19 So they both went until they came to Bethlehem . And when they had come to Bethlehem , all the city was stirred because of them, and [1]the women said , "Is this Naomi ?" 20 She said to them, "Do not call me [2]Naomi ; call me [3]Mara , for [4] the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21 "I went out full , but the Lord has brought me back empty . Why do you call me Naomi , since the Lord has witnessed against me and [5]the Almighty has afflicted me?" 22 So Naomi returned , and with her Ruth the Moabitess , her daughter-in-law , who returned from the land of Moab . And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ruth 1:19-22
Commentary on Ruth 1:19-22
(Read Ruth 1:19-22)
Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem. Afflictions will make great and surprising changes in a little time. May God, by his grace, fit us for all such changes, especially the great change!, Naomi signifies "pleasant," or "amiable;" Mara, "bitter," or "bitterness." She was now a woman of a sorrowful spirit. She had come home empty, poor, a widow and childless. But there is a fulness for believers of which they never can be emptied; a good part which shall not be taken from those who have it. The cup of affliction is a "bitter" cup, but she owns that the affliction came from God. It well becomes us to have our hearts humbled under humbling providences. It is not affliction itself, but affliction rightly borne, that does us good.