Rut 1:20

1:20 But she replied ¹  to them, ²  “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’! ³  Call me ‘Mara’ ⁴  because the Sovereign One ⁵  has treated me very harshly. ⁶ 

Rut 1:2

1:2 (Now the man’s name was Elimelech, ⁷  his wife was Naomi, ⁸  and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. ⁹  They were of the clan of Ephrath ¹⁰  from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. ¹¹ 

1 Samuel 17:8

17:8 Goliath ¹²  stood and called to Israel’s troops, ¹³  “Why do you come out to prepare for battle? Am I not the Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose ¹⁴  for yourselves a man so he may come down ¹⁵  to me!

Ayub 7:11

Job Remonstrates with God

7:11 “Therefore, ¹⁶  I will not refrain my mouth; ¹⁷ 

I will speak in the anguish of my spirit;

I will complain ¹⁸  in the bitterness of my soul.

Ayub 9:18

9:18 He does not allow ¹⁹  me to recover ²⁰  my breath,

for he fills ²¹  me with bitterness.

Ayub 10:1

An Appeal for Revelation

10:1 “I ²²  am weary ²³  of my life;

I will complain without restraint; ²⁴ 

I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Yesaya 38:15

38:15 What can I say?

He has decreed and acted. ²⁵ 

I will walk slowly all my years because I am overcome with grief. ²⁶ 

Yesaya 54:6

54:6 “Indeed, the Lord will call you back

like a wife who has been abandoned and suffers from depression, ²⁷ 

like a young wife when she has been rejected,” says your God.

Ratapan 3:15

3:15 He has given me my fill of bitter herbs

and made me drunk with bitterness. ²⁸ 

[1:20]  ¹ tn Heb “said.” For stylistic reasons the present translation employs “replied” here.

[1:20]  ² tn The third person feminine plural form of the pronominal suffix indicates the women of the village (see v. 19) are the addressees.

[1:20]  ³ sn The name Naomi means “pleasant.”

[1:20]  ⁴ sn The name Mara means “bitter.”

[1:20]  ⁵ tn Heb “Shaddai”; traditionally “the Almighty.” The etymology and meaning of this divine name is uncertain. It may be derived from: (1) שָׁדַד (shadad, “to be strong”), cognate to Arabic sdd, meaning “The Strong One” or “Almighty”; (2) שָׁדָה (shadah, “mountain”), cognate to Akkadian shadu, meaning “The Mountain Dweller” or “God of the Mountains”; (3) שָׁדַד (shadad, “to devastate”) and שַׁד (shad, “destroyer”), Akkadian Shedum, meaning “The Destroyer” or “The Malevolent One”; or (4) שֶׁ (she, “who”) plus דִּי (diy, “sufficient”), meaning “The One Who is Sufficient” or “All-Sufficient One” (HALOT 1420-22 s.v. שַׁדַּי, שַׁדָּי). In terms of use, Shaddai (or El Shaddai) is presented as the sovereign king/judge of the world who grants life/blesses and kills/judges. In Genesis he blesses the patriarchs with fertility and promises numerous descendants. Outside Genesis he blesses/protects and also takes away life/happiness. In light of Naomi’s emphasis on God’s sovereign, malevolent deprivation of her family, one can understand her use of this name for God. For discussion of this divine name, see T. N. D. Mettinger, In Search of God, 69-72.

[1:20]  ⁶ tn Or “caused me to be very bitter”; NAB “has made it very bitter for me.”

[1:2]  ⁷ 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]  ⁸ tn Heb “and the name of his wife [was] Naomi.” This has been simplified in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[1:2]  sn The name Naomi (נָעֳמִי, na’omi) is from the adjective נֹעַם (noam, “pleasant, lovely”) and literally means “my pleasant one” or “my lovely one.” Her name will become the subject of a wordplay in 1:20-21 when she laments that she is no longer “pleasant” but “bitter” because of the loss of her husband and two sons.

[1:2]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the name[s] of his two sons [were] Mahlon and Kilion.”

[1:2]  sn The name Mahlon (מַחְלוֹן, makhlon) is from מָלָה (malah, “to be weak, sick”) and Kilion (כִליוֹן, khilyon) is from כָלָה (khalah, “to be frail”). The rate of infant mortality was so high during the Iron Age that parents typically did not name children until they survived infancy and were weaned. Naomi and Elimelech might have named their two sons Mahlon and Kilion to reflect their weak condition in infancy due to famine – which eventually prompted the move to Moab where food was abundant.

[1:2]  ¹⁰ 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]  ¹¹ tn Heb “and were there”; KJV “continued there”; NRSV “remained there”; TEV “were living there.”

[17:8]  ¹² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Goliath) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[17:8]  ¹³ tn The Hebrew text adds “and said to them.”

[17:8]  ¹⁴ tc The translation follows the ancient versions in reading “choose,” (from the root בחר, bkhr), rather than the MT. The verb in MT (ברה, brh) elsewhere means “to eat food”; the sense of “to choose,” required here by the context, is not attested for this root. The MT apparently reflects an early scribal error.

[17:8]  ¹⁵ tn Following the imperative, the prefixed verbal form (either an imperfect or jussive) with the prefixed conjunction indicates purpose/result here.

[7:11]  ¹⁶ tn “Also I” has been rendered frequently as “therefore,” introducing a conclusion. BDB 168-69 s.v. גַמּ lists Ps 52:7 [5] as a parallel, but it also could be explained as an adversative.

[7:11]  ¹⁷ sn “Mouth” here is metonymical for what he says – he will not withhold his complaints. Peake notes that in this section Job comes very close to doing what Satan said he would do. If he does not curse God to his face, he certainly does cast off restraints to his lament. But here Job excuses himself in advance of the lament.

[7:11]  ¹⁸ tn The verb is not limited to mental musing; it is used for pouring out a complaint or a lament (see S. Mowinckel, “The Verb si^ah and the Nouns si^ah, siha,” ST 15 [1961]: 1-10).

[9:18]  ¹⁹ tn The verb נָתַן (natan) essentially means “to give”; but followed by the infinitive (without the ל [lamed] here) it means “to permit; to allow.”

[9:18]  ²⁰ tn The Hiphil of the verb means “to bring back”; with the object “my breath,” it means “get my breath” or simply “breathe.” The infinitive is here functioning as the object of the verb (see GKC 350 §114.m).

[9:18]  ²¹ sn The meaning of the word is “to satiate; to fill,” as in “drink to the full, be satisfied.” Job is satiated – in the negative sense – with bitterness. There is no room for more.

[10:1]  ²² tn The Hebrew has נַפְשִׁי (nafshi), usually rendered “my soul.”

[10:1]  ²³ tn The verb is pointed like a Qal form but is originally a Niphal from קוּט (qut). Some wish to connect the word to Akkadian cognates for a meaning “I am in anguish”; but the meaning “I am weary” fits the passage well.

[10:1]  ²⁴ tn The verb עָזַב (’azav) means “to abandon.” It may have an extended meaning of “to let go” or “to let slip.” But the expression “abandon to myself” means to abandon all restraint and give free course to the complaint.

[38:15]  ²⁵ tn Heb “and he has spoken and he has acted.”

[38:15]  ²⁶ tn Heb “because of the bitterness of my soul.”

[54:6]  ²⁷ tn Heb “like a woman abandoned and grieved in spirit.”

[3:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “wormwood” or “bitterness” (BDB 542 s.v. לַעֲנָה; HALOT 533 s.v. לַעֲנָה).