Ruth 2:16

2:16 Make sure you pull out ¹  ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” ² 

Ruth 3:12

3:12 Now yes, it is true that ³  I am a guardian, ⁴  but there is another guardian who is a closer relative than I am.

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 

Ruth 2:8

2:8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, ⁷  my dear! ⁸  Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not ⁹  go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside ¹⁰  my female workers. ¹¹ 

Ruth 4:10

4:10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to raise up a descendant who will inherit his property ¹²  so the name of the deceased might not disappear ¹³  from among his relatives and from his village. ¹⁴  You are witnesses today.”

¹ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis. Here שָׁלַל (shalal, “pull out”) is a homonym of the more common Hebrew verb meaning “to plunder.” An Arabic cognate is used of drawing a sword out of a scabbard (see BDB 1021 s.v.).

² tn Heb “do not rebuke her” (so NASB, NRSV); CEV “don’t speak harshly to her”; NLT “don’t give her a hard time.”

³ tc The sequence כִּי אָמְנָם כִּי אִם (ki ’omnam ki ’im; Kethib) occurs only here in the OT, as does the sequence כִּי אָמְנָם כִּי (Qere). It is likely that כִּי אִם is dittographic (note the preceding sequence כִּי אָמְנָם). The translation assumes that the original text was simply the otherwise unattested וְעַתָּה כִּי אָמְנָם, with אָמְנָם and כִּי both having an asseverative (or emphatic) function.

⁴ tn Sometimes translated “redeemer” (also later in this verse). See the note on the phrase “guardian of the family interests” in v. 9.

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.

⁷ tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The idiomatic, negated rhetorical question is equivalent to an affirmation (see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 119, and GKC 474 §150.e).

⁸ tn Heb “my daughter.” This form of address is a mild form of endearment, perhaps merely rhetorical. It might suggest that Boaz is older than Ruth, but not necessarily significantly so. A few English versions omit it entirely (e.g., TEV, CEV).

⁹ tn The switch from the negative particle אַל (’al, see the preceding statement, “do not leave”) to לֹא (lo’) may make this statement more emphatic. It may indicate that the statement is a policy applicable for the rest of the harvest (see v. 21).

¹⁰ tn Heb “and thus you may stay close with.” The imperfect has a permissive nuance here.

¹¹ sn The female workers would come along behind those who cut the grain and bundle it up. Staying close to the female workers allowed Ruth to collect more grain than would normally be the case (see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 61, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 121).

⁹ tn Heb “in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance” (NASB similar).

¹⁰ tn Heb “be cut off” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “may not perish.”

¹¹ tn Heb “and from the gate of his place” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “from the court of his birth place”; NIV “from the town records.”