And they two went—they trudged along, the two of them—until they came to Bethlehem. In the expression "the two of them" the masculine pronoun ( הֶם for הֶן) occurs, as in Ruth 1:8 and Ruth 1:9. It mirrors in language the actual facts of relationship in life.
The masculine is some- times assumptively representative of both itself and the feminine. And sometimes, even apart from the representative element, it is the overlapping and overbearing gender. And it came to pass, as they entered Bethlehem, that the whole city got into commotion concerning them, and they said, Is this Naomi?
Naomi, though greatly altered in appearance, besides being travel-worn and weary, was recognized. But who was that pensive and beautiful companion by her side? Where was Elimelech? Where was Machne and Chillon?
Why are they not with ir mother? Such would be some of the questions started, and keenly talked about and discussed. Then on both the wayfarers the finger-marks of poverty, involuntary signals of distress, would be unconcealable.
Interest, sympathy, gossip would be alive throughout the little town, especially among the female portion of the population, and loud would be their exclamations of surprise. The verb they said is feminine in Hebrew, וַתּאֹמַרְנָה a nicety which cannot be reproduced in English without obtruding too prominently the sex referred to, as m Michaelis's version—"and all the women said."
So the Vulgate. The verb which we have rendered got into commotion is found in 1 Samuel 4:5—"the earth rail again;" and in 1 Kings 1:45—"the city rang again."