Rut 2:21

2:21 Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even ¹  told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants ²  until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” ³ 

Rut 2:23

2:23 So Ruth ⁴  worked beside ⁵  Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. ⁶  After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law. ⁷ 

Rut 3:2

3:2 Now Boaz, with whose female servants you worked, is our close relative. ⁸  Look, tonight he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor. ⁹ 

Rut 3:7

3:7 When Boaz had finished his meal and was feeling satisfied, he lay down to sleep at the far end of the grain heap. ¹⁰  Then Ruth ¹¹  crept up quietly, ¹²  uncovered his legs, ¹³  and lay down beside him. ¹⁴ 

Rut 4:14

4:14 The village women said to Naomi, “May the Lord be praised because he has not left you without a guardian ¹⁵  today! May he ¹⁶  become famous in Israel! ¹⁷ 

[2:21]  ¹ tn On the force of the phrase גָּם כִּי (gam ki) here, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 138-39.

[2:21]  ² 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]  ³ tn Heb “until they have finished all the harvest which is mine”; NIV “until they finish harvesting all my grain.”

[2:23]  ⁴ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[2:23]  ⁵ tn Heb “and she stayed close with”; NIV, NRSV, CEV “stayed close to”; NCV “continued working closely with.”

[2:23]  ⁶ 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]  ⁷ 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.”

[3:2]  ⁸ 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]  ⁹ tn Heb “look, he is winnowing the barley threshing floor tonight.”

[3:2]  sn Winnowing the threshed grain involved separating the kernels of grain from the straw and chaff. The grain would be thrown into the air, allowing the wind to separate the kernels (see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 65-66). The threshing floor itself was usually located outside town in a place where the prevailing west wind could be used to advantage (Borowski, 62-63).

[3:7]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “and Boaz ate and drank and his heart was well and he went to lie down at the end of the heap”; NAB “at the edge of the sheaves.”

[3:7]  ¹¹ tn Heb “she”; the referent (Ruth) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:7]  ¹² sn Ruth must have waited until Boaz fell asleep, for he does not notice when she uncovers his legs and lies down beside him.

[3:7]  ¹³ tn See the note on the word “legs” in v. 4.

[3:7]  ¹⁴ tn The words “beside him” are supplied in the translation for stylistic reasons. Cf. TEV “at his feet”; CEV “near his feet.”

[4:14]  ¹⁵ tn Or “redeemer.” See the note on the phrase “guardian of the family interests” in 3:9. As the following context indicates, the child is referred to here.

[4:14]  ¹⁶ tn The “guardian” is the subject of the verb, as the next verse makes clear.

[4:14]  ¹⁷ tn Heb “may his name be called [i.e., “perpetuated”; see Gen 48:16] in Israel.”