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!”

Psalms 28:9

28:9 Deliver your people!

Empower ⁵  the nation that belongs to you! ⁶ 

Care for them like a shepherd and carry them in your arms ⁷  at all times! ⁸ 

Psalms 122:5-8

122:5 Indeed, ⁹  the leaders sit ¹⁰  there on thrones and make legal decisions,

on the thrones of the house of David. ¹¹ 

122:6 Pray ¹²  for the peace of Jerusalem!

May those who love her prosper! ¹³ 

122:7 May there be peace inside your defenses,

and prosperity ¹⁴  inside your fortresses! ¹⁵ 

122:8 For the sake of my brothers and my neighbors

I will say, “May there be peace in you!”

Psalms 128:5

128:5 May the Lord bless you ¹⁶  from Zion,

that you might see ¹⁷  Jerusalem ¹⁸  prosper

all the days of your life,

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.”

Psalms 134:3

134:3 May the Lord, the Creator of heaven and earth,

bless you ²⁰  from Zion! ²¹ 

[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.

[28:9]  ⁵ tn Or “bless.”

[28:9]  ⁶ tn Heb “your inheritance.” The parallelism (note “your people”) indicates that Israel is in view.

[28:9]  ⁷ tn Heb “shepherd them and lift them up.”

[28:9]  ⁸ tn Or “forever.”

[122:5]  ⁹ tn Or “for.”

[122:5]  ¹⁰ tn Or “sat.”

[122:5]  ¹¹ tn Heb “Indeed, there they sit [on] thrones for judgment, [on] thrones [belonging] to the house of David.”

[122:6]  ¹² tn Heb “ask [for].”

[122:6]  ¹³ tn Or “be secure.”

[122:7]  ¹⁴ tn or “security.”

[122:7]  ¹⁵ tn The psalmist uses second feminine singular pronominal forms to address personified Jerusalem.

[128:5]  ¹⁶ tn The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the imperatives that are subordinated to this clause in vv. 5b-6a). Having described the blessings that typically come to the godly, the psalmist concludes by praying that this ideal may become reality for the representative godly man being addressed.

[128:5]  ¹⁷ tn The imperative with prefixed vav (ו) conjunctive indicates purpose/result after the preceding jussive.

[128:5]  ¹⁸ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

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

[134:3]  ²⁰ tn The pronominal suffix is second masculine singular, suggesting that the servants addressed in vv. 1-2 are responding to the psalmist.

[134:3]  ²¹ tn Heb “may the Lord bless you from Zion, the maker of heaven and earth.”