In and Out
So she departed from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah. Ruth 1:7 NASB
Departed from/ to return – Doesn’t this verse seem redundant? Doesn’t it say the same thing too many times? You’ve probably never asked why the author bothered with these two verbs in the same sentence. If we were grading his short story in Creative Writing class today, we would probably point out this stylistic error and suggest he delete one of the words. But this is Scripture and things work a little differently in God’s Word.
The first verb is yatsa’. It is just a bit strange. Yes, it means “to go out, to come out or to come in,” but its use in Scripture is often modified by the context, rendering meanings such as the birth of the child, the fruitfulness of vegetation, to descend (in death), to escape free and to take away. Perhaps some of those meanings, including the ironic ones, find their way into this story. Naomi doesn’t just pack up and leave. She departs. Ironically, her actions are motivated by the opposite of birth and fruitfulness. Furthermore, there is a sense in which she is escaping the grip of death on her life (although she in not aware of it at the time). In fact, in its noun form (yotse’t) the word means “captivity.” With this linguistically nuanced background, perhaps the author wishes us to ask, “How is Naomi leaving captivity behind?”
But that isn’t the end of the verbal story. The redundant verb isn’t yatsa’. It is lashuv. As Eskenazi and Frymer-Kensky point out, “Technically, only Naomi is ‘returning,’ whereas the other women are actually leaving their homeland. Yet, the narrator paints all three as setting out to return, showing their unity of purpose.”[1] While shuv is a major theme in Ruth (the idea of return), it is perhaps most poignantly used here to distinguish between going out (of captivity) and returning to (security). Doesn’t Naomi have to leave behind the land of her trials, the place of her pain, in order to find the peace and security she seeks? Doesn’t she actually have to be rescued, even if she is the one walking the path, from the place of the dead in order to encounter the God of the living? Maybe the two verbs aren’t really redundant after all. Maybe they express a necessary transition. Maybe we all must leave the dead past and go out to a place God will show us if we are to return to Him and to His people. Ten years in the wilderness was enough for Naomi. Ten years in a place where she and her husband and sons sought to provide for themselves. Ten years that disintegrated into nothing but graves.
And now she must go out in order to return.
What about you? How long will you stay by the graveside instead of returning to the land you left?
Topical Index: return, depart, yatsa’, shuv, Ruth 1:7
ah..the (technically speaking) “from-to” of scripture! From “out of” Egypt (the place of bondage and captivity) “in to” the land that flows with milk and honey, the good land of Goshen and the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8.21) The “Exodus” (a coming out of) and the eisodus (a going in to!)- Are we going somewhere with this? lol!
Welcome pious pilgrims in this journey with Jesus! How about another trip around the mountain? Haven’t we seen this unusual cactus before? Don’t you have to wonder why an eleven day journey (if we walk the straight and narrow) would take forty years to complete? And what was the name of that river we had to cross to get here? Hmm.. Wasn’t that the very same river where our Savior was immersed? Mere coincidence of course! Uhh.., but I thought God was Sovereign…
~ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me ~ (Acts 26.18)
~ to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light ~
~from darkness to light~
~from… to~
~ Therefore it is said, “Awake, you who sleep, and arise from among the dead and The Messiah will illuminate you.” ~ (Ephesians 5.14)
Out of… (the exodus) and in to… (the eisodus!)
Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim way…!
“out of” and “in to”
Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of my sickness, into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my shameful failure and loss,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the glorious gain of Thy cross,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of earth’s sorrows, into Thy balm,
Out of life’s storms and into Thy calm,
Out of distress to jubilant psalm,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of unrest and arrogant pride,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy blessed will to abide,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of myself to dwell in Thy love,
Out of despair, into raptures above,
Upward for aye on wings like a dove,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of the fear and dread of the tomb,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into the joy and light of Thy home,
Jesus, I come to Thee;
Out of the depths of ruin untold,
Into the peace of Thy sheltering fold,
Ever Thy glorious face to behold,
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Our Destination and our goal? ~ It is the LORD ~ Canaan is Christ, the ONE who humbles and subdues His enemies.
~ For “in Christ” lives all the fullness of God in a human body ~ (Colossians 2.9)
Like a mighty river of Love, God’s compassion flows toward the lowest point in our life, our greatest need, our greatest weakness, and our greatest flops!
Whatever you lay low before the Lord He will be drawn to that area of your life. Lay it all at His feet!
He hovers over the life without form, void, and covered in darkness and chaos, as He did in the beginning. Praise You, Mighty One of Israel, Creator, You create over and over again, bringing order and light, repairing the breech, lifting the downtrodden, illuminating Your great compassion.
“Maybe we all must leave the dead past and go out to a place God will show us if we are to return to Him and to His people… How long will you stay by the graveside instead of returning to the land you left?”
I’m searching for the Promised Land (place God will show us), not the land I left (artfully described here as “dead past”). Not sure what I’d be returning to…
Hi Mark, this may help.
Just as a direct word for word translation from Green’s interlinear;
“and returned (shuwb) Naomi and Ruth the moabitess her daugther in law with her the one returning (shuwb) from the fields of Moab”
You’ll notice that the text says that Ruth AND Naomi returned, how can that be so if Ruth was not from somewhere else? In otherwords, Naomi can return to Bethlehem but Ruth can’t because she never left there in the first place.
The root S-B means to return or turn around, therefore to repent. So without getting into all the linguistic details, Naomi and Ruth “repented” from Moab. I think we all know that land, a foreign land, a land of idolatry and people abstaining from God. Just in case we missed it, God made sure He put it there for us twice, once in the imperfect (continuing process or “in process”) and the other one in the perfect (completed) form.
Notice the movement, they repented “from” the fields of Moab AND (the connector) they came (bow-perfect tense) to beth-lehem (house of bread) at the BEGINNING (opening) of harvest barley.
God doesn’t want us to return to our former land, He desires us to repent “from it”. 🙂
YHWH bless you and keep you…..