The questions in the Hebrew text of verse 19 would seem to be in a wrong order, since “Where did you glean today?” appears to be more specific than “Where did you work?” Some translators, therefore, feel justified in reversing the order. The second is really a double question, involving not only “working” but also “going.” So rightly Gerleman, op. cit., ad loc: “abgekürzte Redeweise, eigentlich, ‘Wohin (bist du gegangen) und hast gearbeitet?’ ” For the hapax ʾanah = ʾan, see the dictionaries. NEB seems to render a meaning “whither” and seems to interpret “to do” rather erroneously as “to go” (“Which way did you go?”). Another possibility is that NEB makes the first kernel structure explicit and the second implicit because of its repetitive character. If this is how the translators came to this translation, both the method and the result could be acceptable, though an implicit kernel structure in Hebrew could scarcely be given this importance. The meaning “where” for ʾanah has rightly been defended by Baumgartner, s.v. Stinespring’s proposal (in JNEST 3, page 101) to translate ʾanah with “to what purpose?” does not seem to make any sense in this particular context. This is made explicit in New American Bible as “Where did you go to work?” In a sense the second question is also highly specific, for Naomi’s intention was no doubt to find out the particular field in which Ruth had gleaned. Therefore, from the standpoint of the development of the text, the first question should be regarded as being more general and the second as more specific. For this reason Good News Translation renders the second question as Whose field have you been working in? That the second question focuses upon the owner of the field is indicated by the second benediction which Naomi then expresses: May God bless the man who took an interest in you!
The third person imperative in the expression May God bless the man who took an interest in you is difficult to translate into a number of languages. In the Hebrew text the corresponding expression is literally “blessed be the man who took notice of you.” This passive expression is often awkward to render, and a translation such as “blessings on the man” (New English Bible) is of very little help in finding a practical solution to translation in most receptor languages. It may, therefore, be necessary to employ, as in so many cases, some verb to introduce direct discourse; for example, “I pray that God will bless the man.” In this type of context, blessing implies “helping,” “doing good to,” or “looking with favor upon,” and is the opposite of cursing. It should not be related merely to material prosperity (though this component of meaning was important in biblical Hebrew) and certainly should not be related to games of chance or gambling. Compare E. A. Nida, God’s Word in Man’s Language, New York, 1952, page 43.
For the expression took an interest in you, see the comments on verse 10, where the same Hebrew verb is used.
The second part of verse 19 in the Hebrew text is somewhat confusing and misleading. Literally, it may be rendered as “so she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, ‘The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.’ ” In the first place, it may be preferable to use proper names—Ruth told Naomi—rather than to say “she told her mother-in-law.”
The clause “with whom she had worked” may be misleading because it might suggest that she worked together with Boaz. This, of course, was not the case; she simply worked in the field which belonged to Boaz. Furthermore, it is misleading to have, as in the Hebrew text, a repetition of the information with regard to working, first in an indirect form and then in a direct form. For this reason the two expression are coalesced in Good News Translation to read: Ruth told Naomi that she had been working in a field belonging to a man named Boaz. Some ancient translators recognized the problem in the discrepancy between questions and answers, and this led them to formulate what seemed to be a more satisfactory answer to come from Ruth. So Septuagint, which reads: “And Ruth told her mother-in-law where she had worked.”
Quoted with permission from de Waard, Jan and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on Ruth. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 1978, 1992. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .