Ruth 1 · a question people ask
Naomi says, "the Almighty has afflicted me" (1:21). Did the LORD afflict her?
Naomi says it four ways: "the LORD’s hand has gone out against me" (1:13), "the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me" (1:20), "the LORD has brought me home again empty" (1:21), and "the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me" (1:21). The chapter itself tells the deaths without giving a reason (1:3, 1:5), and it is the chapter that says "the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread" (1:6). Nobody in the chapter answers Naomi's words, and the book never says she was right or wrong to say them. Christians read them in two main ways. Both agree that all through her grief Naomi names the LORD (1:8-9, 1:13, 1:20-21).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Naomi spoke truly: the LORD rules over loss too
Those who hold this view hear Naomi confessing that nothing is outside the LORD's hand. They set her words beside Hannah's prayer, "The LORD kills and makes alive" (1 Samuel 2:6), "The LORD makes poor and makes rich" (1 Samuel 2:7), and beside Job: "The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away. Blessed be the LORD’s name" (Job 1:21). Job also said, "the Almighty, who has made my soul bitter" (Job 27:2). They read Naomi's words as honest lament brought to the LORD.
1 Samuel 2:6-7 · Job 1:21 · Job 27:2
Naomi spoke from her grief, and the book shows more than she saw
Those who hold this view note that Naomi said "the LORD has brought me home again empty" (1:21) while Ruth stood with her (1:22), and that they came "in the beginning of barley harvest" (1:22). Later Naomi herself blesses the LORD "who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead" (2:20), and the women say, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you today without a near kinsman" (4:14). They read 1:20-21 as what Naomi could see in that hour, and set it beside "he does not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men" (Lamentations 3:33).
Ruth 1:21-22 · Ruth 2:20 · Ruth 4:14 · Lamentations 3:32-33
The verses
“Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.”
“Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband. Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.”
“Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the LORD grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept.”
“would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for the LORD’s hand has gone out against me.””