Ruth 2:20-23

2:20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he ¹  has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” ²  Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” ³  2:21 Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even ⁴  told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants ⁵  until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” ⁶  2:22 Naomi then said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter, that you should go out to work with his female servants. ⁷  That way you will not be harmed, which could happen in another field.” ⁸  2:23 So Ruth ⁹  worked beside ¹⁰  Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. ¹¹  After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law. ¹² 

Deuteronomy 25:5-6

Respect for the Sanctity of Others

25:5 If brothers live together and one of them dies without having a son, the dead man’s wife must not remarry someone outside the family. Instead, her late husband’s brother must go to her, marry her, ¹³  and perform the duty of a brother-in-law. ¹⁴  25:6 Then ¹⁵  the first son ¹⁶  she bears will continue the name of the dead brother, thus preventing his name from being blotted out of Israel.

Hebrews 2:11-14

2:11 For indeed he who makes holy and those being made holy all have the same origin, ¹⁷  and so ¹⁸  he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, ¹⁹  2:12 saying, “I will proclaim your name to my brothers; ²⁰  in the midst of the assembly I will praise you.” ²¹  2:13 Again he says, ²²  “I will be confident in him,” and again, “Here I am, ²³  with ²⁴  the children God has given me.” ²⁵  2:14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, he likewise shared in ²⁶  their humanity, ²⁷  so that through death he could destroy ²⁸  the one who holds the power of death (that is, the devil),

[2:20]  ¹ 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]  ² tn Heb “to the living and the dead” (so KJV, NASB).

[2:20]  ³ 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.

[2:21]  ⁴ tn On the force of the phrase גָּם כִּי (gam ki) here, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 138-39.

[2:21]  ⁵ tn Heb “with the servants who are mine you may stay close.” The imperfect has a permissive nuance here. The word “servants” is masculine plural.

[2:21]  ⁶ tn Heb “until they have finished all the harvest which is mine”; NIV “until they finish harvesting all my grain.”

[2:22]  ⁷ tn Naomi uses the feminine form of the word “servant” (as Boaz did earlier, see v. 8), in contrast to Ruth’s use of the masculine form in the preceding verse. Since she is concerned for Ruth’s safety, she may be subtly reminding Ruth to stay with the female workers and not get too close to the men.

[2:22]  ⁸ tn Heb “and they will not harm you in another field”; NRSV “otherwise you might be bothered in another field.”

[2:23]  ⁹ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and she stayed close with”; NIV, NRSV, CEV “stayed close to”; NCV “continued working closely with.”

[2:23]  ¹¹ sn Barley was harvested from late March through late April, wheat from late April to late May (O. Borowski, Agriculture in Ancient Israel, 88, 91).

[2:23]  ¹² tn Heb “and she lived with her mother-in-law” (so NASB). Some interpret this to mean that she lived with her mother-in-law while working in the harvest. In other words, she worked by day and then came home to Naomi each evening. Others understand this to mean that following the harvest she stayed at home each day with Naomi and no longer went out looking for work (see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 140). Others even propose that she lived away from home during this period, but this seems unlikely. A few Hebrew mss (so also Latin Vulgate) support this view by reading, “and she returned to her mother-in-law.”

[25:5]  ¹³ tn Heb “take her as wife”; NRSV “taking her in marriage.”

[25:5]  ¹⁴ sn This is the so-called “levirate” custom (from the Latin term levir, “brother-in-law”), an ancient provision whereby a man who died without male descendants to carry on his name could have a son by proxy, that is, through a surviving brother who would marry his widow and whose first son would then be attributed to the brother who had died. This is the only reference to this practice in an OT legal text but it is illustrated in the story of Judah and his sons (Gen 38) and possibly in the account of Ruth and Boaz (Ruth 2:8; 3:12; 4:6).

[25:6]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “and it will be that.”

[25:6]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “the firstborn.” This refers to the oldest male child.

[2:11]  ¹⁷ tn Grk “are all from one.”

[2:11]  ¹⁸ tn Grk “for which reason.”

[2:11]  ¹⁹ tn Grk “brothers,” but the Greek word may be used for “brothers and sisters” as here (cf. BDAG 18 s.v. ἀδελφός 1, where considerable nonbiblical evidence for the plural ἀδελφοί [adelfoi] meaning “brothers and sisters” is cited). The context here also indicates both men and women are in view; note especially the collective τὰ παιδία (ta paidia) in v. 14.

[2:12]  ²⁰ tn Here, because of its occurrence in an OT quotation, τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς (tois adelfois) has been translated simply as “brothers” rather than “brothers and sisters” (see the note on the latter phrase in the previous verse).

[2:12]  ²¹ sn A quotation from Ps 22:22.

[2:13]  ²² tn Grk “and again,” as a continuation of the preceding.

[2:13]  ²³ tn Grk “behold, I,” but this construction often means “here is/there is” (cf. BDAG 468 s.v. ἰδού 2).

[2:13]  ²⁴ tn Grk “and.”

[2:13]  ²⁵ sn A quotation from Isa 8:17-18.

[2:14]  ²⁶ tn Or “partook of” (this is a different word than the one in v. 14a).

[2:14]  ²⁷ tn Grk “the same.”

[2:14]  ²⁸ tn Or “break the power of,” “reduce to nothing.”