Ruth 1:10

1:10 But they said to her, “No! ¹  We will ²  return with you to your people.”

Ruth 3:16

3:16 and she returned to her mother-in-law.

Ruth Returns to Naomi

When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi ³  asked, ⁴  “How did things turn out for you, ⁵  my daughter?” Ruth ⁶  told her about all the man had done for her. ⁷ 

Ruth 2:16

2:16 Make sure you pull out ⁸  ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” ⁹ 

Ruth 3:1

Naomi Instructs Ruth

3:1 At that time, ¹⁰  Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you so you will be secure. ¹¹ 

Ruth 2:14

2:14 Later during the mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and have ¹²  some food! Dip your bread ¹³  in the vinegar!” So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed ¹⁴  her some roasted grain. She ate until she was full and saved the rest. ¹⁵ 

Ruth 2:18

Ruth Returns to Naomi

2:18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw ¹⁶  how much grain ¹⁷  she had gathered. Then Ruth ¹⁸  gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ¹⁹ 

Ruth 4:13

A Grandson is Born to Naomi

4:13 So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. ²⁰  The Lord enabled her to conceive ²¹  and she gave birth to a son.

Ruth 2:2

2:2 One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go ²²  to the fields so I can gather ²³  grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” ²⁴  Naomi ²⁵  replied, “You may go, my daughter.”

Ruth 2:11

2:11 Boaz replied to her, ²⁶  “I have been given a full report of ²⁷  all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband – how you left ²⁸  your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously. ²⁹ 

Ruth 2:19-20

2:19 Her mother-in-law asked her, ³⁰  “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” ³¹  So Ruth ³²  told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” 2:20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he ³³  has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” ³⁴  Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” ³⁵ 

[1:10]  ¹ tn The particle כִּי (ki) here has the force of “no, on the contrary” (see Gen 31:26; Ps 44:22; HALOT 470 s.v. II כִּי 3).

[1:10]  ² tn Or perhaps “we want to” (so NCV, CEV, NLT), if the imperfect is understood in a modal sense indicating desire.

[3:16]  ³ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Naomi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:16]  ⁴ tn Heb “said.” Since what follows is a question, the present translation uses “asked” here.

[3:16]  ⁵ tn Heb “Who are you?” In this context Naomi is clearly not asking for Ruth’s identity. Here the question has the semantic force “Are you his wife?” See R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 223-24, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 184-85.

[3:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:16]  ⁷ sn All that the man had done. This would have included his promise to marry her and his gift of barley.

[2:16]  ⁵ tn The infinitive absolute precedes the finite verb for emphasis. Here שָׁלַל (shalal, “pull out”) is a homonym of the more common Hebrew verb meaning “to plunder.” An Arabic cognate is used of drawing a sword out of a scabbard (see BDB 1021 s.v.).

[2:16]  ⁶ tn Heb “do not rebuke her” (so NASB, NRSV); CEV “don’t speak harshly to her”; NLT “don’t give her a hard time.”

[3:1]  ⁷ tn The phrase “sometime later” does not appear in Hebrew but is supplied to mark the implicit shift in time from the events in chapter 2.

[3:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “My daughter, should I not seek for you a resting place so that it may go well for you [or which will be good for you]?” The idiomatic, negated rhetorical question is equivalent to an affirmation (see 2:8-9) and has thus been translated in the affirmative (so also NAB, NCV, NRSV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

[2:14]  ⁹ tn Heb “eat” (so KJV, NRSV).

[2:14]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “your portion”; NRSV “your morsel.”

[2:14]  ¹¹ tn The Hebrew verb צָבַט (tsavat) occurs only here in the OT. Cf. KJV, ASV “he reached her”; NASB “he served her”; NIV “he offered her”; NRSV “he heaped up for her.” For discussion of its meaning, including the etymological evidence, see BDB 840 s.v.; R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 174; and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 125-26.

[2:14]  ¹² tn Heb “and she ate and she was satisfied and she had some left over” (NASB similar).

[2:18]  ¹¹ tc MT vocalizes ותרא as the Qal verb וַתֵּרֶא (vattere’, “and she saw”), consequently of “her mother-in-law” as subject and “what she gathered” as the direct object: “her mother-in-law saw what she gathered.” A few medieval Hebrew mss (also reflected in Syriac and Vulgate) have the Hiphil וַתַּרְא (vattar’, “and she showed”), consequently taking “her mother-in-law” as the direct object and “what she gathered” as the double direct-object: “she showed her mother-in-law what she had gathered” (cf. NAB, TEV, CEV, NLT). Although the latter has the advantage of making Ruth the subject of all the verbs in this verse, it would be syntactically difficult. For one would expect the accusative sign אֶת (’et) before “her mother-in-law” if it were the direct object of a Hiphil verb in a sentence with a double direct object introduced by the accusative sign אֶת, e.g., “to show (Hiphil of רָאָה, ra’ah) your servant (direct object marked by accusative sign אֶת) your greatness (double direct object marked by accusative sign אֶת) (Deut 3:24). Therefore the MT reading is preferred.

[2:18]  ¹² tn Heb “that which”; the referent (how much grain) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ¹³ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:18]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left over from her being satisfied.”

[4:13]  ¹³ tn Heb “and Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife and he went in to her.” Here the phrase “went in to her” (so NASB) is a euphemism for having sexual relations (cf. NCV); NLT “When he slept with her.”

[4:13]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “gave her conception” (so KJV); NRSV “made her conceive”; NLT “enabled her to become pregnant.”

[2:2]  ¹⁵ 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]  ¹⁶ tn Following the preceding cohortative, the cohortative with vav conjunctive indicates purpose/result.

[2:2]  ¹⁷ 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]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Naomi) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “answered and said to her” (so NASB). For stylistic reasons this has been translated as “replied to her.”

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tn Heb “it has been fully reported to me.” The infinitive absolute here emphasizes the following finite verb from the same root. Here it emphasizes either the clarity of the report or its completeness. See R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 153, n. 6. Most English versions tend toward the nuance of completeness (e.g., KJV “fully been shewed”; NAB “a complete account”; NASB, NRSV “All that you have done”).

[2:11]  ¹⁹ tn The vav (ו) consecutive construction here has a specifying function. This and the following clause elaborate on the preceding general statement and explain more specifically what she did for her mother-in-law.

[2:11]  ²⁰ tn Heb “yesterday and the third day.” This Hebrew idiom means “previously, in the past” (Exod 5:7,8,14; Exod 21:29,36; Deut 4:42; 19:4,6; Josh 3:4; 1 Sam 21:5; 2 Sam 3:17; 1 Chr 11:2).

[2:19]  ¹⁹ tn Heb “said to her.” Since what follows is a question, the translation uses “asked her” here.

[2:19]  ²⁰ tn Or “blessed” (so NAB, NIV, NRSV). The same expression occurs in the following verse.

[2:19]  ²¹ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:20]  ²¹ tn Many English versions translate this statement, “May he [Boaz] be blessed by the Lord, who has not abandoned his loyalty to the living and dead.” In this case the antecedent of אֲשֶׁר (’asher, “who”) would be the immediately preceding “the Lord.” However, this understanding of the construction is not accurate. The antecedent of אֲשֶׁר is Boaz, not the Lord. Elsewhere when אֲשֶׁר follows the blessing formula בָּרוּךְ (barukh, Qal passive participle) + proper name/pronoun, it always introduces the reason the recipient of the blessing deserves a reward. (For this reason one could analyze אֲשֶׁר as a causal conjunction in this construction.) If אֲשֶׁר refers to the Lord here, then this verse, unlike others using the construction, gives no such reason for the recipient being blessed. 2 Sam 2:5, which provides the closest structural parallel to Ruth 2:20, supports this interpretation: בְּרֻכִים אַתֶּם לַיהוָה אֲשֶׁר עֲשִׂיתֶם הַחֶסֶד הַזֶּה עִם־אֲדֹנֵיכֶם עִם־שָׁאוּל, “May you [plural] be blessed by the Lord, you who [plural]/because you [plural] have extended such kindness to your master Saul.” Here אֲשֶׁר refers back to the second plural pronoun אַתֶּם (’atem, “you”) in the formula, as the second plural verb עֲשִׂיתֶם(’asitem) after אֲשֶׁר indicates. Though יְהוָה (yÿhvah) is in closer proximity to אֲשֶׁר, it is not the antecedent. The evidence suggests that Ruth 2:20 should be translated and interpreted as follows: “May he [Boaz] be blessed by the Lord, he who [i.e., Boaz]/because he [i.e., Boaz] has not abandoned his loyalty to the living and dead.” Cf. NIV, NCV, CEV, NLT. See B. A. Rebera, “Yahweh or Boaz? Ruth 2.20 Reconsidered,” BT 36 (1985): 317-27, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 134-36. By caring for the impoverished widows’ physical needs, Boaz had demonstrated loyalty to both the living (the impoverished widows) and the dead (their late husbands). See R. B. Chisholm, From Exegesis to Exposition, 72.

[2:20]  ²² tn Heb “to the living and the dead” (so KJV, NASB).

[2:20]  ²³ tn The Hebrew term גָּאַל (ga’al) is sometimes translated “redeemer” here (NIV “one of our kinsman-redeemers”; NLT “one of our family redeemers”). In this context Boaz, as a “redeemer,” functions as a guardian of the family interests who has responsibility for caring for the widows of his deceased kinsmen.