Ruth 1:12

1:12 Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. ¹  Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons, ² 

Ruth 4:15

4:15 He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, ³  for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She ⁴  is better to you than seven sons!”

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¹ 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.

² 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.

³ tn Heb “and he will become for you a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age” (NASB similar).

⁴ tn Heb “who, she”; KJV “which is better to thee.”