Ruth 3:10

3:10 He said, “May you be rewarded ¹  by the Lord, my dear! ²  This act of devotion ³  is greater than what you did before. ⁴  For you have not sought to marry ⁵  one of the young men, whether rich or poor. ⁶ 

Ruth 3:2

3:2 Now Boaz, with whose female servants you worked, is our close relative. ⁷  Look, tonight he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor. ⁸ 

Ruth 2:5

2:5 Boaz asked ⁹  his servant ¹⁰  in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” ¹¹ 

Psalms 7:17

7:17 I will thank the Lord for ¹²  his justice;

I will sing praises to the sovereign Lord! ¹³ 

Psalms 50:14

50:14 Present to God a thank-offering!

Repay your vows to the sovereign One! ¹⁴ 

Psalms 57:2

57:2 I cry out for help to the sovereign God, ¹⁵ 

to the God who vindicates ¹⁶  me.

Micah 6:6

6:6 With what should I ¹⁷  enter the Lord’s presence?

With what ¹⁸  should I bow before the sovereign God? ¹⁹ 

Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings,

with year-old calves?

Acts 7:48

7:48 Yet the Most High ²⁰  does not live in houses made by human hands, ²¹  as the prophet says,

Acts 16:17

16:17 She followed behind Paul and us and kept crying out, ²²  “These men are servants ²³  of the Most High God, who are proclaiming to you the way ²⁴  of salvation.” ²⁵ 

[3:10]  ¹ tn Or “blessed” (so NASB, NRSV).

[3:10]  ² tn Heb “my daughter.” This form of address is a mild form of endearment, perhaps merely rhetorical. A few English versions omit it entirely (e.g., TEV, CEV). The same expression occurs in v. 11.

[3:10]  ³ tn Heb “latter [act of] devotion”; NRSV “this last instance of your loyalty.”

[3:10]  ⁴ tn Heb “you have made the latter act of devotion better than the former”; NIV “than that which you showed earlier.”

[3:10]  ⁵ tn Heb “by not going after the young men” (NASB similar); TEV “You might have gone looking for a young man.”

[3:10]  ⁶ tn Heb “whether poor or rich” (so KJV, NAB, NASB, NRSV); the more common English idiom reverses the order (“rich or poor”; cf. NIV, NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[3:2]  ⁷ tn Heb “Is not Boaz our close relative, with whose female servants you were?” The idiomatic, negated rhetorical question is equivalent to an affirmation (see Ruth 2:8-9; 3:1) and has thus been translated in the affirmative (so also NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[3:2]  ⁸ tn Heb “look, he is winnowing the barley threshing floor tonight.”

[2:5]  ⁹ tn Heb “said to.” Since what follows is a question, “asked” is appropriate in this context.

[2:5]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “young man.” Cf. NAB “overseer”; NIV, NLT “foreman.”

[2:5]  ¹¹ sn In this patriarchal culture Ruth would “belong” to either her father (if unmarried) or her husband (if married).

[7:17]  ¹² tn Heb “according to.”

[7:17]  ¹³ tn Heb “[to] the name of the Lord Most High.” God’s “name” refers metonymically to his divine characteristics as suggested by his name, in this case the compound “Lord Most High.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.

[50:14]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “Most High.” This divine title (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Pss 7:17; 9:2; 18:13; 21:7; 47:2.

[57:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “to God Most High.” The divine title “Most High” (עֶלְיוֹן, ’elyon) pictures God as the exalted ruler of the universe who vindicates the innocent and judges the wicked. See especially Ps 47:2.

[57:2]  ¹⁶ tn Or “avenges in favor of.”

[6:6]  ¹⁷ sn With what should I enter the Lord’s presence? The prophet speaks again, playing the role of an inquisitive worshiper who wants to know what God really desires from his followers.

[6:6]  ¹⁸ tn The words “with what” do double duty in the parallelism and are supplied in the second line of the translation for clarification.

[6:6]  ¹⁹ tn Or “the exalted God.”

[7:48]  ²⁰ sn The title the Most High points to God’s majesty (Heb 7:1; Luke 1:32, 35; Acts 16:7).

[7:48]  ²¹ sn The phrase made by human hands is negative in the NT: Mark 14:58; Acts 17:24; Eph 2:11; Heb 9:11, 24. It suggests “man-made” or “impermanent.” The rebuke is like parts of the Hebrew scripture where the rebuke is not of the temple, but for making too much of it (1 Kgs 8:27; Isa 57:15; 1 Chr 6:8; Jer 7:1-34).

[16:17]  ²² tn Grk “crying out, saying”; the participle λέγουσα (legousa) is redundant in English and has not been translated. The imperfect verb ἔκραζεν (ekrazen) has been translated as a progressive imperfect.

[16:17]  ²³ tn Grk “slaves.” See the note on the word “servants” in 2:18. The translation “servants” was used here because in this context there appears to be more emphasis on the activity of Paul and his companions (“proclaiming to you the way of salvation”) than on their status as “slaves of the Most High God.”

[16:17]  ²⁴ tn Or “a way.” The grammar of this phrase is a bit ambiguous. The phrase in Greek is ὁδὸν σωτηρίας (Jodon swthria"). Neither the head noun nor the genitive noun has the article; this is in keeping with Apollonius’ Canon (see ExSyn 239-40). Since both nouns are anarthrous, this construction also fits Apollonius’ Corollary (see ExSyn 250-54); since the genitive noun is abstract it is most naturally qualitative, so the head noun could either be definite or indefinite without being unusual as far as the grammar is concerned. Luke’s usage of ὁδός elsewhere is indecisive as far as this passage is concerned. However, when one looks at the historical background it is clear that (1) the woman is shut up (via exorcism) not because her testimony is false but because of its source (analogous to Jesus’ treatment of demons perhaps), and (b) “the way” is a par excellence description of the new faith throughout Acts. It thus seems that at least in Luke’s presentation “the way of salvation” is the preferred translation.

[16:17]  ²⁵ sn Proclaiming to you the way of salvation. The remarks were an ironic recognition of Paul’s authority, but he did not desire such a witness, possibly for fear of confusion. Her expression the Most High God might have been understood as Zeus by the audience.