Rut 1:13, Job 31:21, Isa 11:15, 19:16, Act 13:11 | JFB | STEP | 13. the hand of the Lord is gone out against me —that is, I am not only not in a condition to provide you with other husbands, but so reduced in circumstances that I cannot think of your being subjected to privations with me. The arguments of Naomi prevailed with Orpah, who returned to her people and her gods. But Ruth clave unto her; and even in the pages of Sterne, that great master of pathos, there is nothing which so calls forth the sensibilities of the reader as the simple effusion he has borrowed from Scripture—of Ruth to her mother-in-law [CHALMERS ]. . THEY COME TO BETH-LEHEM.

Ruth 1:13

13. the hand of the Lord is gone out against me—that is, I am not only not in a condition to provide you with other husbands, but so reduced in circumstances that I cannot think of your being subjected to privations with me. The arguments of Naomi prevailed with Orpah, who returned to her people and her gods. But Ruth clave unto her; and even in the pages of Sterne, that great master of pathos, there is nothing which so calls forth the sensibilities of the reader as the simple effusion he has borrowed from Scripture—of Ruth to her mother-in-law [CHALMERS].

Ru 1:19-22. THEY COME TO BETH-LEHEM.

Job 31:21

21. when—that is, "because."

I saw—that I might calculate on the "help" of a powerful party in the court of justice—("gate"), if I should be summoned by the injured fatherless.

Isaiah 11:15

15. There shall be a second exodus, destined to eclipse even the former one from Egypt in its wonders. So the prophecies elsewhere (Ps 68:22; Ex 14:22; Zec 10:11). The same deliverance furnishes the imagery by which the return from Babylon is described (Isa 48:20, 21).

destroy—literally, "devote," or "doom," that is, dry up; for what God dooms, perishes (Ps 106:9 Na 1:4).

tongue—the Bubastic branch of the Nile [VITRINGA]; but as the Nile was not the obstruction to the exodus, it is rather the west tongue or Heroöpolite fork of the Red Sea.

with . . . mighty wind—such as the "strong east wind" (Ex 14:21), by which God made a way for Israel through the Red Sea. The Hebrew for "mighty" means terrible. MAURER translates, "With the terror of His anger"; that is, His terrible anger.

in the seven streams—rather, "shall smite it (divide it by smiting) into seven (many) streams, so as to be easily crossed" [LOWTH]. So Cyrus divided the river Gyndes, which retarded his march against Babylon, into three hundred sixty streams, so that even a woman could cross it [HERODOTUS, 1.189]. "The river" is the Euphrates, the obstruction to Israel's return "from Assyria" (Isa 11:16), a type of all future impediments to the restoration of the Jews.

dry shod—Hebrew, "in shoes." Even in sandals they should be able to pass over the once mighty river without being wet (Re 16:12).

Isaiah 19:16

16. like . . . women—timid and helpless (Jer 51:30; Na 3:13).

shaking of . . . hand—His judgments by means of the invaders (Isa 10:5, 32; 11:15).

Acts 13:11

11. the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind for a season—the judgment being mercifully designed to lead him to repentance. The tradition that it did is hardly to be depended on.

there fell on him a mist, &c.—This is in Luke's medical style.