“Mahlon, Naomi, and Orpah are my family, Mother, just as Father became yours when you married him.”
When her mother’s face crumpled in tears, Ruth embraced her. “You know I love you, Mother. I’ll always love you. But I must do what’s right.”
“This isn’t right! You’re throwing away your life!”
Ruth saw that her mother refused to understand. Things could never be the same as they had been when Ruth was a child in her father’s household. She was a woman now, with a husband and a mother-in-law and responsibilities toward both. Her life didn’t belong to herself anymore. And even if it did, would her decision be any different?
Oh, Lord, give me strength. I feel like a broken jar with all the oil spilling out.
She had to tell her mother the truth. It wouldn’t be fair to leave her with false hopes.
“I won’t leave Naomi, Mother. You have Father. You have my brothers and their wives and children, and my sisters and their families. If Mahlon does die, who will Naomi have left?”
“She will have Orpah,” her mother said stubbornly. “Let Orpah stay with her.”
Orpah didn’t believe in the God of Israel. She still worshiped idols and burned incense to Ashtoreth. “Orpah is a kind and loving daughter-in-law, but she doesn’t share Naomi’s faith.”
Her mother’s eyes darkened in anger. “How can you persist in believing in this unseen god of hers after all that’s happened? It’s not fair that you give up your life for this ill-fated family! If Naomi decides to leave, let her go!”
Ruth refused to be drawn into another argument about whose god had grander temples or the most elaborate and pleasurable worship services. She drew back and stood. “Mahlon needs me. I must go.”
Her mother rose with her, weeping again as she followed her to the door. “Please consider carefully what you’re going to do, Ruth. I beg of you! Don’t throw your life away!”
Ruth’s emotions warred within her. Love . . . grief . . . impatience . . . confusion. She turned and embraced her mother quickly. “I love you,” she said in a choked voice. “Tell Father I love him, too.” She released her hold, turned away, and hurried out the door.
As she sped along the narrow city streets, she covered her face with her shawl so those passing would not see her anguish.
* * *
Grief is deeper when the sun goes down and memories rise up with the moon and stars. The streets of Kir-hareseth were deserted now, everyone home and asleep, but Naomi’s mind was whirring as she sat at the end of her pallet, her back against the cold stone wall of her small house. She felt alone, even though her two beloved daughters-in-law lay sleeping within a few feet of her. They were worn out with sorrow. Each had lost a husband, Orpah first and then Ruth. But they would never experience the deeper grief of losing their children, for they had none.
My sons are dead! My sons, oh, my sons . . . Naomi wanted to scream out her pain, but for the sake of the young women sleeping nearby held it in instead.
It was dark now, so dark the night closed in around Naomi, bringing with it fear and doubt. She tried to pray, but her whispered words seemed to bounce off the ceiling and land back in her lap unheard. And she began to wonder. Had God ever heard her prayers? Had the Lord ever listened to her pleas?
Like the approach of locusts ready to feast upon her faith, the silence hummed inside her head. She pressed her hands over her ears and clenched her teeth. Why was the night like this? Sometimes the darkness was so still she could hear her own blood rushing through her veins. The sound was like a heavy rain washing open the doors of her mind, flooding her with memories she wanted to forget.
The room echoed with her dead husband’s voice. “We’re going to Moab whether you like it or not, Naomi! There’s no famine there.”
“But, Elimelech, we mustn’t leave Bethlehem! It’s our home.”
“Our home is turning to dust!”
“If we trust and obey God, He will provide.”
“Are you blind? Look around you, woman. God has abandoned us!”
“Because you and others bow down to baals!”
“I bow down to Baal because he’s the lord of this land!”
“Moses told our fathers the Lord is God and there is no other!”
“And what good has God done for us lately?” Elimelech argued. “How long since rain last fell on our land? When was the last time our crops produced even a little more than what we need to fill our own stomachs?”
“But you are saying it yourself, my husband. The Lord has provided what we need to survive.”
“I’m sick of hearing you say that! I’m the one taking care of us, Naomi. I’m the one working my flesh to the bones on this rocky ground and watching my crops die! Don’t tell me God is taking care of us! Look at my hands! Look at the calluses and tell me it’s God who takes care of you and our sons. God stands far off and watches while everything I own turns to dust. He’s abandoned us! You’re just a woman. What do you understand of these things? I’ll do what’s right in my own eyes.”
That same day, Elimelech had mortgaged the land he’d inherited from his father. He’d come home, packed their possessions on two donkeys, and taken Naomi and their sons, Mahlon and Kilion, away from Bethlehem. She’d barely had time to bid good-bye to her friends and few remaining family members. Elimelech had been so certain he was making the right decision! What man wanted to hear the constant dripping of a nagging wife? So she did what she felt she could do: she kept silent with her doubts and she prayed.
She prayed in the morning when she first awakened. She prayed throughout the day as she worked. And she prayed when she lay down upon her pallet at night. She prayed and prayed and prayed—and watched her life turn to ashes.
Elimelech found work in Moab at Kir-hareseth. He cut off his locks of hair, shaved off his beard, and donned Moabite clothing to make his way easier. There were other Israelites sojourning in Moab and living in Kir-hareseth. They, too, had come to wait out the famine in the Promised Land, and they, too, quickly embraced the ways of the people around them and forgot the Law of Moses and the promises of God.
It was summer when Elimelech died.
“I just need to rest.” He’d come home complaining of pain in his chest. “I’ll be fine in the morning.” He’d sat right where she was sitting now, rubbing his arm, up and down, up and down, grimacing. “Naomi?” The strange catch in his throat had brought her to her knees before him.
“What, my love?” She took his hand and covered it with her own, wanting to comfort him.
“Naomi,” he said again, the sweat beading on his forehead. He’d looked terrified. “I only did what I thought was right.” His lips were blue. She’d wanted to comfort him. She’d held him in her arms and tried to soothe him. But nothing had helped ease his torment.
Even now, after fifteen years, the grief rose up in her again, renewed by Mahlon’s untimely death, just as her grief had been renewed and deepened last year when Kilion died. There was no escaping the pain, no hiding from it, no pushing it down deep inside her anymore. She remembered everything so acutely, especially her unanswered prayers. She’d prayed so hard that God wouldn’t take her husband from her, prayed that God would have mercy upon him, and kept praying even as she watched the light ebb from Elimelech’s eyes. Then she prayed for mercy and saw death take him.
Her sons had buried their father among Moabites. At first, she could scarcely believe Elimelech was gone. She kept thinking she would awaken from this nightmare and he would be there, complaining as always. When full realization had sunk in that she would never see him again, she had become angry with him. But that, too, passed. She had been too busy helping her sons put food on the table.
It had been fifteen years since Elimelech died, and still the grief would rise up unexpectedly. It was never as sharp as those first weeks, but it never fully dulled. She had thought the pain of losing her husband was the greatest of all, but that was before she had lost sons. Now, she was drowning in a sea
of sorrow.
She couldn’t even pray anymore. She had always had a glimmer of hope and a sense of God’s presence. Now she felt God was beyond reach, His mercy not meant for her. All her prayers were like smoke blown away by an angry wind. Every one of them. Perhaps Elimelech had been right after all. God was standing far off, watching her suffer.
God, where are You? How do I find You?
She wanted to defend herself against His judgment. Hadn’t she pleaded with her husband to stay in Bethlehem? Hadn’t she begged him to trust in God? Hadn’t she prayed that God would change Elimelech’s mind and they would go home? Hadn’t she wanted to return to Bethlehem when Elimelech died? When God had taken Elimelech, hadn’t she tried desperately to convince her sons that they should go back to the land God had promised them? But Mahlon and Kilion had been old enough by then to decide for themselves.
“What is there for us, Mother? This is our home.”
Their hearts had been turned away from God and the Promised Land years ago. Their home in Bethlehem was nothing more than a bad memory to them, a place of hardship and heartache. Their father had never said a good word about it. Why should her sons want to return? They knew little of Hebrew customs and laws, for Elimelech had neglected his duties. He’d never taught his sons the history of the Israelites, the Law of Moses, the way of righteousness. Her sons had watched how Elimelech lived and done as he had done. When their father died, they listened to the elders of Kir-hareseth. They listened to the priests of Chemosh. They listened to their own desires and thoughts and did as they pleased, even unto taking Moabite wives for themselves. Oh, the grief her sons had caused her!
Nothing she had said to them had mattered. They loved her, but she was just a woman. What did she know? So they said. So they’d been taught to believe by their father before them.
Naomi looked at her daughters-in-law sleeping nearby. How strange that they were her only consolation now, these young women she’d grieved over when first she heard about them. Foreign wives! The shame of Israel! Oh, how she had despaired. Yet she’d managed to put on a smiling face when Mahlon brought Ruth home, and Kilion brought Orpah. What else could she do? She could not bring herself to risk losing the love of her sons. And she’d hoped to have some small influence upon their young wives.
Now they were widows like her, and as dear to her as if they had come from her own womb. Nothing brings people closer together than shared suffering. She remembered in the beginning, she had accepted them and tried to build a relationship with each of them in order to keep peace in her house. And secretly, she’d prayed that Ruth’s and Orpah’s hearts would be softened toward the God of Israel. If she could teach them about the Lord, perhaps there would be hope for the next generation. But now her last hope for the future was lost.
A sudden fever had taken Kilion last spring. Then a lingering illness had brought Mahlon down. Kilion had died in the space of a few days, suffering little discomfort, but poor Mahlon had received no such mercy. When he fell ill, the suffering went on and on. She could do nothing but watch her eldest son, the firstfruit of Elimelech, be eaten alive by disease. She’d prayed countless times for God to ease his suffering, for God to put all the sins of her husband and sons upon her, but the days wore on and on. Poor Ruth, poor faithful, loving Ruth. How many nights had the girl sought to ease Mahlon’s pain and ended up weeping over her helplessness? Sometimes Naomi wished she could escape the city and run out into the fields and scream and tear her hair and throw dust over herself. She had wept when Mahlon looked up at her with the eyes of a wounded animal in agony, hounded by terror.
Her own grief had almost consumed her during those long, terrible months, but she had spoken to Mahlon often and gently of the mercy of the Lord. Mercy! her heart had cried within her. Mercy! Lord God, mercy! While Ruth had ministered to her husband’s physical needs, Naomi sat by and told him about the signs and wonders God had performed in Egypt and in the wilderness, and in the land of Canaan. He couldn’t resist her now, but was he ready to repent and seek the Lord? She told Mahlon how God had delivered the Israelites from Egypt, not because they deserved it, but because He had chosen them to be His people. She told him about Moses and the Law and how the people were stubborn like Elimelech and rebelled. She told him about the blessings and the cursings. And she told him about the promises. When he slept, she bowed her head and prayed. Oh, Lord, Lord . . . She couldn’t find the words. Oh, Lord, search my heart. . . . She prayed and prayed and prayed.
And still Mahlon had died.
Ruth had been sitting with him and holding his hand when he died. She let out a long, anguished cry when he stopped breathing, then wailed and covered her head.
Had it been only twenty-two days ago?
Orpah had tried to comfort her and Ruth by saying Mahlon would be at peace now; his pain was over. Naomi wanted to believe these words, but they seemed hollow, without foundation. What did Orpah know of God?
Naomi’s sorrow was so deep that she felt paralyzed by it. All she could do was wait for the sun to rise so she could go on sitting in this dusty, dank corner and listening to the rush of people going past her door. How dare life go on as it always had, when her sons were dead! She resented the laughter of neighbors outside her door. She was embittered by the changeless activity. Were her loved ones so unimportant they might have been mere grains of sand cast into the Dead Sea, leaving hardly a ripple? Only Orpah and Ruth shared her anguish.
Naomi hated Moab and Kir-hareseth more with each day that passed. She hated these foreign people. And she hated herself for hating them. It wasn’t their fault Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon had taken up ways displeasing to God. Men decide their own path, but it is God who judges, God who prevails.
The sun rose, and Naomi wished she could close her eyes and die. Instead, she found herself alive and aware of what was going on around her. She could hear Orpah and Ruth weeping together and talking in soft voices so they wouldn’t disturb her. She ate when they asked her to do so and lay down when they pleaded with her to rest. But she felt lost and angry and hopeless and afraid.
She wallowed in memories, thinking back over the early years of marriage with Elimelech. Oh, how they’d laughed together and dreamed of a fine future brought by hard work and dedication to the land. Naomi, his merry one, he’d called her. She remembered the joy when she found she was with child, the anticipation, the celebration when a son was born—first one, then another. She had sustained them with her body, nursing them until they were able to walk. She had rejoiced in their childish exuberance, laughed at their antics, relished their presence. Life had been full then. She’d felt God’s presence in every blessing.
What do I have now? Nothing! I will never know joy again.
Things had been bad in Bethlehem, but everything got worse when they left. She’d tried—and failed—to have influence over Elimelech. She had wanted to raise her sons in the ways of the Lord, but Elimelech felt the Laws of Moses were too rigid, too intolerant. “Our way is not the only way, Naomi. Look around you and see how the Moabites prosper. Those in Bethlehem are still reduced to scraping out a living from the earth.” In her heart, she’d known Elimelech was rejecting God, but she could never find the words to convince him he must turn back.
Is that why I’m being punished? Should I have been more determined in reasoning with Elimelech? Should I have gone to the elders for help instead of being too ashamed to admit what was happening in my home? Should I have gone to his brothers? I should have found someone he respected who might have been able to dissuade him from leaving the land God gave us! Perhaps if I’d refused to leave Bethlehem, everything would have turned out differently. Perhaps if we’d stayed, my husband and sons would still be alive.
How she tormented herself wondering if she could have done things differently, worrying that she had failed those she loved so much.
Oh, why didn’t I teach Kilion and Mahlon the importance of the Law? I should have been a better mother. I should have made them sit d
own and listen. I should have worried less about losing their love and more about losing their souls. And now I’ve lost them forever. I’ve lost my sons . . . oh, my sons, my sons . . .
She didn’t speak the words aloud, but she was scourged with self-recriminations day after day and night after night.
Father, forgive me. I was weak. I was foolish. I took the easy way and followed Elimelech because I wanted peace in our family. I didn’t want to be a contentious wife. I wanted to support him in his endeavors. I wanted to be his helpmate. But You warned us of the cursings to come if we were unfaithful. Oh, Father, I wanted to be faithful. I tried to be faithful. Every day, I felt torn, my husband on one side and You on the other. I didn’t know what else to do but pray in silence and hope in secret and walk alongside Elimelech and then my sons. I hoped and prayed every day they would come to their senses and we’d go home to the land You gave us. Oh, God, I’ve prayed and prayed all these years, and not one prayer has been answered. My husband is dead. My sons are dead! You have stripped me bare! You have poured me out! Who is left but You, Father? What do I have to cling to now but You?
She rocked back and forth, moaning.
Ruth rose and put her arms around her. “Mother, I’ll take care of you.” The girl’s tenderness broke Naomi’s heart. She wept in her daughter-in-law’s arms, allowing herself to be held and rocked like a baby. But it was no comfort, for other thoughts rushed into her tortured mind and made her cry all the harder.
There would be no children to carry on the names of her sons. It would be as though they never lived at all. Their names will go down into the dust along with them. No children . . . there will be no children. . . .
* * *
Seventy days passed before Naomi went outside the door of her small house. The sunlight hurt her eyes. She was weak from grieving, having wept enough tears to fill a cistern, and it was time to stop. Crying would not bring the dead back to life. She must think of the living. Ruth and Orpah were young women, too young to spend the rest of their lives mourning over Mahlon and Kilion, or taking care of an old woman whose life was over.