And she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return you after your sister-in-law.
Read Chapter 1
Aquinas Study Bible
AD 2017
It would seem that Noemi sinned because she advised Ruth to remain in idolatry. Perhaps she said that to test her, to see if she was determined, because as 2 Peter 2:21 says, ‘It would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment‘; or it was permission and not advice or a command. (Hugh of St. Cher Com Ruth)
To her gods Noemi did not mean to persuade Ruth to return to the false gods she had formerly worshipped; but by this manner of speech, insinuated to her, that if she would go with her, she must renounce her false gods, and turn to the Lord, the God of Israel. (Challoner)
She wished to try her constancy. (Salien)
Most infer from this passage, that Orpha was never converted, or that she relapsed.
Her gods, may indeed be rendered in the singular, "god. "But what god was peculiar to her and the Moabites, but Chamos? (Calmet)
Noemi might well fear that Orpha would give way to the superstition of her countrymen, to which she had been addicted, even though she might have made profession of serving the true God, while she lived with her. (Haydock).
To her gods: Noemi did not mean to persuade Ruth to return to the false gods she had formerly worshipped: but by this manner of speech, insinuated to her, that if she would go with her, she must renounce her false gods and return to the Lord the God of Israel.
