What Does Ruth 1:19 Mean?
So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to be, when they came into Bethlehem, that the whole city stirred about them, and the women said, Is this Naomi?
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
So they two went until they came to Beth-lehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Beth-lehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?THE KEY
The city asks whether the woman before them is still Naomi, whose name carries the meaning of pleasantness.
THE MEANING
You can return to a familiar place and still be met as someone changed: the whole city stirs, and the first question is whether the person before them is Naomi. She is home, yet the name people know seems uncertain beside what they see.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Coming home does not mean returning unchanged or being recognized without question.
THE ROOT
נָעֳמִי
Na'omi
GROWS FROM
נעם
To be pleasant or delightful; pleasantness.
“Naomi” in this verse is Na'omi. The city’s question lands on a name that carries pleasantness, while the woman they see seems changed enough to make that name feel uncertain. The verse lets the name and the visible person stand side by side.
ALSO GROWS
no'am: Pleasantness, delight.
נֹעַם
This noun makes audible the quality carried in Naomi’s name.
na'im: Pleasant, agreeable.
נָעִים
This related form turns the name’s quality into a description of what is pleasing.
וַתֵּהֹם
vattehom
GROWS FROM
הום
To be in tumult or make a commotion.
The verb presents the city as stirred into a commotion around the two women. English ‘moved about’ can sound like physical movement, while the Hebrew conveys a whole community thrown into agitation.
ALSO GROWS
vayehom: Threw into confusion or tumult.
וַיְהָם
This form shows the root describing a disturbance that overtakes a group.
mehumah: Tumult, confusion.
מְהוּמָה
This noun names the commotion that the city itself becomes here.
THE PATTERN
Recognition can fail when a person appears changed, then return through a name.
And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.But their eyes were held, so that they could not recognize him.Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned, and said to him, Rabboni, Teacher.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 city’s question about Naomi becomes Naomi’s own question about her name: she asks to be called Mara, meaning bitter. Her name comes from נעם (no’am, pleasantness), making the gap between the name and her present bitterness impossible to miss.
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