Ruth chapter 4

vs 12

Of course, by that you assume that the women mean, "May you have many offspring", rather than, "May you have a bunch of sordid problems that will make people read back on you and cringe".

vs 13

The (T)NIV has just dispensed with any form of the hebrew and gone for "made love". Sexy. Interestingly, I learned what "go in to her" actually means - and it doesn't mean go into her. It suggests going in to the inner room of the house with her (there's a different hebrew word for going into and coming out of). And that's how idiom is born.

vs 14

The he is most probably not referring to God, although it's darn difficult to tell. Is it referring to Boaz? The answer is no. It is referring to the son who is born, as is most probable from the reference in vs 15.

The loss of the word redeemer is a bit of a shame really. Actually, a lot of a shame. The NIV did best with kinsman-redeemer.

vs 15

"Given him birth"? What crack pipe was the NIV translator smoking that day? And it's been carried over into the T as well. You don't keep translations that sound weird in English, especially for something as simple as "given birth to him" (NASB).

Anyway, this is an important verse, because it is this son who inherits in the name of Elimelech. So essentially, Ruth's son becomes Naomi's son for the purpose of redeeming the name and inheriting the land.

vs 16

The word "nurse" is not wrong, but it leaves us with the possible connotation of wet-nurse, which is improbable, as Naomi herself has said that she is beyond childbearing age. "Guardian" would be a good word to use, but possibly would be confusing what with kinsman redeemers now being guardians.

vs 17

Notice that it was the women who named him Obed (from the root for servant). This was rare indeed. But it shows just how much this story had made an impact on the whole area.

And of course then we know that there's this whole genealogical thing at the end. Instead of looking at that...

vs 18-22

Well, I will just point out that in the Hebrew some of the names are spelt differently depending on what side of the genealogy they're on. Salmon becomes Salma, for example. The NIV has a note for that, but I guess they didn't want to go confusing people, because it's harder to see the link in English - like David and Dave.

Hooray! Now, I just have to wait until 21 November, and no more Hebrew ever again!