Ruth 2:4

Boaz and Ruth Meet

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!”

Ruth 2:12

2:12 May the Lord reward your efforts! ⁵  May your acts of kindness be repaid fully ⁶  by the Lord God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection!” ⁷ 

Ruth 4:11

4:11 All the people who were at the gate and the elders replied, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel! May ⁸  you prosper ⁹  in Ephrathah and become famous ¹⁰  in Bethlehem. ¹¹ 

Psalms 37:30

37:30 The godly speak wise words

and promote justice. ¹² 

Psalms 40:9-10

40:9 I have told the great assembly ¹³  about your justice. ¹⁴ 

Look! I spare no words! ¹⁵ 

O Lord, you know this is true.

40:10 I have not failed to tell about your justice; ¹⁶ 

I spoke about your reliability and deliverance;

I have not neglected to tell the great assembly about your loyal love and faithfulness. ¹⁷ 

Psalms 119:46

119:46 I will speak ¹⁸  about your regulations before kings

and not be ashamed.

Psalms 129:8

129:8 Those who pass by will not say, ¹⁹ 

“May you experience the Lord’s blessing!

We pronounce a blessing on you in the name of the Lord.”

Proverbs 6:22

6:22 When you walk about, ²⁰  they ²¹  will guide you;

when you lie down, they will watch over you;

when you wake up, ²²  they will talk ²³  to you.

Proverbs 10:21

10:21 The teaching ²⁴  of the righteous feeds ²⁵  many,

but fools die ²⁶  for lack of wisdom. ²⁷ 

Proverbs 15:2

15:2 The tongue of the wise ²⁸  treats knowledge correctly, ²⁹ 

but the mouth of the fool spouts out ³⁰  folly.

Proverbs 15:7

15:7 The lips of the wise spread ³¹  knowledge,

but not so the heart of fools. ³² 

Malachi 3:16

3:16 Then those who respected ³³  the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord took notice. ³⁴  A scroll ³⁵  was prepared before him in which were recorded the names of those who respected the Lord and honored his name.

Matthew 12:35

12:35 The good person ³⁶  brings good things out of his ³⁷  good treasury, ³⁸  and the evil person brings evil things out of his evil treasury.

Luke 6:45

6:45 The good person out of the good treasury of his ³⁹  heart ⁴⁰  produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury ⁴¹  produces evil, for his mouth speaks ⁴²  from what fills ⁴³  his heart.

Ephesians 4:29

4:29 You must let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but only what is beneficial for the building up of the one in need, ⁴⁴  that it may give grace to those who hear.

Colossians 4:6

4:6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you should answer everyone.

Colossians 4:1

4:1 Masters, treat your slaves with justice and fairness, because you know that you also have a master in heaven.

Colossians 3:15

3:15 Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body ⁴⁵  to this peace), and be thankful.

[2:4]  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.

[2:4]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[2:4]  ³ tn Heb “said to.” Context indicates that the following expression is a greeting, the first thing Boaz says to his workers.

[2:4]  ⁴ tn Heb “said to him.” For stylistic reasons “replied” is used in the present translation.

[2:12]  ⁵ tn Heb “repay your work”; KJV, ASV “recompense thy work.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the jussive form in the next clause).

[2:12]  ⁶ tn Heb “may your wages be complete”; NCV “May your wages be paid in full.” The prefixed verbal form is a distinct jussive form, indicating that this is a prayer for blessing.

[2:12]  ⁷ tn Heb “under whose wings you have sought shelter”; NIV, NLT “have come to take refuge.”

[4:11]  ⁸ tn Following the jussive, the imperative with prefixed vav indicates purpose or result.

[4:11]  ⁹ tn The phrase וַעֲשֵׂה־חַיִל (va’aseh-khayil, literally, “do strength”) has been variously translated: (1) financial prosperity: “may you become rich” (TEV), “may you be a rich man” (CEV), “may you achieve wealth” (NASB), “may you prosper” (NKJV, NJPS); (2) social prominence: “may you become powerful” (NCV), “may you have standing” (NIV), “may you be great” (NLT), “may you do well” (NAB); (3) reproductive fertility: “may you produce children” (NRSV); and (4) social activity: “may you do a worthy deed” (REB).

[4:11]  ¹⁰ tc Heb “and call a name.” This statement appears to be elliptical. Usually the person named and the name itself follow this expression. Perhaps וּקְרָא־שֵׁם (uqÿra’-shem) should be emended to וְיִקָּרֵא־שֵׁם (vÿyiqqare’-shem), “and your name will be called out,” that is, “perpetuated” (see Gen 48:16, cf. also Ruth 4:14b). The omission of the suffix with “name” could be explained as virtual haplography (note the letter bet [ב], which is similar to kaf [כ], at the beginning of the next word). The same explanation could account for the omission of the prefixed yod (י) on the verb “call” (yod [י] and vav [ו] are similar in appearance). Whether one reads the imperative (the form in the MT) or the jussive (the emended form), the construction indicates purpose or result following the earlier jussive “may he make.”

[4:11]  ¹¹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

[37:30]  ¹² tn Heb “The mouth of the godly [one] utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.” The singular form is used in a representative sense; the typical godly individual is in view. The imperfect verbal forms draw attention to the characteristic behavior of the godly.

[40:9]  ¹³ sn The great assembly is also mentioned in Pss 22:25 and 35:18.

[40:9]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I proclaim justice in the great assembly.” Though “justice” appears without a pronoun here, the Lord’s just acts are in view (see v. 10). His “justice” (צֶדֶק, tsedeq) is here the deliverance that originates in his justice; he protects and vindicates the one whose cause is just.

[40:9]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “Look! My lips I do not restrain.”

[40:10]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “your justice I have not hidden in the midst of my heart.”

[40:10]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “I have not hidden your loyal love and reliability.”

[119:46]  ¹⁸ tn The series of four cohortatives with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive in vv. 46-48 list further consequences of the anticipated positive divine response to the request made in v. 43.

[129:8]  ¹⁹ tn The perfect verbal form is used for rhetorical effect; it describes an anticipated development as if it were already reality.

[6:22]  ²⁰ tn The verbal form is the Hitpael infinitive construct with a preposition and a suffixed subjective genitive to form a temporal clause. The term הָלַךְ (halakh) in this verbal stem means “to go about; to go to and fro.” The use of these terms in v. 22 also alludes to Deut 6:7.

[6:22]  ²¹ tn Heb “it will guide you.” The verb is singular and the instruction is the subject.

[6:22]  ²² tn In both of the preceding cola an infinitive construct was used for the temporal clauses; now the construction uses a perfect tense with vav (ו) consecutive. The verb would then be equivalent to an imperfect tense, but subordinated as a temporal clause here.

[6:22]  ²³ sn The Hebrew verb means “talk” in the sense of “to muse; to complain; to meditate”; cf. TEV, NLT “advise you.” Instruction bound to the heart will speak to the disciple on awaking.

[10:21]  ²⁴ tn Heb “lips.” The term “lips” functions as a metonymy of cause for what is said (or in this case taught).

[10:21]  ²⁵ tn The verb רָעָה (ra’ah) means “to feed” or “to shepherd” (e.g., Gen 48:15). What they say will meet the needs of many.

[10:21]  ²⁶ tn In what sense the fool “dies” is unclear. Fools ruin their lives and the lives of others by their lack of discipline and knowledge. The contrast is between enhancing life and ruining life.

[10:21]  ²⁷ tn Heb “heart.” The term לֵב (lev, “heart”) functions as a metonymy of association for wisdom and knowledge (BDB 524 s.v. 3.a).

[15:2]  ²⁸ sn The contrast is between the “tongue of the wise” and the “mouth of the fool.” Both expressions are metonymies of cause; the subject matter is what they say. How wise people are can be determined from what they say.

[15:2]  ²⁹ tn Or “makes knowledge acceptable” (so NASB). The verb תֵּיטִיב (tetiv, Hiphil imperfect of יָטַב [yatav, “to be good”]) can be translated “to make good” or “to treat in a good [or, excellent] way” (C. H. Toy, Proverbs [ICC], 303). M. Dahood, however, suggests emending the text to תֵּיטִיף (tetif) which is a cognate of נָטַף (nataf, “drip”), and translates “tongues of the sages drip with knowledge” (Proverbs and Northwest Semitic Philology, 32-33). But this change is gratuitous and unnecessary.

[15:2]  ³⁰ sn The Hiphil verb יַבִּיעַ (yabia’) means “to pour out; to emit; to cause to bubble; to belch forth.” The fool bursts out with reckless utterances (cf. TEV “spout nonsense”).

[15:7]  ³¹ tc The verb of the first colon is difficult because it does not fit the second very well – a heart does not “scatter” or “spread” knowledge. On the basis of the LXX, C. H. Toy (Proverbs [ICC], 305) suggests a change to יִצְּרוּ (yitsÿru, “they preserve”). The Greek evidence, however, is not strong. For the second line the LXX has “hearts of fools are not safe,” apparently taking לֹא־כֵן (lo’-khen) as “unstable” instead of “not so.” So it seems futile to use the Greek version to modify the first colon to make a better parallel, when the Greek has such a different reading in the second colon anyway.

[15:7]  ³² sn The phrase “the heart of fools” emphasizes that fools do not comprehend knowledge. Cf. NCV “there is no knowledge in the thoughts of fools.”

[3:16]  ³³ tn Or “fear” (so NAB); NRSV “revered”; NCV “honored.”

[3:16]  ³⁴ tn Heb “heard and listened”; NAB “listened attentively.”

[3:16]  ³⁵ sn The scroll mentioned here is a “memory book” (סֵפֶר זִכָּרוֹן, sefer zikkaron) in which the Lord keeps an ongoing record of the names of all the redeemed (see Exod 32:32; Isa 4:3; Dan 12:1; Rev 20:12-15).

[12:35]  ³⁶ tn The Greek text reads here ἄνθρωπος (anqrwpos). The term is generic referring to any person.

[12:35]  ³⁷ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“his evil treasury”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[12:35]  ³⁸ sn The treasury here is a metaphorical reference to a person’s heart (cf. BDAG 456 s.v. θησαυρός 1.b and the parallel passage in Luke 6:45).

[6:45]  ³⁹ tn Grk “the”; the Greek article has been translated here and in the following clause (“out of the evil”) as a possessive pronoun (ExSyn 215).

[6:45]  ⁴⁰ sn Mention of the heart shows that Jesus is not interested in what is done, but why. Motives are more important than actions for him.

[6:45]  ⁴¹ tn The word “treasury” is not repeated in the Greek text at this point, but is implied.

[6:45]  ⁴² sn What one utters from one’s mouth is especially singled out as the example of this principle. James seems to have known this teaching (Jas 1:26; 3:1-12).

[6:45]  ⁴³ tn Grk “for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

[4:29]  ⁴⁴ tn Grk “but if something good for the building up of the need.” The final genitive τῆς χρείας (th" creia") may refer to “the need of the moment” or it may refer to the need of a particular person or group of people as the next phrase “give grace to those who hear” indicates.

[3:15]  ⁴⁵ tn Grk “in one body.” This phrase emphasizes the manner in which the believers were called, not the goal of their calling, and focuses upon their unity.