Ruth: Word Patterns

Last post, we looked at how word patterns can show us what's important in a current. Sometime it can be tricky to find word patterns since we loved to use a thesaurus today.

Ruth is an excellent example. In the first chapter, the Hebrew word “shub,” which means “return,” is in the first chapter 10 times. Now, when translated, the word “return” is not always there, so it makes it more challenging to pick up the pattern. Try to also look for concepts as well as specif words.

Ruth Chapter 1:

⁶ When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to return home from there.

⁷ With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of Judah.

⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to me.

¹⁰ and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."

¹¹ But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? ¹² Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me—even if I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-

¹⁵ "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Go back with her."

²¹ I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me."

²² So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning.

As you can see, the concept of returning is very strong in this first chapter. Therefore, we know the that returning is a strong theme in the book of Ruth.