Ruth 1:3

1:3 Sometime later ¹  Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone.

Ruth 1:5

1:5 Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. ²  So the woman was left all alone – bereaved of her two children ³  as well as her husband!

Ruth 1:11

1:11 But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! ⁴  I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! ⁵ 

Ruth 4:13

A Grandson is Born to Naomi

4:13 So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. ⁶  The Lord enabled her to conceive ⁷  and she gave birth to a son.

Ruth 4:17

4:17 The neighbor women named him, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. ⁸  Now he became the father of Jesse – David’s father!

Ruth 4:15

4:15 He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, ⁹  for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She ¹⁰  is better to you than seven sons!”

Ruth 1:1-2

A Family Tragedy: Famine and Death

1:1 During the time of the judges ¹¹  there was a famine in the land of Judah. ¹²  So a man from Bethlehem ¹³  in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner ¹⁴  in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons. ¹⁵  1:2 (Now the man’s name was Elimelech, ¹⁶  his wife was Naomi, ¹⁷  and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. ¹⁸  They were of the clan of Ephrath ¹⁹  from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. ²⁰ 

Ruth 1:12

1:12 Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. ²¹  Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons, ²² 

Ruth 1:4

1:4 So her sons ²³  married ²⁴  Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) ²⁵  And they continued to live there about ten years.

Ruth 4:12

4:12 May your family ²⁶  become like the family of Perez ²⁷  – whom Tamar bore to Judah – through the descendants ²⁸  the Lord gives you by this young woman.”

Ruth 4:10

4:10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to raise up a descendant who will inherit his property ²⁹  so the name of the deceased might not disappear ³⁰  from among his relatives and from his village. ³¹  You are witnesses today.”

[1:3]  ¹ tn Heb “And Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died.” The vav (ו) functions in a consecutive sense (“then”), but the time-frame is not explicitly stated.

[1:5]  ² tn Heb “and the two of them also died, Mahlon and Kilion.”

[1:5]  ³ tn The term יֶלֶד (yeled, “offspring”), from the verb יָלַד (yalad, “to give birth to”), is used only here of a married man. By shifting to this word from the more common term בֵּן (ben, “son”; see vv. 1-5a) and then using it in an unusual manner, the author draws attention to Naomi’s loss and sets up a verbal link with the story’s conclusion (cf. 4:16). Although grown men, they were still her “babies” (see E. F. Campbell, Ruth [AB], 56; F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 66).

[1:11]  ³ tn Heb “Why would you want to come with me?” Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer. The phrase “to Judah” is added in the translation for clarification.

[1:11]  ⁴ tn Heb “Do I still have sons in my inner parts that they might become your husbands?” Again Naomi’s rhetorical question expects a negative answer.

[4:13]  ⁴ 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]  ⁵ tn Heb “gave her conception” (so KJV); NRSV “made her conceive”; NLT “enabled her to become pregnant.”

[4:17]  ⁵ tn The name “Obed” means “one who serves,” perhaps anticipating how he would help Naomi (see v. 15).

[4:15]  ⁶ tn Heb “and he will become for you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age” (NASB similar).

[4:15]  ⁷ tn Heb “who, she”; KJV “which is better to thee.”

[1:1]  ⁷ tn Heb “in the days of the judging of the judges.” The LXX simply reads “when the judges judged,” and Syriac has “in the days of the judges.” Cf. NASB “in the days when the judges governed (ruled NRSV).”

[1:1]  ⁸ tn Heb “in the land.” The phrase “of Judah” is supplied in the translation to clarify the referent.

[1:1]  ⁹ sn The name Bethlehem (בֵּית לֶחֶם, bet lekhem) is from “house, place” (בֵּית) and “bread, food” (לֶחֶם), so the name literally means “House of Bread” or “Place of Food.” Perhaps there is irony here: One would not expect a severe famine in such a location. This would not necessarily indicate that Bethlehem was under divine discipline, but merely that the famine was very severe, explaining the reason for the family’s departure.

[1:1]  ¹⁰ tn Or “to live temporarily.” The verb גּוּר (gur, “sojourn”) may refer to (1) temporary dwelling in a location (Deut 18:6; Judg 17:7) or (2) permanent dwelling in a location (Judg 5:17; Ps 33:8). When used of a foreign land, it can refer to (1) temporary dwelling as a visiting foreigner (Gen 12:10; 20:1; 21:34; 2 Kgs 8:1-2; Jer 44:14) or (2) permanent dwelling as a resident foreigner (Gen 47:4; Exod 6:4; Num 15:14; Deut 26:5; 2 Sam 4:3; Jer 49:18,33; 50:40; Ezek 47:22-23). Although Naomi eventually returned to Judah, there is some ambiguity whether or not Elimelech intended the move to make them permanent resident foreigners. Cf. NASB “to sojourn” and NIV “to live for a while,” both of which imply the move was temporary, while “to live” (NCV, NRSV, NLT) is more neutral about the permanence of the relocation.

[1:1]  ¹¹ tn Heb “he and his wife and his two sons.” The LXX omits “two.”

[1:2]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the name of his wife [was] Naomi.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:2]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and the name[s] of his two sons [were] Mahlon and Kilion.”

[1:2]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “and were there”; KJV “continued there”; NRSV “remained there”; TEV “were living there.”

[1:12]  ⁹ sn Too old to get married again. Naomi may be exaggerating for the sake of emphasis. Her point is clear, though: It is too late to roll back the clock.

[1:12]  ¹⁰ tn Verse 12b contains the protasis (“if” clause) of a conditional sentence, which is completed by the rhetorical questions in v. 13. For a detailed syntactical analysis, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 78-79.

[1:4]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “they.” The verb is 3rd person masculine plural referring to Naomi’s sons, as the translation indicates.

[1:4]  ¹¹ 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]  ¹² tn Heb “the name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth.”

[4:12]  ¹¹ tn Heb “your house” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

[4:12]  ¹² tn Heb “and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, from the offspring whom the Lord gives to you from this young woman.”

[4:12]  ¹³ tn Heb “from the seed” (KJV, ASV both similar); NASB, NIV “through the offspring”; NRSV “through the children.”

[4:10]  ¹² tn Heb “in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance” (NASB similar).

[4:10]  ¹³ tn Heb “be cut off” (so NASB, NRSV); NAB “may not perish.”

[4:10]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “and from the gate of his place” (so KJV, ASV); NASB “from the court of his birth place”; NIV “from the town records.”