2:8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, 1 my dear! 2 Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not 3 go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside 4 my female workers. 5
4:1 Now Boaz went up 6 to the village gate and sat there. Then along came the guardian 7 whom Boaz had mentioned to Ruth! 8 Boaz said, “Come 9 here and sit down, ‘John Doe’!” 10 So he came 11 and sat down.
1 tn Heb “Have you not heard?” The idiomatic, negated rhetorical question is equivalent to an affirmation (see F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 119, and GKC 474 §150.e).
2 tn Heb “my daughter.” This form of address is a mild form of endearment, perhaps merely rhetorical. It might suggest that Boaz is older than Ruth, but not necessarily significantly so. A few English versions omit it entirely (e.g., TEV, CEV).
3 tn The switch from the negative particle אַל (’al, see the preceding statement, “do not leave”) to לֹא (lo’) may make this statement more emphatic. It may indicate that the statement is a policy applicable for the rest of the harvest (see v. 21).
4 tn Heb “and thus you may stay close with.” The imperfect has a permissive nuance here.
5 sn The female workers would come along behind those who cut the grain and bundle it up. Staying close to the female workers allowed Ruth to collect more grain than would normally be the case (see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 61, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther [WBC], 121).
6 tn The disjunctive clause structure (note the pattern vav [ו] + subject + verb) here signals the beginning of a new scene.
7 tn Sometimes translated “redeemer.” See the note on the phrase “guardian of the family interests” in 3:9.
8 tn Heb “look, the guardian was passing by of whom Boaz had spoken.”
9 tn Heb “turn aside” (so KJV, NASB); NIV, TEV, NLT “Come over here.”
10 tn Heb “a certain one”; KJV, ASV “such a one.” The expression פְלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי (pÿloni ’almoni) is not the name of the nearest relative, but an idiom which literally means “such and such” or “a certain one” (BDB 811-12 s.v. פְלֹנִי), which is used when one wishes to be ambiguous (1 Sam 21:3; 2 Kgs 6:8). Certainly Boaz would have known his relative’s name, especially in such a small village, and would have uttered his actual name. However the narrator refuses to record his name in a form of poetic justice because he refused to preserve Mahlon’s “name” (lineage) by marrying his widow (see 4:5, 9-10). This close relative, who is a literary foil for Boaz, refuses to fulfill the role of family guardian. Because he does nothing memorable, he remains anonymous in a chapter otherwise filled with names. His anonymity contrasts sharply with Boaz’s prominence in the story and the fame he attains through the child born to Ruth. Because the actual name of this relative is not recorded, the translation of this expression is difficult since contemporary English style expects either a name or title. This is usually supplied in modern translations: “friend” (NASB, NIV, RSV, NRSV, NLT), “so-and-so” (JPS, NJPS). Perhaps “Mr. So-And-So!” or “Mr. No-Name!” makes the point. For discussion see Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative, 99-101; R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 233-35; F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 196-97. In the present translation “John Doe” is used since it is a standard designation for someone who is a party to legal proceedings whose true name is unknown.
11 tn Heb “and he turned aside” (so KJV, NASB); NRSV “And he went over.”