Ruth

The Hebrew that is transliterated as “Ruth” in English is translated in Spanish Sign Language with the sign for “respect” referring to the respect that she shows for the mother-in-law as shown in Ruth 1:16. (Source: Steve Parkhurst)


“Ruth” in Spanish Sign Language, source: Sociedad Bíblica de España

In Swiss-German Sign Language it is translated with a sign that depicts Ruth collecting ears of grain, referring to Ruth 2:2 and following.


“Ruth” in Swiss-German Sign Language, source: DSGS-Lexikon biblischer Begriffe , © CGG Schweiz

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Ruth .

For more information on translations of proper names with sign language see Sign Language Bible Translations Have Something to Say to Hearing Christians .

Bethlehem

The town name that is transliterated as “Bethlehem” in English is translated in Finnish Sign Language with the signs signifying “manger + town” (referring to Luke 2:7). (Source: Tarja Sandholm)


“Bethlehem” in Finnish Sign Language (source )

See also manger.

In American Sign Language it is translated with the signs for “bread” and “house,” referring to the original meaning of “Bethlehem” as “house of bread.” (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)


“Bethlehem” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor

Likewise in Hungarian Sign Language:


“Bethlehem” in Hungarian Sign Language (source )

Learn more on Bible Odyssey: Bethlehem .

Ruth 1 in oral adaptation in Fang

Following is a back-translation of Ruth 1 from a song presented in the traditional Fang troubadour style (mvét oyeng) as part of a project by Bethany and Andrew Case. (For more information about this, see Case / Case 2019)

Verse 1 – It happened that, in the time of the chiefs, they were governing Israel, and hunger came there to the regions of those lands.

2 – It came about that a man of the town that they call Bethlehem, the clans of the lands of Ephrata, they called him Elimelek.

Then he moved from there, he moved, saying, “I will try to go and live in the regions of the lands of Moab.”

When he went there, he went with [his] wife, [his] wife Naomi, and his two sons, his grown sons.

One was named Mahlon, and the other was Kilion.

All those were people of Ephrata.

After they arrived in Moab there, then they lived there, living.

3 – It came about that Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, and Naomi was left a widow. (Click or tap here to see the rest.

4/5 – Left like that, [with] only just one thing her two sons, when they were left, then these two sons also married two girls, young Moabite women.

One of them was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth.

And it came about that after ten years passed, ten years, then these two sons of hers also died there, beginning with Malon and Kilion.

Then Naomi was left only all alone [lit. point and point: a bird’s beak from which its worm has fallen] with nothing.

6 – Then it came about that Naomi, living in Moab [unclear].

There she found out that Yahweh had had compassion on her town’s/people’s pain, the famine had ended, ending.

7 – Then Naomi said there that, “right now, I’m going back to Judah.”

When she was returning, then she went together with her two daughter-in-laws.

They left the place where they were and at that time they went.

8 – When they were walking on the road, then she said to them, “Oh my daughters-in-law, go back to your houses, to the houses of your mothers, please go back.”

9 – “I ask Yahweh that he treat you well at all times just like you also treated me and my sons.”

“I continually repeatedly again and again ask that Yahweh give you a place that is just and solid/secure, that he give you homes and also give you new husbands.”

Then Naomi kissed them on the cheeks, a goodbye kiss.

10 – Then the girls wept and they said “We will not go back, oh Naomi, we will go with you to your land.”

11 – Then Naomi insisted again, and said to them, “O my daughters, please go back.”

“Do you really wish to return with me, to go and do what?”

I can no longer again have other children for them to again marry you, please go back to your homes.

12 – I am too old, I cannot again go into marriage.

Even if I did also go into it, and bear two sons this night, oh my daughters, would you begin to wait again for these sons, for them to be your husbands?

13 – In this time you are without husbands, and for how long?

No no, oh my daughters, my evil is too great, and surpasses yours [lit. my evil it exaggerates with bigness to pass this with yours].

The hand of Yahweh has struck me, striking.”

14 – Then they opened their mouths (wept), they were crying.

After they finished crying, then Orpha afterward went to kiss [her] mother-in-law, kissing goodbye.

Then Ruth, she insisted to her that she would not go.

15 – Then Naomi said to her, “Look, the other has gone to her people.

Go youuuu too with her to the place where your gods are, go with her.”

Ñeŋǃ

16 – Then Ruth answered her, “Don’t you ask me that I separate from you.

Don’t you ask me that I separate from you.”

Because the place where you go, to it also I will go.

The place where you’re going to live, there also I am going to live.

Your people this also will be my people.

Your god this too will be my god.

17 – The place where you will die, in this also I will die, I tell you truly (lit. truth and truth).

I say that may Yahweh strike me, may he punish me severely (lit. [punish me with real punishment]) if I separate from you except only that death do it.”

18 – Then it happened that, when Naomi saw that Ruth insisted [with] real insistence [firmness], she didn’t insist anymore, then she said, “Let’s go”.

They began to walk, they’re going, they’re going.

19 – When it happened that they have already entered Bethlehem, that they have already arrived.

Then there in the town people began going and looking, [saying], “wow, but who is this?

Who is this?

Is it not Naomi who’s coming over there?

Yes, wow, it is Naomi.

Aáaáaáa

Aaáǃ

20 – After Naomi knew that she was the one they were talking about, then she said, “Don’t call me again Naomi.

Naomi means I have a glad heart, I am well.

And now that I’m here, please call me Mara because God Almighty has given me bitter and bitter, bitter and bitter, this has filled my body.

21 – When I left here to go, I left here [with] my hands full.

When I was returning now, I was coming [with] my hands now emptied, because thus Yahweh has wanted it, so why do you again call me Naomi?

When Yahweh, he who is all-powerful has lowered me to the ground, this kind of punishment that I have here.”

22 – In that way, Naomi returned to Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth, she who is a young Moabite woman.

In that way, they arrived in Bethlehem, finding that the time of harvesting food had arrived.

complete verse (Ruth 1:22)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ruth 1:22:

  • Noongar: “So Naomi returned from Moab. Ruth of Moab, her son’s wife, she accompanied her. They returned to Bethlehem at the time people were harvesting the wheat.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
  • Eastern Bru: “So Naomi returned to her own country. And Ruth, her daughter-in-law returned with her also. Ruth was a Moabite. The two of them arrived in Bethlehem at the time when they were just starting to harvest grain from the fields in that country.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “The harvest-season for barley was-just beginning when Noemi arrived in Betlehem with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabnon.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “That summarizes the account of Naomi returning home along with her daughter-in-law Ruth, the woman from Moab. And it happened that when they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley grain harvest was just beginning.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

barley

Barley Hordeum distichum or Hordeum vulgare is a type of grass like wheat and rice. It has been cultivated in the Middle East for thousands of years and is now one of the most prominent seed crops grown in the world. Twenty species are known, of which eight are European. Barley needs less rain than wheat does, so in the Holy Land it was typically found in the drier areas above the coastal plain and near the desert. From 2 Kings 7:1 and Revelation 6:6 we know that barley was considered inferior to wheat and was often used to feed animals, as it is today. When the wheat supply ran out, people had to make their bread with barley. Barley was gathered before wheat, the harvest coming around March or April in the lower regions and in May in the mountains (see Exodus 9:31 et al.). In Egypt and in ancient Greece barley was used to make beer.

Barley plants look like wheat or rice. They are less than 1 meter (3 feet) tall, and have a single head on each stalk, with six rows of kernels, although the biblical kind may have had only two rows. The head bends at a down-ward angle when it is ripe.

In the story of Gideon and the Midianites in Judges 7:13, “a cake of barley” representing the (despised) Israelite army tumbles into the Midianite camp and knocks down the tent (representing the nomadic Midianites).

Barley is a plant of temperate zones, like Europe and the Near East; it does not grow well in the tropics. However, barley has been recently introduced along with wheat into many parts of the world for brewing beer and other malted drinks. It is also known to have grown in Korea as early as 1500 B.C. along with wheat and millet. It is becoming known in Malay as barli. Except for the reference in Judges, all references to barley in the Bible are non-rhetorical, so unrelated cultural equivalents are discouraged. Some receptor language speakers may coin a name for it as in Malay, or the translator can use a transliteration from Hebrew (se‘orah), Latin (horideyo), or from a major language (for example, Arabic sha’ir, Spanish cebada, French orge, Portuguese cevada, Swahili shayiri), together with a classifier, if there is one (for example, “grain of shayir”).

Barley, Wikimedia Commons

Source: Each According to its Kind: Plants and Trees in the Bible (UBS Helps for Translators)

See also barley bread.

Translation commentary on Ruth 1:22: A Cultural Commentary for Central Africa

The time reference here is important, since in a Tonga sociocultural setting it would immediately arouse the suspicions of the people whose village Naomi was entering. A person does not usually move during the period extending from after the fields have been planted until after the harvest has been completed. One’s crops mean life, and therefore it must have been some serious offense which drove Naomi away from her former home at such a time. Perhaps it had been divined that she was guilty of practicing witchcraft — after all, were not all her men now dead? No, she would not be welcomed with open arms into a Tonga village at this time of year.

Source: Wendland 1987, p. 171.

Translation commentary on Ruth 1:22

This final verse of chapter 1 constitutes a summary paragraph. It adds no new information except to introduce “the barley harvest,” and this serves as a kind of translation to what Ruth is described as doing in chapter 2.

The verbal construction in Hebrew makes it quite clear that verse 22 is to be taken simply as a conclusion. For the use of the wayyiqtol in this sense, see Joüon, par. 118. Accordingly, in the receptor language one can employ a similar device to mark a concluding statement; for example, “This is how it happened,” “This then was how,” “As a result,” or even “So.” The occurrence of the term Moabite is redundant; that is to say, the same information has been given earlier. However, the repetition may be for emphasis, and thus many translators may wish to retain the attributive, not only here, but also in 2.2, 21; 4.5, 10.

In many languages there is no precise equivalent for barley. In such cases it is useful to employ a general word for grain. When such a general term does not exist, one can sometimes employ a phrase which suggests similarity to grains which are known in the region; for example, “millet-like grain” or “rice-like grain.”

Likewise, there may be no specific term for harvest, but this can be described as “the time when the barley grain was cut” or “the season when the barley grain was brought to the barn.”

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 .