¹ tn Heb “your good,” which refers here to agricultural blessings.

⁴ sn For a discussion of the agricultural background, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 128-29.

³ sn The barley harvest began in late March. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 91.

¹ sn The wheat harvest took place during the month of May. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 37, 88.

⁶ tn Heb “their vine-branches.” The term “vine-branches” is a figurative expression (synecdoche of part for the whole) representing the agricultural fields as a whole.

¹ tn Heb “you.” By metonymy the crops belonging to these people are meant. See the remainder of this verse, which describes the agricultural devastation caused by locusts.

² tn Heb “their strength.” The trees and vines will produce a maximum harvest, in contrast to the failed agricultural conditions previously described.

² tn Both “bestow” and “yield” translate the same Hebrew verb (נָתַן, natan). The repetition of the word emphasizes that agricultural prosperity is the direct result of divine blessing.

¹ tn Heb “by the hand of every man he seals.” This line is intended to mean that with the heavy rains God suspends all agricultural activity.

¹ tn Heb “with respect to the work of the land.” The phrase refers to agricultural labor; see HALOT 776-77 s.v. עֲבֹדָה.

³ sn Barley was harvested from late March through late April, wheat from late April to late May (O. Borowski, Agriculture in Ancient Israel, 88, 91).

³ tn Heb “gleaned.” The word is an agricultural term which pictures Israelites picking off the Benjaminites as easily as one picks grapes from the vine.

² tn The expression is “the turn of the year,” which is parallel to “the going out of the year,” and means the end of the agricultural season.

² sn The crops planted late (consisting of vegetables) were planted in late January-early March and sprouted in conjunction with the spring rains of March-April. For a discussion of the ancient Israelite agricultural calendar, see O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 31-44.

² sn I will thresh. The metaphor is agricultural. Threshing was usually done on a hard threshing floor. As farm animals walked over the stalks, pulling behind them a board embedded with sharp stones, the stalks and grain would be separated. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63-65. Gideon threatens to use thorns and briers on his sledge.

² sn The basket of summer fruit (also in the following verse) probably refers to figs from the summer crop, which ripens in August-September. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 115.

² sn This statement alludes to the practice of sexual rites in the Canaanite fertility cult that attempted to secure agricultural fertility from the Canaanite gods (note the following reference to wool, flax, olive oil, and wine).

² sn Comparison with Neh 13:15-18 suggests that these loads were merchandise or agricultural produce being brought in for sale. The loads carried out of the houses in the next verse were probably goods for barter.

² tn The noun תְּבוּאָה (t^evuʾah) means “harvest, yield of crops, produce” and by extension “profit” (HALOT 1679, s.v.). The agricultural imagery is an implied metaphor (hypocatastasis) for the gains that wisdom produces in one’s life.

¹ tn Heb “she beat out” (so NAB, NASB, NRSV, NLT). Ruth probably used a stick to separate the kernels of grain from the husks. See O. Borowski, Agriculture in Iron Age Israel, 63.