OET interlinear RUTH 2:20

uW Translation Notes:

Note 1 topic: translate-blessing

בָּר֥וּךְ הוּא֙ לַ⁠יהוָ֔ה

blessed he/it to/for=YHWH

Naomi is asking God to bless Boaz. You could express this as either a blessing or a prayer, in whichever way is more natural in your language. Alternate translation: “I pray that he will be blessed by Yahweh”

Note 2 topic: figures-of-speech / activepassive

בָּר֥וּךְ הוּא֙ לַ⁠יהוָ֔ה

blessed he/it to/for=YHWH

If your language does not use this passive form, you could express the idea in active form or in another way that is natural in your language. If you use an active form, you may need to start a new sentence afterward, as in the UST.

Note 3 topic: figures-of-speech / doublenegatives

אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹא־עָזַ֣ב

which/who not forsaken

If it would be clearer in your language, you could use a positive expression to translate this double negative that consists of the negative particle not and the negative word forsaken. Alternate translation: “who has continued to be loyal to”

Note 4 topic: figures-of-speech / pronouns

אֲשֶׁר֙ לֹא־עָזַ֣ב

which/who not forsaken

Here, who could refer to: (1) Yahweh, who has continued to be faithful to the living and the dead by acting through Boaz. (2) Boaz, who is showing faithfulness to Naomi's family by helping Ruth.

Note 5 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

אֶת־הַ⁠חַיִּ֖ים

DOM the,living

Naomi is using the adjective living as a noun to mean those who continue to live, referring to herself and Ruth. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: “with the people who are still living”

Note 6 topic: figures-of-speech / nominaladj

וְ⁠אֶת־הַ⁠מֵּתִ֑ים

and=DOM the,dead

Naomi is using the adjective dead as a noun to mean those who have died. She is referring to her husband and sons. Your language may use adjectives in the same way. If not, you could translate this word with an equivalent phrase. Alternate translation: “and with the people who have already died”

Note 7 topic: figures-of-speech / parallelism

קָר֥וֹב לָ֨⁠נוּ֙ הָ⁠אִ֔ישׁ מִֽ⁠גֹּאֲלֵ֖⁠נוּ הֽוּא

close to/for=us the=man of,redeemers,our he/it

These two sentences mean basically the same thing. The second sentence repeats the meaning of the first using different words in order to emphasize the importance of this information for the story. If it would be helpful to your readers, you could combine the sentences or connect them in a way that shows that the second sentence is repeating the first one, not saying something additional. Alternate translation: “That man is closely related to us, which means that he is one of our kinsman-redeemers” or “That man is closely related to us. Yes, he is one of our kinsman-redeemers”

Note 8 topic: translate-unknown

מִֽ⁠גֹּאֲלֵ֖⁠נוּ

of,redeemers,our

A kinsman-redeemer was a close male relative who had the responsibility to take care of any widows in the family. If one of his brothers died childless, he had the responsibility to marry the widow if she was still of child-bearing age, to raise a child for his brother. He would also reacquire the land his relatives had lost due to poverty and redeem family members who had sold themselves into slavery. See the Introduction for more information.