Genesis 33:8

33:8 Esau ¹  then asked, “What did you intend ²  by sending all these herds to meet me?” ³  Jacob ⁴  replied, “To find favor in your sight, my lord.”

Genesis 33:15

33:15 So Esau said, “Let me leave some of my men with you.” ⁵  “Why do that?” Jacob replied. ⁶  “My lord has already been kind enough to me.” ⁷ 

Genesis 47:25

47:25 They replied, “You have saved our lives! You are showing us favor, ⁸  and we will be Pharaoh’s slaves.” ⁹ 

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 2:1

Ruth Works in the Field of Boaz

2:1 Now Naomi ¹⁴  had a relative ¹⁵  on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech. ¹⁶ 

Ruth 1:18

1:18 When Naomi ¹⁷  realized that Ruth ¹⁸  was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to dissuade her. ¹⁹ 

Ruth 1:2

1:2 (Now the man’s name was Elimelech, ²⁰  his wife was Naomi, ²¹  and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. ²²  They were of the clan of Ephrath ²³  from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. ²⁴ 

Ruth 1:4

1:4 So her sons ²⁵  married ²⁶  Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) ²⁷  And they continued to live there about ten years.

[33:8]  ¹ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Esau) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:8]  ² tn Heb “Who to you?”

[33:8]  ³ tn Heb “all this camp which I met.”

[33:8]  ⁴ tn Heb “and he”; the referent (Jacob) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[33:15]  ⁵ tn The cohortative verbal form here indicates a polite offer of help.

[33:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he said, ‘Why this?’” The referent of the pronoun “he” (Jacob) has been specified for clarity, and the order of the introductory clause and the direct discourse has been rearranged in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[33:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “I am finding favor in the eyes of my lord.”

[47:25]  ⁸ tn Heb “we find favor in the eyes of my lord.” Some interpret this as a request, “may we find favor in the eyes of my lord.”

[47:25]  ⁹ sn Slaves. See the note on this word in v. 21.

[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.

[2:1]  ¹⁴ tn The disjunctive clause (note the vav [ו] + prepositional phrase structure) provides background information essential to the following narrative.

[2:1]  ¹⁵ tc The marginal reading (Qere) is מוֹדַע (moda’, “relative”), while the consonantal text (Kethib) has מְיֻדָּע (miyudda’, “friend”). The textual variant was probably caused by orthographic confusion between consonantal מְיֻדָּע and מוֹדַע. Virtually all English versions follow the marginal reading (Qere), e.g., KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV “kinsman”; NIV, NCV, NLT “relative.”

[2:1]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “and [there was] to Naomi a relative, to her husband, a man mighty in substance, from the clan of Elimelech, and his name [was] Boaz.”

[1:18]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Naomi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:18]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:18]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “she ceased speaking to her.” This does not imply that Naomi was completely silent toward Ruth. It simply means that Naomi stopped trying to convince her to go back to Moab (see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 84-85).

[1:2]  ²⁰ sn The name “Elimelech” literally means “My God [is] king.” The narrator’s explicit identification of his name seems to cast him in a positive light.

[1:2]  ²¹ tn Heb “and the name of his wife [was] Naomi.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:2]  ²² tn Heb “and the name[s] of his two sons [were] Mahlon and Kilion.”

[1:2]  ²³ tn Heb “[They were] Ephrathites.” Ephrathah is a small village (Ps 132:6) in the vicinity of Bethlehem (Gen 35:16), so close in proximity that it is often identified with the larger town of Bethlehem (Gen 35:19; 48:7; Ruth 4:11; Mic 5:2 [MT 5:1]; HALOT 81 s.v. אֶפְרָתָה); see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 64. The designation “Ephrathites” might indicate that they were residents of Ephrathah. However, the adjectival form אֶפְרָתִים (ephratim, “Ephrathites”) used here elsewhere refers to someone from the clan of Ephrath (cf. 1 Chr 4:4) which lived in the region of Bethlehem: “Now David was the son of an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah whose name was Jesse” (1 Sam 17:12; cf. Mic 5:2 [MT 5:1]). So it is more likely that the virtually identical expression here – “Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah” – refers to the clan of Ephrath in Bethlehem (see R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth [NICOT], 91).

[1:2]  ²⁴ tn Heb “and were there”; KJV “continued there”; NRSV “remained there”; TEV “were living there.”

[1:4]  ²⁵ tn Heb “they.” The verb is 3rd person masculine plural referring to Naomi’s sons, as the translation indicates.

[1:4]  ²⁶ tn Heb “and they lifted up for themselves Moabite wives.” When used with the noun “wife,” the verb נָשָׂא (nasa’, “to lift up, carry, take”) forms the idiom “to take a wife,” that is, to marry (BDB 673 s.v. Qal.3.d; 2 Chr 11:21; 13:21; 24:3; Ezra 9:2,12; 10:44; Neh 13:25).

[1:4]  ²⁷ tn Heb “the name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth.”