Ruth 3:17

3:17 She said, “He gave me these sixty pounds of barley, for he said to me, ¹  ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” ² 

Ruth 4:12

4:12 May your family ³  become like the family of Perez ⁴  – whom Tamar bore to Judah – through the descendants ⁵  the Lord gives you by this young woman.”

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¹ tc The MT (Kethib) lacks the preposition אֵלַי (’elay, “to me”) which is attested in the marginal reading (Qere).

² sn ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ In addition to being a further gesture of kindness on Boaz’s part, the gift of barley served as a token of his intention to fulfill his responsibility as family guardian. See R. L. Hubbard, Jr., Ruth (NICOT), 225-26, and F. W. Bush, Ruth, Esther (WBC), 187.

³ tn Heb “your house” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV).

⁴ tn Heb “and may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, from the offspring whom the Lord gives to you from this young woman.”

sn Perez is an appropriate comparison here, because (1) he was an ancestor of Boaz, (2) he was born to Tamar by a surrogate father (Judah) after the death of her husband, and (3) he had an unbroken line of male descendants extending over several generations (see vv. 18-22).

⁵ tn Heb “from the seed” (KJV, ASV both similar); NASB, NIV “through the offspring”; NRSV “through the children.”