2:4 Now at that very moment, 1 Boaz arrived from Bethlehem 2 and greeted 3 the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, 4 “May the Lord bless you!”
1 tn Heb “and look”; NIV, NRSV “Just then.” The narrator invites the audience into the story, describing Boaz’s arrival as if it were witnessed by the audience.
2 map For location see Map5-B1; Map7-E2; Map8-E2; Map10-B4.
3 tn Heb “said to.” Context indicates that the following expression is a greeting, the first thing Boaz says to his workers.
4 tn Heb “said to him.” For stylistic reasons “replied” is used in the present translation.
5 tn Or “blessed” (so NASB, NRSV).
6 tn Heb “my daughter.” This form of address is a mild form of endearment, perhaps merely rhetorical. A few English versions omit it entirely (e.g., TEV, CEV). The same expression occurs in v. 11.
7 tn Heb “latter [act of] devotion”; NRSV “this last instance of your loyalty.”
8 tn Heb “you have made the latter act of devotion better than the former”; NIV “than that which you showed earlier.”
9 tn Heb “by not going after the young men” (NASB similar); TEV “You might have gone looking for a young man.”
10 tn Heb “whether poor or rich” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); the more common English idiom reverses the order (“rich or poor”; cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).
9 tn Or “redeemer.” See the note on the phrase “guardian of the family interests” in 3:9. As the following context indicates, the child is referred to here.
10 tn The “guardian” is the subject of the verb, as the next verse makes clear.
11 tn Heb “may his name be called [i.e., “perpetuated”; see Gen 48:16] in Israel.”