Ruth 1:3-5

1:3 Sometime later ¹  Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone. 1:4 So her sons ²  married ³  Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) ⁴  And they continued to live there about ten years. 1:5 Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. ⁵  So the woman was left all alone – bereaved of her two children ⁶  as well as her husband!

[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.

[1:4]  ² tn Heb “they.” The verb is 3rd person masculine plural referring to Naomi’s sons, as the translation indicates.

[1:4]  ³ 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]  ⁴ tn Heb “the name of the one [was] Orpah and the name of the second [was] Ruth.”

[1:5]  ³ tn Heb “and the two of them also died, Mahlon and Kilion.”

[1:5]  ⁴ 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).