A Handbook on the Book of Ruth
Overview
What if you were responsible for translating God's Word into a language that never had a Bible before? Can you imagine the burden you would feel to do a good job?
God takes His Word pretty seriously, and you would certainly do everything in your power to make sure that you were not putting words into God's mouth, but that you were providing a text that clearly communicated God's Word as closely to the original as possible.
This challenge to understand the heart of the original Scriptures, in order to put the original text into a new language, was the impetus for the United Bible Societies to create handbooks for Bible translators working on this very thing. The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series is a comprehensive verse-by-verse guide to understanding exactly what is being communicated by the author in the original Scriptures.
- Exegetical, historical, cultural, and linguistic information on the original text
- Verse-by-verse guides
- An essential tool for Bible translators
Top Highlights
“During the time when chiefs ruled the country of Israel’ or ‘… the people of Israel” (Page 6)
“The task of ruling exists with executive power and not with judicial authority.” (Page 6)
“In the Hebrew text of verse 6 the preparation of Naomi to return with her daughters-in-law comes before the statement with regard to the provision of food in Judah. However, as in tev and many other translations, it is probably preferable to reverse the Hebrew order and follow the chronological sequence: (1) Naomi hears that the LORD has given his people good crops, and therefore (2) she gets ready to leave Moab.” (Pages 9–10)
“ famine forces Elimelech and his family to go to Moab,’ this may prove to be unduly long” (Page 5)
“The basic narrative structure of this book has been described by some as illustrating the theme of ‘from emptiness to fullness’; that is to say, the chief characters of the story begin with nothing and end with abundance.* This fundamental theme has sometimes been described simply as ‘from poverty to riches.’ In the very first section (1:1–5) the theme of ‘emptiness’ is introduced, and it is made even more explicit in the second section (1:6–21). In the last verse of this section Naomi states ‘the LORD has brought me back empty,’ or, ‘the LORD has brought me back without a thing.’” (Pages x–1)
- Title: A Handbook on the Book of Ruth
- Authors: Jan de Waard and Eugene A. Nida
- Series: The United Bible Societies' Handbook Series (UBSHS)
- Publisher: United Bible Societies
- Pages: 105