What Does Ruth 2:6 Mean in the King James?
And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:
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 verse keeps Ruth’s Moabite origin visible while naming her by the return she makes beside Naomi.
THE MEANING
You are seen with both an origin and a direction: Ruth is named as Moabite and as the one returning with Naomi. Her origin remains visible, while her present identity also includes the company she keeps and the movement she is making.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The lie is that where you come from is the whole of who you are; the verse names Ruth’s Moabite origin and her return with Naomi together.
THE ROOT
הַשָּׁבָה
ha-shavah
GROWS FROM
שׁוּב
שׁוּב (shuv) means to turn back, return.
“came back” in this verse is ha-shavah. The Hebrew describes Ruth as הַשָּׁבָה (ha-shavah, “the returning one”), a feminine form of שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back, return”). The same root appears in תְּשׁוּבָה (teshuvah, “return”) and מְשׁוּבָה (meshubah, “turning away”), gathering different directions of movement into one word family; Ruth’s origin remains named, while her return with Naomi defines her relation in this verse.
ALSO GROWS
teshuvah: return, turning back
תְּשׁוּבָה
It carries the same root consonants and shows return as a movement, the action that identifies Ruth here.
meshubah: turning away, backsliding
מְשׁוּבָה
It shares the root consonants and shows that this word family can name a turn in either direction.
נָעֳמִי
Na‘omi
GROWS FROM
נעם
נעם (na‘am) means pleasantness, delight.
Naomi’s name carries נעם (na‘am, “pleasantness, delight”). Ruth’s return is described through her companionship with Naomi, so the name’s meaning colors the relationship itself: Ruth is identified by the one she is with.
ALSO GROWS
no‘am: pleasantness, delight
נֹעַם
This noun carries the name’s root meaning, placing pleasantness within Naomi’s name.
na‘im: pleasant, delightful
נָעִים
This adjective shares the root consonants and shows the quality carried by the name.
THE PATTERN
Scripture can name a person through both their origin and the direction of their movement with another.
So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.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
So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Beth-lehem in the beginning of barley harvest.Both verses use forms of שׁוּב (shuv, “turn back, return”) for the journey shared by Naomi and Ruth. Ruth 2:6 compresses that return into her description: she is the one returning with Naomi.
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