Genesis 21:14

21:14 Early in the morning Abraham took ¹  some food ²  and a skin of water and gave them to Hagar. He put them on her shoulders, gave her the child, ³  and sent her away. So she went wandering ⁴  aimlessly through the wilderness ⁵  of Beer Sheba.

Genesis 29:9

29:9 While he was still speaking with them, Rachel arrived with her father’s sheep, for she was tending them. ⁶ 

Exodus 2:16

2:16 Now a priest of Midian had seven daughters, and they came and began to draw ⁷  water ⁸  and fill ⁹  the troughs in order to water their father’s flock.

Ruth 2:2

2:2 One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go ¹⁰  to the fields so I can gather ¹¹  grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” ¹²  Naomi ¹³  replied, “You may go, my daughter.”

Ruth 2:17

2:17 So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed ¹⁴  what she had gathered, it came to about thirty pounds ¹⁵  of barley!

Proverbs 31:27

31:27 She watches over ¹⁶  the ways of her household,

and does not eat the bread of idleness. ¹⁷ 

[21:14]  ¹ tn Heb “and Abraham rose up early in the morning and he took.”

[21:14]  ² tn Heb “bread,” although the term can be used for food in general.

[21:14]  ³ tn Heb “He put upon her shoulder, and the boy [or perhaps, “and with the boy”], and he sent her away.” It is unclear how “and the boy” relates syntactically to what precedes. Perhaps the words should be rearranged and the text read, “and he put [them] on her shoulder and he gave to Hagar the boy.”

[21:14]  ⁴ tn Heb “she went and wandered.”

[21:14]  ⁵ tn Or “desert,” although for English readers this usually connotes a sandy desert like the Sahara rather than the arid wasteland of this region with its sparse vegetation.

[29:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “was a shepherdess.”

[2:16]  ⁷ tn The preterites describing their actions must be taken in an ingressive sense, since they did not actually complete the job. Shepherds drove them away, and Moses watered the flocks.

[2:16]  ⁸ tn The object “water” is not in the Hebrew text, but is implied.

[2:16]  ⁹ tn This also has the ingressive sense, “began to fill,” but for stylistic reasons is translated simply “fill” here.

[2:2]  ¹⁰ tn The cohortative here (“Let me go”) expresses Ruth’s request. Note Naomi’s response, in which she gives Ruth permission to go to the field.

[2:2]  ¹¹ tn Following the preceding cohortative, the cohortative with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result.

[2:2]  ¹² tn Heb “anyone in whose eyes I may find favor” (ASV, NIV similar). The expression אֶמְצָא־חֵן בְּעֵינָיו (’emtsa’-khen bÿ’enayv, “to find favor in the eyes of [someone]”) appears in Ruth 2:2, 10, 13. It is most often used when a subordinate or servant requests permission for something from a superior (BDB 336 s.v. חֵן). Ruth will play the role of the subordinate servant, seeking permission from a landowner, who then could show benevolence by granting her request to glean in his field behind the harvest workers.

[2:2]  ¹³ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Naomi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:17]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “she beat out” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). Ruth probably used a stick to separate the kernels of grain from the husks. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.

[2:17]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “there was an ephah.” An ephah was a dry measure, equivalent to one-tenth of a homer (see HALOT 43 s.v. אֵיפָה). An ephah was equivalent to a “bath,” a liquid measure. Jars labeled “bath” found at archaeological sites in Israel could contain approximately 5.8 gallons, or one-half to two-thirds of a bushel. Thus an ephah of barley would have weighed about 29 to 30 pounds (just over 13 kg). See R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 179.

[31:27]  ¹⁶ tn The first word of the eighteenth line begins with צ (tsade), the eighteenth letter of the Hebrew alphabet.

[31:27]  ¹⁷ sn The expression bread of idleness refers to food that is gained through idleness, perhaps given or provided for her. In the description of the passage one could conclude that this woman did not have to do everything she did; and this line affirms that even though she is well off, she will eat the bread of her industrious activity.