Genesis 32:5

32:5 I have oxen, donkeys, sheep, and male and female servants. I have sent ¹  this message ²  to inform my lord, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

Genesis 33:8

33:8 Esau ³  then asked, “What did you intend ⁴  by sending all these herds to meet me?” ⁵  Jacob ⁶  replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.”

Genesis 33:15

33:15 So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” ⁷  “Why do that?” Jacob replied. ⁸  “My lord has already been kind enough to me.” ⁹ 

Ruth 2:13

2:13 She said, “You really are being kind to me, ¹⁰  sir, ¹¹  for you have reassured ¹²  and encouraged ¹³  me, your servant, ¹⁴  even though I am ¹⁵  not one of your servants!” ¹⁶ 

¹ tn Or “I am sending.” The form is a preterite with the vav consecutive; it could be rendered as an English present tense – as the Hebrew perfect/preterite allows – much like an epistolary aorist in Greek. The form assumes the temporal perspective of the one who reads the message.

² tn The words “this message” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons.

³ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “Who to you?”

⁵ tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”

⁶ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁷ tn The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.

⁸ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁹ tn Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”

¹⁰ tn Heb “I am finding favor in your eyes.” In v. 10, where Ruth uses the perfect, she simply states the fact that Boaz is kind. Here the Hebrew text switches to the imperfect, thus emphasizing the ongoing attitude of kindness displayed by Boaz. Many English versions treat this as a request: KJV “Let me find favour in thy sight”; NAB “May I prove worthy of your kindness”; NIV “May I continue to find favor in your eyes.”

¹¹ tn Heb “my master”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “my lord.”

¹² tn Or “comforted” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

¹³ tn Heb “spoken to the heart of.” As F. W. Bush points out, the idiom here means “to reassure, encourage” (Ruth, Esther [WBC], 124).

¹⁴ tn Ruth here uses a word (שִׁפְחָה, shifkhah) that describes the lowest level of female servant (see 1 Sam 25:41). Note Ruth 3:9 where she uses the word אָמָה (’amah), which refers to a higher class of servant.

¹⁵ tn The imperfect verbal form of הָיָה (hayah) is used here. F. W. Bush shows from usage elsewhere that the form should be taken as future (Ruth, Esther [WBC], 124-25).

¹⁶ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + verb) is circumstantial (or concessive) here (“even though”).