Ruth 2:12-13

2:12 May the Lord reward your efforts! ¹  May your acts of kindness be repaid fully ²  by the Lord God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection!” ³  2:13 She said, “You really are being kind to me, ⁴  sir, ⁵  for you have reassured ⁶  and encouraged ⁷  me, your servant, ⁸  even though I am ⁹  not one of your servants!” ¹⁰ 

Ruth 2:21

2:21 Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even ¹¹  told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants ¹²  until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” ¹³ 

Ruth 4:9

4:9 Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon.

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¹ tn Heb “repay your work”; KJV, ASV “recompense thy work.” The prefixed verbal form is understood as a jussive of prayer (note the jussive form in the next clause).

² tn Heb “may your wages be complete”; NCV “May your wages be paid in full.” The prefixed verbal form is a distinct jussive form, indicating that this is a prayer for blessing.

³ tn Heb “under whose wings you have sought shelter”; NIV, NLT “have come to take refuge.”

⁴ tn Heb “I am finding favor in your eyes.” In v. 10, where Ruth uses the perfect, she simply states the fact that Boaz is kind. Here the Hebrew text switches to the imperfect, thus emphasizing the ongoing attitude of kindness displayed by Boaz. Many English versions treat this as a request: KJV “Let me find favour in thy sight”; NAB “May I prove worthy of your kindness”; NIV “May I continue to find favor in your eyes.”

⁵ tn Heb “my master”; KJV, NAB, NASB, NIV, NRSV “my lord.”

⁶ tn Or “comforted” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT).

⁷ tn Heb “spoken to the heart of.” As F. W. Bush points out, the idiom here means “to reassure, encourage” (Ruth, Esther [WBC], 124).

⁸ tn Ruth here uses a word (שִׁפְחָה, shifkhah) that describes the lowest level of female servant (see 1 Sam 25:41). Note Ruth 3:9 where she uses the word אָמָה (’amah), which refers to a higher class of servant.

⁹ tn The imperfect verbal form of הָיָה (hayah) is used here. F. W. Bush shows from usage elsewhere that the form should be taken as future (Ruth, Esther [WBC], 124-25).

¹⁰ tn The disjunctive clause (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + verb) is circumstantial (or concessive) here (“even though”).

¹¹ tn On the force of the phrase גָּם כִּי (gam ki) here, see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 138-39.

¹² 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.

¹³ tn Heb “until they have finished all the harvest which is mine”; NIV “until they finish harvesting all my grain.”