Ruth 1:4

1:4 So her sons ¹  married ²  Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) ³  And they continued to live there about ten years.

Ruth 1:9

1:9 May the Lord enable each of you to find ⁴  security ⁵  in the home of a new husband!” ⁶  Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept loudly. ⁷ 

Ruth 2:18

Ruth Returns to Naomi

2:18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw ⁸  how much grain ⁹  she had gathered. Then Ruth ¹⁰  gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ¹¹ 

¹ tn Heb “they.” The verb is 3rd person masculine plural referring to Naomi’s sons, as the translation indicates.

² tn Heb “and they lifted up for themselves Moabite wives.” When used with the noun “wife,” the verb נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up, carry, take”) forms the idiom “to take a wife,” that is, to marry (BDB 673 s.v. Qal.3.d; 2 Chr 11:21; 13:21; 24:3; Ezra 9:2,12; 10:44; Neh 13:25).

³ tn Heb “the name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth.”

⁴ tn Heb “may the Lord give to you, and find rest, each [in] the house of her husband.” The syntax is unusual, but following the jussive (“may he give”), the imperative with vav (ו) conjunctive (“and find”) probably indicates the purpose or consequence of the preceding action: “May he enable you to find rest.”

⁵ tn Heb “rest.” While the basic meaning of מְנוּחָה (mÿnukhah) is “rest,” it often refers to “security,” such as provided in marriage (BDB 629-30 s.v.; HALOT 600 s.v.). Thus English versions render it in three different but related ways: (1) the basic sense: “rest” (KJV, ASV, NASV, NIV); (2) the metonymical cause/effect sense: “security” (NRSV, NJPS, REB, NLT, GW); and (3) the referential sense: “home” (RSV, TEV, CEV, NCV).

⁶ tn Heb “in the house of her husband” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “your husband.”

⁷ tn Heb “they lifted their voice[s] and wept” (KJV, ASV, NASB all similar). This refers to loud weeping characteristic of those mourning a tragedy (Judg 21:2; 2 Sam 13:36; Job 2:12).

⁷ tc MT vocalizes ותרא as the Qal verb וַתֵּרֶא (vattere’, “and she saw”), consequently of “her mother-in-law” as subject and “what she gathered” as the direct object: “her mother-in-law saw what she gathered.” A few medieval Hebrew mss (also reflected in Syriac and Vulgate) have the Hiphil וַתַּרְא (vattar’, “and she showed”), consequently taking “her mother-in-law” as the direct object and “what she gathered” as the double direct-object: “she showed her mother-in-law what she had gathered” (cf. NAB, TEV, CEV, NLT). Although the latter has the advantage of making Ruth the subject of all the verbs in this verse, it would be syntactically difficult. For one would expect the accusative sign אֶת (’et) before “her mother-in-law” if it were the direct object of a Hiphil verb in a sentence with a double direct object introduced by the accusative sign אֶת, e.g., “to show (Hiphil of רָאָה, ra’ah) your servant (direct object marked by accusative sign אֶת) your greatness (double direct object marked by accusative sign אֶת) (Deut 3:24). Therefore the MT reading is preferred.

⁸ tn Heb “that which”; the referent (how much grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁹ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁰ tn Heb “and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left over from her being satisfied.”