Where was Ruth in Ruth 2:7f?: Wrestling with a translation in Nigeria

Ruth 2:7f

I recently ran into Ruth 2:7 while prepping to consultant check the book of Ruth with a team in Nigeria. Here is what I am wrestling with in a part of that verse...

In Ruth 2:7, we reach the point in the narrative where Ruth had been gleaning in Boaz's field, and he now arrives, first talking with his harvesters. The leader of the harvesters reports to Boaz about the young Moabite woman, Ruth.

There is some discussion about establishing the original text of verse 7 (a practice called textual criticism). This post is about an issue in verse 7f, the last part of the verse. 

First off, note that the external evidence is not in agreement:

• ‎ Hebrew text: זֶ֛ה שִׁבְתָּ֥הּ הַבַּ֖יִת מְעָֽט׃   ("This her-sitting the-house a-little")      

• Septuagint (Greek) text: οὐ κατέπαυσεν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ μικρόν (“She did not rest a bit in the field," NETS), referring to “rest” and “field” instead of MT’s “sitting/dwelling” and “house”.

• ‎Peshitta (Syriac) text: 9xynl amd[ arpc !m  (מִן הַבֹּקֶר וְעַד־שׁבתה “from the morning until the (time of) rest^[1]”), referring to neither “house” nor “field”

• Aramaic text: ‎ פון זעיר דין דיתבא בביתא ציבחר׃  ("then a-few this-one she-sat in-house small-amount," my word-for-word rendering = “It is only for a short time that she has sat in the house but a little while,” Brady’s translation), referring to “house” like the MT does. Btw, the standard Aramaic lexicon (CAL: Comprehensive Aramaic Lexicon) is available online for free!: http://cal.huc.edu/       

So, in Ruth 2:7, where does the lead harvester say Ruth had been?

The issues are complex—as is clear even from the external textual evidence above—and much has been written about them (and other text crit issues in this verse). But staying with this one question….

Block comments, 

“it is unclear what the young man meant in lines 7d–f, arguably the most difficult in the book….The interpretive problems continue in 7f, which translates literally, ‘This (masculine) her sitting/dwelling the house a little.’ While consensus on the meaning of this utterance is lacking, it seems the narrator has intentionally preserved a convoluted reading to aid in characterizing the supervisor. Not only has the young man painted Ruth with negative brush strokes, but his stammering style at this point also conveys his own insecurity and nervousness before his boss, who may see through his exaggeration if not fabrication of Ruth’s intent.”^[2] NB: Block counts at least 19 different interpretations of the sentence by 1971!

Brotzman provides a good model of reasoning through the external and internal evidence, and of following text critical principles (I’ve highlighted his conclusion). He writes:

“Having gathered all of the information, we are now in a position to summarize and draw a conclusion. First, it is clear that there are multiple, actual differences between the versions and the MT [Hebrew]. Second, the differences involve multiple noncontinuous words. This suggests that they were not caused by a simple scribal error. Third, the MT is difficult, but G [Greek] and S [Syriac] are clear and simple. However, G and S are clear and simple in different ways. G has a common word pair (morning and evening) and makes more sense in regard to the story (i.e., she was in the field, not the house). S is simpler because it is shorter and does not contain any of the difficult elements that are in the MT. It seems likely, then, that the MT is original and the preferable reading. G and S both had a Hebrew text like the MT before them, but they used different means to 'fix' it. G changed several difficult words to easier ones that made more sense; S simply omitted several words and combined the two clauses. 

This conclusion is very significant for our exegesis. Did Ruth work in the field and then take a rest? Or did she wait in the house until she had permission from Boaz to work in the field? According to G, she did not rest at all during her day of gleaning! G and S represent particular exegetical perspectives and are themselves a kind of commentary on what they thought the Hebrew text was saying. If the MT is original, as we think, then we must first explain what the foreman is telling Boaz and then how that relates to the rest of the story. One interesting proposal, made by Avi Hurvitz, is that the text is intentionally confused and ungrammatical in order to reflect the foreman’s stammering speech. He is worried that Boaz will be angry that Ruth has been allowed to sit in the house.”^[3]

Block and Brotzman both conclude with the possibility that the story depicts the lead harvester as “stammering” due to worry/fear (something like, “This…her sitting…the house…a little”)—though they imagine different causes for his supposed concern/worry—which to me seems a reasonable take on the evidence. The Hebrew text does seem a bit choppy. And the lead harvester was talking with his boss, after all, which may have been an unnerving experience.

Translation takeaways for translating Ruth 2:7 in Nigeria

This is a back-translation of what the translation team has currently drafted for the last sentence of v7: 

“It is now that she sat down small in the shade so she can rest small.”

My two big takeaways from the above discussion in relation to consulting the team's translation are:

1. Suggest that the team avoid a (lengthy) description of a sitting/resting booth. It is not at all firmed up that the original text indicated that she was in a booth in the field. So, one question for the translators would be where this shade is located, and if it can possibly refer to the shade of the house. A further consideration to this is how the modern translations that impact their language community have rendered this. Many English versions have “shelter” (e.g., NIV, NLT), which suggests they think of her being in the field. I should also ask the team what the Hausa versions (the major regional trade language) have for this verse…
2. I am also interested to know what the translators think that the lead harvester was feeling as he shared this bit of info with his boss in v7f. If there is a way to bring out the nervousness/worry he may have felt, I might suggest they add an ideophone or something…

For more discussion on this complicated textual issue and others in this verse, see the resources cited below and the NET notes on this verse. 

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^[1] Ellis R. Brotzman and Eric J. Tully, Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 153.

^[2] Daniel I. Block, Ruth: The King Is Coming, ed. Daniel I. Block, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015), 128.

^[3] Ellis R. Brotzman and Eric J. Tully, Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction, Second Edition. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic: A Division of Baker Publishing Group, 2016), 153–154.