Paragraph 2:14–16

2:14a

At mealtime Boaz said to her: The phrase At mealtime indicates the time when Boaz next spoke to Ruth. It would probably have been about noon.

Come over here: Boaz invited Ruth to join his workers. The word here refers to the general area where Boaz and his hired workers, both males and females, were eating. You may wish to translate this as an invitation or as a polite command. Consider how a landowner or employer would speak kindly to his workers. For example:

You may come and join us
-or-
Come, eat with us. (Contemporary English Version)

2:14b

have some bread: Again, this can be translated as an invitation or as a polite command. The Hebrew word meaning bread is used here to refer to the ordinary food served at the noon meal. Bread was the main food in Ruth’s time. If the speakers of your language do not eat bread every day and think of it as a special or luxury food, then use your own common word for “food.” For example:

and have some food (NET Bible)
-or-
and help yourself to some food (New Living Translation (2004))

and dip it into the vinegar sauce: Apparently the vinegar sauce was some kind of tasty sauce, probably fermented. Boaz was offering Ruth something that tasted good. Here are some other ways to translate this:

Dip your bread in the vinegar. (NET Bible)
-or-
You can dip your bread in the sour wine. (New Living Translation (2004))

If people in your culture do not dip bread in a sauce, or if you have referred to food in general in the previous clause, you may need to translate this in a different way. For example:

Help yourself to the sauce.
-or-
2:14c

So: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So indicates that what happened next is the result of Boaz’s invitation in 2:14a.

she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain: The two verbs she sat down and he offered refer to two consecutive actions. Here are some other ways to translate them:

So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed her some roasted grain. (NET Bible)
-or-
So she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her some roasted grain. (God’s Word)

she sat down beside the harvesters: The harvesters, both men and women, were sitting eating together, and Ruth joined them.

and he offered her roasted grain: The Hebrew verb that the Berean Standard Bible translates as offered is not found anywhere else in the Old Testament. In this context, it seems to indicate that Boaz handed or gave Ruth some grain.

roasted grain: This refers to fresh grain that the workers had roasted over the fire. Probably it was some of the barley that they had just harvested.

2:14d

and she ate and was satisfied: Ruth ate until she was satisfied and was no longer hungry. Here are some other ways to translate this:

She ate until she was full (God’s Word)
-or-
She ate all she wanted (New International Version)

and had some left over: Boaz gave Ruth more roasted grain than she was able to eat. Though this verse does not mention it, Ruth saved this extra food, and she later took the leftover grain home to Naomi.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

and she still had some food left over (Good News Translation)
-or-
she even had some food left over (New Century Version)

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