Ruth 2:9

2:9 Take note of ¹  the field where the men ²  are harvesting and follow behind with the female workers. ³  I will tell the men ⁴  to leave you alone. ⁵  When you are thirsty, you may go to ⁶  the water jars ⁷  and drink some of the water ⁸  the servants draw.” ⁹ 

Ruth 2:19

2:19 Her mother-in-law asked her, ¹⁰  “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” ¹¹  So Ruth ¹²  told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

Ruth 2:21

2:21 Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even ¹³  told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants ¹⁴  until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” ¹⁵ 

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 ¹⁶  so the name of the deceased might not disappear ¹⁷  from among his relatives and from his village. ¹⁸  You are witnesses today.”

¹ tn Heb “let your eyes be upon” (KJV, NASB similar).

² tn Heb “they.” The verb is masculine plural, indicating that the male workers are the subject here.

³ tn Heb “and go after them.” The pronominal suffix (“them”) is feminine plural, indicating that the female workers are referred to here.

⁴ tn Male servants are in view here, as the masculine plural form of the noun indicates (cf. KJV, NAB, NRSV “the young men”).

⁵ tn Heb “Have I not commanded the servants not to touch [i.e., “harm”] you?” The idiomatic, negated rhetorical question is equivalent to an affirmation (see v. 8). The perfect is either instantaneous, indicating completion of the action concurrent with the statement (see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 107, 121-22, who translates, “I am herewith ordering”) or emphatic/rhetorical, indicating the action is as good as done.

⁶ tn The juxtaposition of two perfects, each with vav consecutive, here indicates a conditional sentence (see GKC 337 §112.kk).

⁷ tn Heb “vessels (so KJV, NAB, NRSV), receptacles”; NCV “water jugs.”

⁸ tn Heb “drink [some] of that which” (KJV similar); in the context “water” is implied.

⁹ tn The imperfect here either indicates characteristic or typical activity, or anterior future, referring to a future action (drawing water) which logically precedes another future action (drinking).

¹⁰ tn Heb “said to her.” Since what follows is a question, the translation uses “asked her” here.

¹¹ tn Or “blessed” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The same expression occurs in the following verse.

¹² tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁹ tn On the force of the phrase גָּם כִּי (gam ki) here, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 138-39.

²⁰ tn Heb “with the servants who are mine you may stay close.” The imperfect has a permissive nuance here. The word “servants” is masculine plural.

²¹ tn Heb “until they have finished all the harvest which is mine”; NIV “until they finish harvesting all my grain.”

²⁸ tn Heb “in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance” (NASB similar).

²⁹ tn Heb “be cut off” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “may not perish.”

³⁰ 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.”