wheat

Two kinds of wild wheat have grown in the open deciduous oak woodland in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent for several thousand years: Einkorn Wheat Triticum monococcum and Emmer Wheat Triticum dicoccum. Both came into cultivation together with barley. Just before the time of the Romans, the Naked Bread Wheat or Hard Wheat Triticum durum started replacing the hulled varieties. This then became the favorite type of wheat for bread and macaroni. Spelt is a sub-member of the Triticum aestivum species.

In New Revised Standard Version, updated edition and some other versions, the generic Hebrew word bar has been rendered “wheat” in Jeremiah 23:28 et al. This is legitimate, since the grain referred to by bar was probably wheat. However, it might be better to say “grain” in these passages.

The most important early wheat for the Israelites was emmer, probably the only wheat known in Egypt, and referred to in Hebrew as chittah. However, according to Hepper (Baker Encyclopedia of Bible Plants: Flowers and Trees, Fruits and Vegetables, Ecology. Baker Book House, 1992), the seven-headed wheat of the Egyptian king’s dream (Genesis 41:5ff.) suggests that there may also have been Triticum turgidum (rivet wheat) in the emmer group. The Hebrew word kusemeth probably refers to a type of emmer wheat that the Egyptians called swt.

Wheat is a type of grass like rice and barley, growing to around 75 centimeters (2.5 feet) in height and having a head with many small grains in rows.

Bread made from wheat was the staple food for the people of ancient Israel, so God punished them by breaking “the staff of bread” (see, for example, Ezekiel 4:16).

If wheat is unfamiliar, translators can transliterate from a major language in non-rhetorical contexts (for example, English witi, Portuguese trigo, French ble or froment, Swahili ngano, Arabic kama/alkama). The transliteration may add a generic tag such as “grain.” The New Testament passages are mostly rhetorical, opening the possibility for a metaphorical equivalent.

Wheat head, photo by Gloria Suess

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

complete verse (Ruth 2:21 - 2:23)

Following are a number of back-translations of Ruth 2:21-23:

  • Noongar: “Then Ruth of Moab said, ‘He also told me, ‘Stay close to my workers until they stop harvesting all my wheat’.’ Naomi told Ruth, her son’s wife, ‘This is better, my daughter. You must work near his young women because people might hurt you in another wheat field.’ So Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s young women until they finished gathering wheat. She lived in the home of her mother-in-law.” (Source: Bardip Ruth-Ang 2020)
  • Eastern Bru: “And Ruth, the Moabite said: ‘Boaz told me: ‘You stay near the people who work for me until the day they finish harvesting for me.’‘ Then Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law: ‘Very good, child! You go always with the people who work for Boaz. Don’t go to any other field. If you go to another field maybe they will do badly to you.’ Then Ruth went always with the people who worked for Boas until they finished harvesting the grain. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.” And Naomi said: ‘Surely this person is from our clan also very near to us.’” (Source: Bru Back Translation)
  • Hiligaynon: “Ruth said to Noemi, “Boaz even said to me that I should- only -go-with his men to glean until all his harvest will-be-finished.” Noemi said to Ruth, “Child, it-would-be-good if you(sg) go with his female servant, because something might happen to you(sg)/[lit. because might/possibly if what-(ever) else the will-happen to you(sg)] in another field.” So Ruth went-with the female servant of Boaz. She gleaned the heads-of-grain until the season/time-of-harvest of barley and wheat was finished. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.” (Source: Hiligaynon Back Translation)
  • English: “Then Ruth said, ‘He also said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they have finished harvesting all my grain.’’ Naomi replied, ‘My daughter, it will be good for you to go to his field with his servant girls, because if you go to someone else’s field, someone might harm/molest you.’ So Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s servant girls while she was working. She gathered stalks of grain until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. During that time she lived with Naomi.” (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 2:23

Verse 23 serves as a summary of the contents of chapter 2, but it seems to provide no clue as to further developments in the story. Yet there is a suggestion for the transition which occurs in the following verse, the first verse of chapter 3. Chapter 2 ends with Ruth living with her mother-in-law, but the first verse of chapter 3 contains Naomi’s declaration that she should seek a home for Ruth, since a permanent arrangement for Ruth would obviously be more satisfactory than continuing indefinitely with her mother-in-law. Thus, though the text of verse 23 does not seem to provide a clue as to the rest of the story, in fact it actually does. It is the issue of a permanent home and relationship which is regarded as so essential for Ruth.

It is important to recognize that verse 23 is a type of summary, and therefore a particle such as So is quite appropriate. This may be rendered as “And therefore,” “And as a result,” or “In keeping with this.”

It would be wrong to translate the first clause of verse 23, Ruth worked with them, in such a way as to give the impression that Ruth was hired by Boaz as one of his servants. Rather, she continued to gather or to glean on the same basis as Boaz had specified to his servants in verse 16. It is rather misleading to follow the Revised Standard Version translation, “she kept close to the maidens of Boaz,” since this could imply quite a different dimension of relationship.

Until all the barley and wheat had been harvested can be restructured as “till the harvester had cut and brought in all the barley and wheat,” which is somewhat more specific.

In some of the ancient versions, the final clause, And she continued to live with her mother-in-law, is placed at the beginning of chapter 3, So in the Vulgate and in the Syriac version. but there seems to be no special need to follow this division. NAB is one of the rare exceptions in which this versional division is followed. It may be useful, however, to introduce the last clause with an expression such as “After that” (that is to say, “After the work in the field”). One is not advised to follow the alternative Hebrew reading, “and she returned to her mother-in-law.” This reading has very little textual support and seems clearly secondary, since it appears to be only a smoother transition from the first statement to the second. The alternative Hebrew reading (with different vocalization of the same consonants of the verbal form and change of ʾet- into ʾel-) found in two manuscripts of Kennicott is followed by the Vulgate. Among the older translations, Luther is in favor of this reading, though he places it at the end of the second chapter. Among the newer translations, NAB apparently tries to combine both readings in stating “when she was back with her mother-in-law” at the beginning of chapter 3 (see note 83).

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 2:23

Paragraph 2:23

2:23a

So: The Hebrew conjunction that the Berean Standard Bible translates as So here introduces what Ruth did as a result of what Naomi had told her in 2:22a–b.

Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain: The Hebrew word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as stayed close is the same word that is translated as “stay with” in 2:21b. Ruth did as Boaz and Naomi had told her and continued to glean in Boaz’s field near his female workers. However, as 2:23c says, she still lived with Naomi.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

So Ruth continued working closely with the workers of Boaz (New Century Version)
-or-
So Ruth worked beside Boaz’s female servants, gathering grain (NET Bible)

2:23b

until the barley and wheat harvests were finished: The barley harvest was in late April and early May. The wheat harvest was after that, in late May and early June.

Here are some other ways to translate this:

until the barley and wheat were harvested (Contemporary English Version)
-or-
until both the barley harvest and the wheat harvest ended (God’s Word)
-or-
until the end of the barley harvest. Then she continued working with them through the wheat harvest in early summer. (New Living Translation (2004))

barley and wheat: Both barley and wheat are grain crops. The seeds or grains grow on a “head” which is at the top of a thin stalk. People ground the grains into flour and used it for making bread. See the note on barley in 1:22b.

2:23c

And she lived with her mother-in-law: Ruth continued to live in Naomi’s house and sleep there, although she gleaned each day in Boaz’s fields. Each evening she would bring home the grain she had gathered that day.

Here is another way to translate this verse part:

And all this time she lived with Naomi. (Contemporary English Version)

In some languages, it may be helpful to start this sentence with a phrase like “During this time….”

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