Ruth 1:11

1:11 But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! ¹  I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! ² 

Ruth 4:15

4:15 He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, ³  for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She ⁴  is better to you than seven sons!”

Ruth 1:12

1:12 Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. ⁵  Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons, ⁶ 

¹ tn Heb “Why would you want to come with me?” Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The phrase “to Judah” is added in the translation for clarification.

² tn Heb “Do I still have sons in my inner parts that they might become your husbands?” Again Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

³ tn Heb “and he will become for you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age” (NASB similar).

⁴ tn Heb “who, she”; KJV “which is better to thee.”

⁵ sn Too old to get married again. Naomi may be exaggerating for the sake of emphasis. Her point is clear, though: It is too late to roll back the clock.

⁶ tn Verse 12b contains the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, which is completed by the rhetorical questions in v. 13. For a detailed syntactical analysis, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 78-79.