What Does Ruth 1:13 Mean?
Would you wait for them until they grow? Would you hold yourselves back from having husbands? No, my daughters. It is bitter to me far more than to you, for the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
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.THE KEY
Naomi’s grief is literally bitterness, and the verse lets her describe loss as the LORD’s hand reaching against her.
THE MEANING
When loss closes every imagined future, it can feel as if even God’s hand has turned against you. The verse gives that perception and grief full language without making the pain sound small or resolved.
THE ROOT
מַר
mar
GROWS FROM
מרר
marar
To be bitter or to make bitter.
“bitter to me far more” in this verse is mar. The Hebrew says, in effect, “it is bitter to me,” making grief a taste rather than an abstract sorrow. The root returns in Ruth’s next verse, where bitterness becomes the name she gives herself.
ALSO GROWS
mar: Bitter.
מָר
This is the word beneath “grieveth,” so the verse names Naomi’s pain as bitterness.
hemar: Made bitter.
הֵמַר
This form appears when Naomi says the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with her, carrying the same root from felt pain into her account of what has happened.
יָצְאָה
yats’ah
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
To go out, emerge, or depart.
The hand of the LORD is described as having gone out against Naomi: the phrase gives her suffering the shape of force moving toward her. This verb also describes bringing someone out, so its wider range holds both approach and exit within one root.
ALSO GROWS
yetsi’ah: An exit or departure.
יְצִיאָה
It carries the root’s sense of movement outward, echoing the hand that has “gone out” in Naomi’s words.
hotsi: To bring or lead out.
הוֹצִיא
This causative form shows the same root can describe being brought out, giving the verse’s image of a hand in motion a wider range.
THE PATTERN
Scripture gives suffering a direct voice through bitterness, felt pressure, and sorrow spoken aloud.
And Naomi said to them, Do not call me Naomi, the sweet one. Call me Mara, the bitter one, for the Almighty has made me very bitter.And he said to them, My living soul is encircled with pain, even to death. Remain here and stay awake.THE THREAD
And Naomi said to them, Do not call me Naomi, the sweet one. Call me Mara, the bitter one, for the Almighty has made me very bitter.The same root appears in “bitterly” and in מָרָא (Mara, “bitter”), making the name itself a compressed expression of the pain she voices. The connection carries the bitterness forward without pretending it has already lifted.
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