We know that Naomi is bitter (mara), and we have our own ideas about what bitterness means. Heck, when I happened to be in Houston in 2018, and visited Joel Osteen's church out of curiosity, he preached a deft and effective sermon on the meaning of bitterness and how to root it out.
But attention to Naomi's language in these verses seems to uncover the particular contours of her bitterness.
At the same time, at two places, the text appears to link Naomi to Israel - both the man, Jacob, and the nation.
Since the text next to nothing to characterize Ruth yet, I think the focus of this section is to invite Israel to identify with Naomi's bitterness and to view Ruth as a "new Adam."
Ruth 1:6
And then she arose along with her daughters-in-law,
and she returned from the fields of Moab
for she had heard in the field of Moab
that Yahweh had visited his people to give to them bread.
"Return" (shuv) is the key word in this section, appearing for the first time here, and then eight more times (1:6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 15 [2x], 16).
Naomi returns, in the singular, from the fields of Moab. Why singular and not plural?
Perhaps because she is the primary narrative agent.
Perhaps because it's Bethlehem, which is her home, but neither Orpah's nor Ruth's. This seems to be the case. If Naomi wants one thing, it's for everyone to "return." In any case, here are the uses of shuv in this text:
Naomi returns, on the road to the land of Judah (v. 7).
She exhorts the women: Return to the house of your mother (v. 8). This suggests that she wants the two of them to break up, too. Three women back in three houses.
Their perfunctory response is that their going "along" with Naomi can indeed be called a "return": "Certainly with you we will return to your people" (v. 10).
Naomi says "Return" twice more (vv. 11, 12), adding reasons.
After Orpah's kiss, Naomi instructs Ruth to "return after" her (v. 15).
This sentence (v. 6) also introduces Yahweh, whom Naomi will discuss twice more at vv. 9, 13.
Naomi follows the bread, and she can't be blamed. Moab isn't home; Moab was a temporary. Her husband brought her, and he is now dead. It was a place to escape the famine, which has now ended. It was a place to raise grandkids, which she doesn't have.
Plus, symbolically, the fields of Moab were the place Israel was supposed to leave in order to enter the Promised Land. It's the setting of Moses' address that we call Deuteronomy (Deut. 1:5). She, like Israel, will leave the "fields of Moab" for Judah.
Ruth 1:7-9
And she went out from the place where she was
along with the two of her daughters-in-law with her.
And they went on the road to return to the land of Judah.
And Naomi said to the two of her daughters-in-law,
"Go, return, each one to the house of her mother.
May Yahweh do with you lovingkindness
just as you have done with the dead and with me.
May Yahweh give you to find rest,
each one in the house of her husband."
Then she kissed them,
and they lifted up their voice
and they wept.
At some point - what prompts it? - Naomi addresses them with the shuv command: "Return."
Naomi blesses them, but it's an odd blessing. Notice the form her blessing takes: Naomi wishes that Yahweh would treat the women the way they had treated their husbands and mother-in-law. This has a bitter ring to it because lovingkindness (chesed) is supposed to be the Yahweh word - the steadfast love of God for his covenant people.
Naomi implies that Yahweh should imitate these women: "May God learn to treat you as well as you treat people." That's an oof.
Naomi switches her blessing in some legitimately awkward Hebrew. This could be translated, "May Yahweh give you, and may you find rest." Her meaning is unclear. Perhaps there's meaning there - Naomi can't complete a sentence with Yahweh as a gracious subject, so she starts her sentence over, naming the women as subjects: "May God give you - never mind - may you find rest." You strong, independent women.
Whatever the significance of her broken Hebrew, the shift from "house of her mother" to "house of her husband" implies the blessing Naomi has in mind: May you end up with a man.
The kiss-voice-weep triad occurs both here and again at vv. 13b-14. I'm curious about kissing (nashaq) idioms in the Bible:
When Jacob started his "journey" of "returning" to his father's house (Gen. 28:18-22), he meets men who tell him about Laban, his uncle, and then he sees Rachel. After Jacob "saw Rachel the daughter of Laban his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban his mother's brother," Jacob "kissed Rachel, and lifted his voice and wept" (29:11). Why? The passage is a celebration of return, and of surprising support from extended family. Laban kisses Jacob right back, as a father-figure. (The first kiss in the Bible is the kiss Jacob gives his father, Isaac.)
Esau runs to "kiss" Jacob and "weep" at their reconciliation (33:4).
Joseph "kisses" his brothers and "weeps" on them when he reveals his identity to them (45:15). He does the same to his father, Jacob (50:1).
At their separation, David and Jonathan "kiss" and "weep" (1 Sam. 20:41).
Elisha asks permission to "kiss" his father and mother before following Elijah (1 Kgs. 19:20).
Aside from the curious observation that every kiss in Genesis is either given or received by Jacob, it is clear that the "kiss" and "weep" idiom has to do with Jacob's/Israel's journeying. Ruth's name may be used 12 times, but Naomi is doing Israel's verbs.
Ruth 1:10
But they said to her,
"Certainly with you we will return to your people."
Orpah's and Ruth's response in v. 10 is emphatic, but perfunctory. They have yet to be given meaningful lines.
Ruth 1:11-13
Then Naomi said,
"Return, my daughters.
Why would you go with me?
Are there still sons in my womb
That they could be for you as husbands?
Return, my daughters, go,
For I am too old to be to a husband.
If I said, 'There is hope for me--what's more--
if I was tonight to a husband
and--even more--if I bear sons,'
would it do them good to wait patiently until they were grown?
Would it do them good to shut yourselves from marrying?
No, my daughters,
for it is far more bitter to me than for you
that the hand-of-Yahweh has gone out against me."
And they lifted up their voice
and wept again.
Naomi's address is confusing: First, she calls them daughters, even though the narrator calls them daughters-in-law, and even though she herself has told them to return each to "her mother's house." Earlier, she text showed Naomi bereft of "two children," substituting "children" for "sons" (v. 5). Two passages, two lexical switches. Oof, Naomi wants to hold babies and be loved by in-laws.
The logic she employs to make her case is strange and heart-wrenching. The text has already presented Naomi as grammatically inconsistent and critical of Yahweh, and now her logical argument is both strange and sad. Here is my paraphrase:
"What--could I even get pregnant again? But even if I did have that hope--if I slept with a man tonight and--even wilder--I got pregnant twice and had boys--even then, by the time they were old enough to marry you, you'd be too old to give them kids! It's too late for me to do you any good, and it'd be too late for you to do me (or my kids lol) any good. Leave me and get married."
Famously, Naomi is mara, bitter. Notably, she calls herself bitter; the narrator doesn't presume this judgment. Even if Yahweh has visited Judah with bread, Naomi identifies as cursed, or at least as a bad luck charm.
Ruth 1:14-15
And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clung to her.
And she (Naomi) said,
"See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods.
Return after your sister-in-law."
Obediently, and like her name, Orpah kisses and flees like a gazelle.
Ruth clings (dabaq). What is this clinging meant to evoke? A few things:
First, the marriage formula in Gen. 2:24, "a man shall leave his father and mother and cling (dabaq) to his wife." Ruth's clinging is ironic. She is leaving her mother's household, and leaving what Naomi imagines to be her best prospects at marriage, to make herself one, in a manner of speaking, with Naomi.
Clinging (dabaq) describes what people do to God (e.g. "Cling to him," Deut. 13:4) and to their own tribe ("For the tribes... shall each cling to his own inheritance," Num. 36:9).
Soon, Boaz will tell Ruth to "cling" to his maids (2:8, 21, 23).
Ruth's clinging subverts and reimagines both of these senses of cleaning. One, she will leave her mother's house to cling, not to a husband, but to a widow. Two, she will cling, not to her own gods and tribe, but to this Judahite woman.
Suddenly, and without yet speaking a line of her own, Ruth has emerged at the end of this paragraph as the most creative agent in the narrative that bears her name.
Ruth is the new Adam, who will leave her father and mother to hold fast to Naomi and make a new beginning.