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Welcome back! This week I reviewed the cross-references available for Ruth 1:13 and 20 and compared four English translations of these two verses. Here’s what I discovered.
Last Week’s Work
CROSS-REFERENCES
- Hand of the Lord/ God (v13). In the Old Testament this seems related to the judgment and punishment God inflicted on Israel’s enemies. For example, God instructed Moses to warn Pharoah that “the hand of the Lord will fall with a very severe plague upon your livestock” if he didn’t release the Israelites (Ex 9:3), and the author of 1 Samuel indicates the Philistines in Gath saw the Lord’s hand against them (1 Samuel 5:9-11). They weren’t the only ones. God’s own people, including Naomi (Ruth 3:13) and even King David (Psalms 32:4, 38:1-3, and 39:10), also felt the disciplining hand of the Lord.
In the New Testament, though, I found the phrase most often in reference to Jesus being at God’s right hand (Mark 16:19, Acts 2:33, 7:55-56, Col 3:1, Hebrews 10:12, 1 Peter 3:22), and, reassuringly, He’s there interceding for us (Romans 8;34). Naomi and her family didn’t have the benefit of Jesus, though. - Almighty (v20).The reference that caught my attention here was Exodus 6:3: I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them.
In this conversation with Moses, God distinguishes his name God Almighty—El Shaddai (“most powerful God”) from Lord—Yahweh (“self-existent, eternal one”). Until I looked at that cross-reference, I didn’t realize Naomi had used two different names for God in her two conversations the Spirit called me to examine! First, she used Yahweh (Hebrew God) in conversation with her Moabite daughters-in-law (v13); then, with the Israelite women of Bethlehem, she spoke of El Shaddai (“most powerful God”) and His chastisement of her and her family (v20). As we continue to work through Ruth, I’ll be curious to see how God is named going forward. - Dealt (v20). The Old Testament passages under this category are predictably, from Job, Psalms, Isaiah, and Lamentations, though I didn’t see a clear connection between any and Naomi’s statement except Lamentations 3:15: “He has filled me with bitterness; he has sated me with wormwood.”
The one New Testament reference was Hebrews 12:11: “For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.” Naomi’s loss of all the men in her family had to have been awfully painful. Yet it seems there might be a silver lining to all this. I guess we’ll have to keep studying this book to see what that is, huh?!
OTHER TRANSLATIONS
This time, I compared verses 13 and 20 of Ruth 1 across four translations: the English Standard Version (ESV), the Amplified Bible (AMP), the New International Version (NIV), and the Good News Translation (GNT).
The first thing I noticed was the ESV is the only translation to use therefore in verse 13, so I believe my conclusion—that its use there wasn’t as a connector between an action and its reason—was a correct one.
Next, also with verse 13, I notice a comparison in the Amplified and NIV translations that I don’t see in the ESV or Good News Translation. Naomi says it’s much more difficult [AMP] or more bitter [NIV] for her than for the daughters-in-law. In the ESV and GNT, I believe Naomi is saying something different: not that her suffering is worse than theirs, but that she feels badly for them that they, too, suffered loss when the Lord was punishing her.
Finally, with verse 20, it appears all the translations I compared are essentially the same.
Dig-In Challenges
It’s hard to believe we’re almost done with another study. This week, let’s
- Read the prayer we created in Step 1.
- ALIGN: Then review our study notes and other work, focusing specifically on what we’ve learned.
- ALIGN: As we consider those “lessons learned,” notice what the Spirit is using to convict us in this study. In other words, where is He showing us misalignment between what we’ve discovered and how we practice our faith?
- ALIGN: Next, we’ll think about a part of this study that offers us a way to correct that misalignment. For me, this has often—but not always—been a verse either from the study text or from one of the cross-references.
- ALIGN: And finally we want to reflect on how we can change our walk or talk (or both) to align more closely with God. To really make this work, I commit to changing something and do my best to act on that commitment every day for at least three weeks.
That may seem like a lot to consider in one week, but my experience has been the Spirit often leads me through steps 2-5 very quickly (though sometimes I have to pray about it more than a couple of times during the week). If you’re working with me, just do what you can. Any study done with the Spirit is good study, my Friend!
Also, I’m looking forward to sharing what the Spirit reveals next week, as well as a preview of our next study text, the final one from our series on miracles of Jesus from last year.