4:15a
He will renew your life: The women used this Hebrew idiom to express their hope that Naomi’s grandson would give her new joy and delight in life. Now Naomi could look forward to seeing the boy grow up and have children of his own so that her husband’s family line would not end.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
The child will be a comfort to you (New Jerusalem Bible)
-or-
Because of him, you(sing) will feel as if you have new life in you.
-or-
He will encourage you (NET Bible)
4:15b
and sustain you in your old age: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as sustain means that Naomi’s grandson would “provide for” her as she grew old. He would probably provide Naomi with food, clothing, and a place to live when she would be too old to take care of herself.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
and care for you in your old age (New Living Translation (2004))
-or-
He’ll take care of you when you are old (New International Reader’s Version)
4:15c
For your daughter-in-law, who loves you…has given him birth: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as For introduces the reason why the women expected that the baby would bring Naomi such joy. The reason was that he was the child of her daughter-in-law, Ruth. Since Ruth loved Naomi very much, the women were sure that her son would love her too.
and is better to you than seven sons: The general attitude of the people of Israel was that sons were more valuable or more important than daughters were. The Israelites thought that a family that had seven sons was an ideal family. When the women said that Ruth was more valuable to Naomi than seven sons, they were saying that Ruth was a very special daughter-in-law.
Here are some other ways to translate this clause:
because he is the son of your daughter-in-law. And she loves you more than seven sons of your own would love you. (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
She helps you(sing) more than seven sons would help you
General Comment on 4:15a-c
Some languages require that the reason be stated before the result. In 4:15 this would mean that the verse would begin with the clauses in 4:15c. This would then be followed by 4:15a-b. For example:
Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age. (Good News Translation)
See 4:15a-c (combined/reordered) in the Display for another example.
© 2024 by SIL International®
Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0.
All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible.
BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.