Why did Ruth and Orpah make a different decision?
Ruth 1:1 - 22
ESV - 1 In the days when the judges ruled there was a famine in the land, and a man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.
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Asked March 18 2021
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Jasper Soriano
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Tim Maas
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I would say that it was because, even though Ruth and Orpah were both Moabites by birth who had been married to Jewish men, Ruth had apparently developed a belief in the God of Israel in a way that Orpah had not. It was that belief (which she would have shared in common with Naomi) that influenced her to remain with Naomi, both because she would not have wanted to return to the pagan beliefs of the Moabites, and because she would have perceived remaining with Naomi (who would otherwise have been alone) as a loving choice that her belief in God was influencing her to make.
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