complete verse (Ruth 1:4 - 1:5)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ruth 1:4-1:5:

  • Noongar: “Now Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, he died, and Naomi stayed with her two sons. Her two sons married two wives from Moab, named Orpah and Ruth. When they had lived there ten years, Mahlon and Chilion died; so Naomi was widowed, without sons and without a husband.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
  • Eastern Bru: “The two sons took wives from the people of Moab. The names of the women were Orpha and Ruth. So they lived in that place about ten years. But in that place, Mahlon and Chilion also died. So Naomi still lived, but she no longer had husband or children.” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Some-time-later her children married [plural] Moabnon (women). The name of one was Orpah and the (other)-one was Ruth. After- ten years -had-passed, Mahlon and Kilion also died, so only Noemi was left.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “They married women from Moab. One of them was named Orpah, and the other one was named Ruth. But after they had lived in that area for about ten years, Mahlon and Chilion died. So then Naomi had no husband and no sons.” (Source: Translation for Translators)

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.

Translation commentary on Ruth 1:3 - 1:5

The Hebrew text of verse 3 reads “Elimelech the husband of Naomi died, and she was left with her two sons.” The expression “the husband of Naomi” is so repetitious of the information already given in verse 2 as to appear almost misleading. Therefore in some translations (as here) the phrase is omitted, and in place of the pronoun “she” the name Naomi is used. One may actually transfer the expression “the husband of Naomi” to the second part of verse 3 and read “and Naomi, his wife, was left with her two sons.”

The Hebrew expression translated Naomi was left may be rendered in certain contexts as “she was left behind” or “she was left alive,” Ruth 1.3 and 5 are the only instances in the Old Testament where the verb shaʾar is used with reference to a widow. but in many languages it is extremely difficult to translate the Hebrew verb literally. (Compare French elle lui survécut. So BJ, and Edouard Dhorme in La Bible, l’Ancien Testament, Tome 2, Paris, 1959.) The translator must select a natural equivalent in the receptor language to designate a woman who is left as a widow with two sons; for example, “Naomi, his wife, was left a widow with her two sons,” “Naomi remained alone with her two sons,” or “Naomi no longer had a husband, only her two sons.”

The Hebrew text does not specify at this point which son married Orpah and which son married Ruth. However, it seems that the Hebrew writer may have used the Hebrew device of reversing the order of names to indicate which pairs were married. E. F. Campbell shows that the cross-wise arrangement of the pairs of names was a deliberate device, Ruth (Anchor Bible, New York, Doubleday, 1975), page 151. And in 4.10 we find out that Mahlon married Ruth, but at this point the narrative does not state so specifically. If the receptor language must specify the married couples, for example, by means of the ordering of the names, then it should be made clear that Mahlon married Ruth and Chilion married Orpah. However, since the Hebrew makes no other specific attempt to clarify this, no further attempt should normally be made in the receptor language.

The Hebrew expression here translated married occurs only in Old Testament literature of a later period. nasaʾ ʾishah, instead of the usual laqach ʾishah, occurs in Ezra 10.44; 2 Chronicles 11.21; 13.21; and with ellipsis of ʾishah in Ezra 9.2, 12; Nehemiah 13.25. It is true that the same expression does occur in Judges 21.23, but it is in a context which concerns the abduction of women, literally in the sense of “to take wives.” As such, the expression carries an important component of sex, not only in Hebrew but also in many receptor languages.

In Hebrew the proper name Orpah sounds like “rebellious,” and Ruth sounds like “refreshing.” Etymologists have speculated considerably concerning possible implications of the use of these names, but there is no certainty as to the historical background or the meaning. Orpah has usually been considered as a derivative of the root ʿrph, of which the noun ʿoreph (“neck”) occurs several times in Hebrew as a figure of apostasy (Jer 2.27; 32.33); but a derivation from a root ʿphr (with metathesis), resulting in a meaning “mountain-goat,” has seriously been proposed. As to Ruth, much has been deduced from the Syriac spelling found in the Peshitta reʾut, but elision of an ʿayin cannot easily be explained. A connection with a root rawah (“saturate, refresh”), as proposed by A. Bertholet (in Marti’s Kurzer Handkommentar zum AT, 1898, ad loc.), is very doubtful, as well as a connection with Chaldaic werad (“rose”). The suggestion has even been made that the reversed reading of the name of Ruth, tur, meaning “turtledove,” may be of significance! (Hertzberg, ad loc.) However, J. J. Stamm favors “refresh” in “Hebräische Frauennamen” (k Hebräische Wortforschung, pages 325-326). The usual explanation of the name Orpah already dates back to early rabbinic times, as shown by D. Hartmann, Das Buch Ruth in der Midraschliteratur, Zürich, 1901. However, the etymologizing interpretation of a name is a common literary feature which tells us nothing about the correctness of the etymology. On the contrary, it is only a literary feature and/or an interpretative device of the expositors of a certain tradition. See James Barr, The Semantics of Biblical Language, Oxford, 1961, Chapter 6: “Etymologies and related arguments.”

About ten years later is a reference to the time that Mahlon and Chilion lived in Moab—in other words, the time that the family had been there. The ten years should not be counted from the time of Elimelech’s death.

The Hebrew literally reads as follows: “the woman was bereft of her two sons and her husband.” Chronologically Elimelech died first, and Mahlon and Chilion afterward. It may be important, therefore, to reverse the order, as some ancient versions have done, So the majority of Septuagint manuscripts and the Peshitta. so that the phrase reads Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons. In addition there may be a cultural reason in some languages to mention the husband before the sons.

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 .

SIL Translator’s Notes on Ruth 1:5

1:5a

both Mahlon and Chilion also died: This clause tells what happened after the ten years that are described in the previous clause. Both of Naomi’s sons died. The word also refers back to the death of Elimelech. It may give attention to the fact that all of Naomi’s male family members were gone. She not only lost her husband, but also her sons.

Here is another way to translate this verse part:

Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, also died.

1:5b

and Naomi: The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as and Naomi is literally “and the woman.” The Hebrew phrase does not make explicit Naomi’s name. It is the same pattern as the summary introduction in 1:1, in which Elimelech and his family members are not named. For that reason, 1:5b may be a summary closing to this section. Some versions translate this phrase literally. For example:

so the woman (NET Bible)

Translate this phrase in a natural way in your language.

Here are some ways to indicate the connection of 1:5b to the previous clause. Either of these options is acceptable:

• Indicate that this clause talks about the result of the death of her sons. For example:

so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband (English Standard Version)

• Indicate that this clause talks about the next situation in the story. For example:

and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons (Good News Translation)

was left without: The Hebrew expression that the Berean Standard Bible translates as left without is literally “and she was left the woman from.” The verb translated as left is the same as in 1:3b. See how you translated it there.

Here are some other ways to translate this expression:

Then Naomi, bereaved of her two sons as well as of her husband. (Revised English Bible)
-or-
and the woman was left with neither (New American Bible, Revised Edition)

Now Naomi had no husband or sons. (Contemporary English Version)

her two sons and without her husband: The sons are mentioned first in this phrase. A reason may be to give attention to Naomi’s loss. However, in some languages, it may be more natural to translate this phrase in a different order, since her husband died first, then her sons. For example:

and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons. (Good News Translation)

The phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as her two sons is literally “both her children.” The Hebrew word “children” normally refers to young children, not grown sons.

Here are two possible explanations why the Hebrew word for “children” is used here:

• It expresses the deep pain that Naomi felt.

• It forms a pair with Ruth 4:16, which has the same word.

Consider translating this phrase as “both her children” if in your language it is a natural way to refer to grown sons that expresses Naomi’s extreme grief.

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