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.
They who attend only to the mere letter of the history will discover nothing more in it than the affectionate feelings of a tenderhearted woman, in the necessity of separating from those she held dear. But they who look deeper than the surface of the history, will behold in it the finer feelings of an awakened soul, interested for the everlasting welfare of those whom the Lord had made dear to her in the ties of nature; that they might be brought nearer in the bonds of grace. There can be no doubt, but that Naomi, all along, coveted that her daughters should be her companions to the house of God. She knew how gracious Israel's God was, and that in his house there was bread enough and to spare. But in her zeal for their salvation she judged it prudent to set before them the difficulties in the way, that hereafter they might not turn back. If the Reader would behold a brighter example of the same kind, he may view it in the person of Jesus. Luke 14:25-27.