Ruth 1:3

1:3 Sometime later ¹  Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone.

Ruth 2:1

Ruth Works in the Field of Boaz

2:1 Now Naomi ²  had a relative ³  on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech. ⁴ 

Ruth 2:3

2:3 So Ruth ⁵  went and gathered grain in the fields ⁶  behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to end up ⁷  in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

Ruth 1:2

1:2 (Now the man’s name was Elimelech, ⁸  his wife was Naomi, ⁹  and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. ¹⁰  They were of the clan of Ephrath ¹¹  from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. ¹² 

¹ tn Heb “And Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died.” The vav (ו) functions in a consecutive sense (“then”), but the time-frame is not explicitly stated.

² tn The disjunctive clause (note the vav [ו] + prepositional phrase structure) provides background information essential to the following narrative.

³ tc The marginal reading (Qere) is מוֹדַע (moda’, “relative”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְיֻדָּע (miyudda’, “friend”). The textual variant was probably caused by orthographic confusion between consonantal מְיֻדָּע and מוֹדַע. Virtually all English versions follow the marginal reading (Qere), e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “kinsman”; NIV, NCV, NLT “relative.”

⁴ tn Heb “and [there was] to Naomi a relative, to her husband, a man mighty in substance, from the clan of Elimelech, and his name [was] Boaz.”

³ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁴ tn Heb “and she went and entered [a field] and gleaned in the field behind the harvesters.” Cf. KJV, NASB, NRSV “the reapers”; TEV “the workers.”

⁵ sn The text is written from Ruth’s limited perspective. As far as she was concerned, she randomly picked a spot in the field. But God was providentially at work and led her to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who, as a near relative of Elimelech, was a potential benefactor.

⁴ sn The name “Elimelech” literally means “My God [is] king.” The narrator’s explicit identification of his name seems to cast him in a positive light.

⁵ tn Heb “and the name of his wife [was] Naomi.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

⁶ tn Heb “and the name[s] of his two sons [were] Mahlon and Kilion.”

⁷ tn Heb “[They were] Ephrathites.” Ephrathah is a small village (Ps 132:6) in the vicinity of Bethlehem (Gen 35:16), so close in proximity that it is often identified with the larger town of Bethlehem (Gen 35:19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11; Mic 5:2 [MT 5:1]; HALOT 81 s.v. אֶפְרָתָה); see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 64. The designation “Ephrathites” might indicate that they were residents of Ephrathah. However, the adjectival form אֶפְרָתִים (ephratim, “Ephrathites”) used here elsewhere refers to someone from the clan of Ephrath (cf. 1 Chr 4:4) which lived in the region of Bethlehem: “Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse” (1 Sam 17:12; cf. Mic 5:2 [MT 5:1]). So it is more likely that the virtually identical expression here – “Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah” – refers to the clan of Ephrath in Bethlehem (see R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth [NICOT], 91).

⁸ tn Heb “and were there”; KJV “continued there”; NRSV “remained there”; TEV “were living there.”