Ruth 2:4

Boaz and Ruth Meet

2:4 Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!”

Psalms 28:9

28:9 Deliver your people!

Empower the nation that belongs to you!

Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms at all times!

Psalms 122:5-8

122:5 Indeed, the leaders sit 10  there on thrones and make legal decisions,

on the thrones of the house of David. 11 

122:6 Pray 12  for the peace of Jerusalem!

May those who love her prosper! 13 

122:7 May there be peace inside your defenses,

and prosperity 14  inside your fortresses! 15 

122:8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors

I will say, “May there be peace in you!”

Psalms 128:5

128:5 May the Lord bless you 16  from Zion,

that you might see 17  Jerusalem 18  prosper

all the days of your life,

Psalms 129:8

129:8 Those who pass by will not say, 19 

“May you experience the Lord’s blessing!

We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”

Psalms 134:3

134:3 May the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth,

bless you 20  from Zion! 21 


tn Heb “and look”; NIV, NRSV “Just then.” The narrator invites the audience into the story, describing Boaz’s arrival as if it were witnessed by the audience.

map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.

tn Heb “said to.” Context indicates that the following expression is a greeting, the first thing Boaz says to his workers.

tn Heb “said to him.” For stylistic reasons “replied” is used in the present translation.

tn Or “bless.”

tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.

tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”

tn Or “forever.”

tn Or “for.”

10 tn Or “sat.”

11 tn Heb “Indeed, there they sit [on] thrones for judgment, [on] thrones [belonging] to the house of David.”

12 tn Heb “ask [for].”

13 tn Or “be secure.”

14 tn or “security.”

15 tn The psalmist uses second feminine singular pronominal forms to address personified Jerusalem.

16 tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

17 tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

18 map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

19 tn The perfect verbal form is used for rhetorical effect; it describes an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

20 tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine singular, suggesting that the servants addressed in vv. 1-2 are responding to the psalmist.

21 tn Heb “may the Lord bless you from Zion, the maker of heaven and earth.”