; here the request meets the hard limit she names.

ALSO GROWS

hēshīv: cause to return, bring back

הֵשִׁיב

This form shows return as something one person can bring about for another.

yeshōvēv: restore, bring back

יְשׁוֹבֵב

Psalm 23:3 uses this root for restoring the living soul, revealing a return that reaches inward as well as homeward.

THE PATTERN

Returning can move someone toward the life and wholeness still available.

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:3 · KJVThe same root describes the living self being restored, a return toward wholeness.

Thus saith the LORD; Refrain thy voice from weeping, and thine eyes from tears: for thy work shall be rewarded, saith the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.

Jeremiah 31:16 · KJVThose far from home are promised a return from the place of danger.

Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins.

James 5:20 · KJVTurning someone from error redirects a life away from death.

THE THREAD

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;

Ruth 1:12 · KJV

Naomi repeats the same call to return and gives its reason more fully: she is too old to bear the sons her daughters-in-law would need as husbands. The repeated root makes the request inseparable from the future she cannot provide.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us