eng_aiv Amundson Interpretive Version Ruth Ruth Ruth Ruth Ruth id=eng_aiv name=Amundson Interpretive Version (AIV) status=draft spec=USFM-USX 3.1.1 export=2026-11-02 char:add=translator-addition-italic char:wj=words-of-Jesus-as-received-unmapped note:f=footnotes para:r=parallel-passage-references para:d=psalm-superscriptions Naomi Becomes a Widow (1 Timothy 5:3–16) And it came to pass in the days of the judging of the judges, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man went from Bethlehem in Judah to dwell in the fields of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went out into the fields of Moab and were there. And Elimelech the husband of Naomi died, and she was left, and her two sons. And they took for them wives of the Moabitesses: The name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years. And the two of them also died, Mahlon and Chilion. And the woman was left from her two sons and from her husband. Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi And she rose, she and her daughters-in-law, and she returned from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in a field of Moab that YHWH had attended to His people, to give bread to them. And she went out from the place where she was there, and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went in the way to return to the land of Judah. And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, turn back, each woman to the house of her mother. May YHWH do with you⁺ loving devotion,1.8 Forms of the Hebrew chesed are translated here and in most cases throughout the Scriptures as loving devotion; the range of meaning includes love, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, and mercy, as well as loyalty to a covenant. as you⁺ have done with the dead and with me. May YHWH give to you⁺, and may you find rest, each woman in the house of her husband.” And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and they wept. And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” And Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you⁺ go with me? Are there still unto me sons in my bowels, that they may be your⁺ husbands? Turn back, my daughters, go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say there is to me hope, and if I should have tonight a husband and also should bear sons, would you⁺ wait for them until that they were grown? Would you⁺ shut yourselves off from being wife to a man? No, my daughters, for it is exceedingly bitter for me from you⁺, for the hand of YHWH has gone out against me.” And they lifted up their voice and they wept again. And Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and Ruth clung to her. And she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” And Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back from following after you. For to wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you lodge, I will lodge. Your people are my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. And may YHWH do to me, and ever so more, if death does part between you and between me.” And she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she stopped speaking to her. The Return to Bethlehem And the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, as they came to Bethlehem, that all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” And she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi;1.20 Naomi means pleasant. call me Mara,1.20 Mara means bitter. for Shaddai1.20 Shaddai means the Almighty; also in verse 21 has dealt exceedingly bitterly with me. I went out full, and YHWH has brought me back empty. Why do you⁺ call me Naomi, since YHWH has testified against me, and Shaddai has afflicted me?” And Naomi turned back, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who turned back from the fields of Moab. And they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest. Boaz Meets Ruth And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a man of great wealth, from the family of Elimelech. And His name was Boaz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me go, please, to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after one in whose eyes I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” And she went, and she came, and she gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech. And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “YHWH be with you⁺!” And they answered him, “YHWH blesses you.” And Boaz said to his young man who was set over the reapers, “To whom is this young woman?” And the servant who was set over the reapers answered and said, “A young woman, a Moabitess, she is, the one returning with Naomi from a field of Moab. And she said, ‘Let me glean, please, and gather among the sheaves after the reapers.’ And she came and remained from the morning and until now, though she rested in the house a little.” And Boaz said to Ruth, “Will you not listen, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and also do not go from this place, and thus you shall cling together with my young women. Let your eyes be in the field that they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, you shall go to the vessels, and you shall drink from what the young men draw.” And she fell on her face and she bowed herself to the earth and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me though I am a foreigner?” And Boaz answered and said to her, “It has surely been declared to me all that you have done with your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you have left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you did not know yesterday and the day before yesterday. May YHWH repay your work, and may you receive your full wages from YHWH, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” And she said, “Let me find favor in your eyes, my lord. For you have comforted me and have spoken to the heart of your maidservant, and I am not like one of your maidservants.” And Boaz said to her at the time of food, “Come here and eat from the bread, and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” And she sat beside the reapers, and he passed to her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied, and she had some left over. And she rose up to glean, and Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Even among the sheaves let her glean, and do not shame her. And also you⁺ shall surely draw out for her from the bundles and you⁺ shall leave them, and shall let her glean. And you⁺ shall not rebuke her.” And she gleaned in the field until the evening. And she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 2.17 An ephah is approximately 20 dry quarts or 22 liters (probably about 29 pounds or 13.2 kilograms of barley). And she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out and gave to her what she had left over from being satisfied. And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today, and where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be blessed.” And she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by YHWH, who has not forsaken His kindness with the living and with the dead.” And Naomi said to her, “The man is a relation of ours. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.2.20 The Hebrew word for kinsman-redeemer or guardian-redeemer is a legal term for the kinsman who redeems or vindicates a relative; see Leviticus 25:25–55.” And Ruth the Moabitess said, “Also surely he said to me, ‘With the young men who are to me you shall cling, until that they have finished all the harvest that is unto me.’” And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, and they will not fall upon you in another field.” And she clung with the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she dwelt with her mother-in-law. Ruth’s Redemption Assured And Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek for you a resting place, that it may be well with you? And is not Boaz our relative, whose young women you were with? Behold, he is winnowing on the threshing floor of barley tonight. And you shall wash, and you shall anoint yourself, and you shall put your garments on you, and you shall go down to the threshing floor. Do not make yourself known to the man until he finishes eating and drinking. And it shall come to pass, when he lies down, that you shall know the place where he lies down, and you shall go in and you shall uncover his feet and lie down, and he—he will tell you what you shall do.” And she said to her, “All that you say to me, I will do.” And she went down to the threshing floor, and she did according to all that her mother-in-law had commanded her. And Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was good, and he went to lie down at the end of the heap. And she came in secrecy and uncovered his feet and lay down. And it came to pass in the middle of the night that the man trembled and turned himself, and behold, a woman was lying at his feet. And he said, “Who are you?” And she said, “I am Ruth your maidservant. And you shall spread your wing3.9 The word for wing can also mean corner of a garment; see Ruth 2:12. over your maidservant, for you are a kinsman-redeemer.3.9 The Hebrew word for kinsman-redeemer or guardian-redeemer is a legal term for the kinsman who redeems or vindicates a relative; similarly in verses 12 and 13; see Leviticus 25:25–55.” And he said, “Blessed are you to YHWH, my daughter. For you have shown more kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after the young men, whether poor or rich. And now, my daughter, do not fear. All that you say, I will do for you, for all the gate of my people knows that you are a woman of virtue. And now it is true that I am a kinsman-redeemer, But also there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I.3.12 That is, more closely related Lodge the night, and it shall be in the morning that if he does redeem you, good; let him redeem. And if he does not want to redeem you, then I will redeem you myself, as YHWH lives. Lie down until the morning.” And she lay at his feet until the morning, and she arose before a man could recognize his companion. And he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” And he said, “Give the cloak that is on you, and hold it.” And she held it, and he measured six measures of barley3.15 Possibly six seahs (two ephahs), or approximately 39.6 dry quarts or 43.8 liters (about 58 pounds or 26.3 kilograms of barley) and laid it on her, and he went3.15 Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts, Vulgate, and Syriac she went into the city. And she came to her mother-in-law, and she said, “Who are you, my daughter?” And she told her all that the man had done for her. And she said, “These six measures of barley he gave to me, for he said, ‘Do not go in empty-handed to your mother-in-law.’” And she said, “Sit, my daughter, until that you know how the matter will fall. For the man will not rest until that he finishes the matter today.” Boaz Redeems Ruth And Boaz went up to the gate, and he sat there, and behold, the kinsman-redeemer4.1 The Hebrew word for kinsman-redeemer or guardian-redeemer is a legal term for the kinsman who redeems or vindicates a relative; also in verses 3, 6, 8, and 14; see Leviticus 25:25–55. was passing by, of whom Boaz had spoken. And he said, “Turn aside, sit here such a one, such a one.” And he turned aside and sat. And he took ten men from the elders of the city and he said, “Sit here.” And they sat. And he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “The piece of the field that belongs to our brother, to Elimelech, Naomi, the woman returning from the fields of Moab, is selling, and I said, ‘I will uncover your ear,’ saying, ‘Buy it before those sitting here and before the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not4.4 Many Hebrew manuscripts, LXX, Vulgate, and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he will not redeem it, tell me, that I may know; for there is none besides you to redeem it, and I am after you.’” And he said, “I will redeem it.” And Boaz said, “In the day of your buying the field from the hand of Naomi, and from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, you must buy it to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance.” And the kinsman-redeemer said, “I am not able to redeem it for myself, lest I damage my own inheritance. Redeem it for yourself. You have my redemption, for I am not able to redeem it.” And this was formerly in Israel concerning the redemption and concerning the exchange: To confirm every matter, a man would remove his sandal and give it to his companion, and this was the testimony in Israel. And the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself.” And he removed his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You⁺ are witnesses this day that I have bought all that belonged to Elimelech, and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon, from the hand of Naomi. And also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired for myself for a wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, and the name of the dead will not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place; you⁺ are witnesses this day.” And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, “Witnesses! May YHWH make the woman, the one coming to your house, like Rachel and like Leah, the two who built the house of Israel; and you do virtuously in Ephrathah, and proclaim the name in Bethlehem. And may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, from the seed that YHWH gives to you from this young woman.” Boaz Marries Ruth And Boaz took Ruth, and she became to him for a wife, and he went in to her, and YHWH gave to her conception, and she bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be YHWH, who has not let cease a kinsman-redeemer to you this day, and may his name be proclaimed in Israel. And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age. For your daughter-in-law who loves you—who is better to you than seven sons—has borne him.” And Naomi took the child and laid him in her bosom, and she became to him a nurse. And the neighbor women called for him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” And they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. The Line of David (Matthew 1:1–17; Luke 3:23–38) And these are the generations of Perez: Perez begat Hezron, and Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, and Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, 4.20 A few Hebrew manuscripts, some LXX manuscripts, and Vulgate (see also verse 21 and LXX of 1 Chronicles 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts Salma and Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.