The Hebrew text of verse 17 is literally “and the women of the neighborhood gave him a name, saying, A son has been born to Naomi. They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, the father of David.” This Hebrew text is rather redundant in its literal form, and therefore some restructuring is necessary in most receptor languages if one is to make the rendering clear and natural. Rather than repeat “gave him a name” and “they named him Obed,” it is usually better to translate “the women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed,” “they called the boy by the name of Obed,” “they said, ‘Obed is his name,’ ” or “they declared, ‘Obed will be his name.’ ” It is also possible to retain somewhat more of the Hebrew order by translating “the women of the neighborhood said, ‘A son has been born to Naomi’; and they named him Obed.” This restructuring already exists in an early translation. So the Syriac version. It should, however, be noted that such a restructuring may destroy the traces of a more primitive text in which (according to the typical Hebrew style of name giving), instead of shem, another name figured, alluding to yullad ben lenaʿomi, something like Yibleam (Gunkel, op. cit., ad loc.) or Ben Noam (Eißfeldt, op. cit., page 649).

It is quite impossible in some languages to say “a son has been born to Naomi.” This would imply that Naomi herself was the mother. The relationship must be changed to read: “Naomi now has a grandson,” “a grandson has been born for Naomi,” or “Ruth has given birth to a grandson for Naomi.”

The name Obed in Hebrew sounds like the word meaning “servant.” S. Öttli (in Strack-Zöckler’s Kurzgefaßte Kommentar, 1889, ad loc.) and Bertholet (op. cit., ad loc.) explain the name as “ganz für sie da.” This is, however, questionable. It would be more probable to take it in the sense of “worshiper” as a hypocoristic, in which the following name of the divinity has been omitted (so Dhorme, op. cit., ad loc.).

In some languages it is impossible to introduce the final sentence of verse 17 without some alteration. A literal translation, “he was the father of Jesse, who was David’s father,” would be completely confusing, since Obed only later became the father of Jesse, who still later became the father of David. Therefore, one must translate this final sentence as “Obed later became the father of Jesse, and Jesse in turn became the father of David.” One may also translate it as “Obed later had a son who was named Jesse, and Jesse had a son who was named David.”

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 .