Ruth 2:18-19

Ruth Returns to Naomi

2:18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw ¹  how much grain ²  she had gathered. Then Ruth ³  gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ⁴  2:19 Her mother-in-law asked her, ⁵  “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” ⁶  So Ruth ⁷  told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

¹ 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.

² tn Heb “that which”; the referent (how much grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

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

⁴ tn Heb “and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left over from her being satisfied.”

⁵ tn Heb “said to her.” Since what follows is a question, the translation uses “asked her” here.

⁶ tn Or “blessed” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The same expression occurs in the following verse.

⁷ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.