Good News Translation rightly translates After she had left to go and gather grain. A translation such as “when she got up…” can be misleading, for it might imply that at this very time Boaz ordered his servants to treat her with special consideration, thus suggesting that Ruth was still present when Boaz gave the order to his servants. This, of course, was not the case, and therefore it may be better to translate the first clause as “When Ruth had gotten up to go gather grain” or “After Ruth had gone to gather grain.” One may also employ an independent sentence as a translation of this initial clause: “Ruth went off to glean,” followed by “then Boaz ordered his servants.”
The workers is literally in Hebrew “his young men,” but there is no special emphasis upon the age of Boaz’s workers, and therefore it is better to use some such expression as “his men” or “his servants.”
Ordered is literally in Hebrew “ordered, saying.” The use of two verbs for speaking is typical of Hebrew, but it is not at all necessary to reproduce both in a receptor language.
The direct discourse Boaz ordered the workers, “Let her…” may be changed to indirect discourse if that seems more natural in a receptor language; for example, “Boaz ordered his servants to let her gather grain….”
Let her gather grain renders a verbal form in Hebrew which expresses a possibility, See Joüon, par. 111 and 113. but in most languages this is appropriately indicated as permission: “Let her glean,” “If she wants to, she may glean,” or “Do not stop her from gleaning.” For comments on the expression where the bundles are lying (often translated literally as “among the sheaves”), see the comments on verse 7. In ancient times a reaper would grasp a handful of stalks with one hand and cut it with a sickle held in the other hand. The handfuls were left on the ground, and the women would gather them and bind them into bundles, technically called “sheaves.” These were stood upright on the ground for drying or curing. Later they might be brought to the threshing floor where the grain would be separated by having it beaten out or stamped out by cattle. See also Dalman, op. cit., III, pages 39-40, page 42, pages 48-49; H. Vogelstein, Landwirtschaft in Palästina zur Zeit der Mišnah, 1894, page 61, pages 74-75. Compare also J. G. Wetzstein in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, 1873, page 273. Vulgate etiam si vobiscum metere voluerit (“even if she wants to harvest with you”) seems to have taken haʿamarim personally as a participle of a verb ʿamar. It is interesting to note that such a verb does not occur in Biblical Hebrew, though it is quite common in late Hebrew, where it seems to have the generic sense of “to harvest” and the specific meaning of “to bind and pile sheaves.” See references in Jastrow, s.v. Compare also the reading of the Vetus Latina: inter manuatores.
Normally, the people gleaning in a field would pick up only the heads of grain which were left behind by those who carried the sheaves to the barn or threshing floor. In this instance Ruth was given the special privilege of gathering among the sheaves or bundles or grain, and thus she was able to pick up what would normally have been picked up by the women servants. In this context, therefore, it may be helpful to have a supplementary note explaining precisely what the procedures were in ancient times, and thus the significance of Ruth’s receiving permission to gather grain even where the bundles were standing.
Don’t say anything to stop her refers primarily to verbal rebuke. It is essentially the same type of expression which concludes verse 16. One may render this expression as “don’t tell her not to do so,” “don’t scold her,” or “don’t speak angrily to her.”
Pull out some heads of grain from the bundles states explicitly what the reapers were instructed to do in order to provide Ruth with more grain than she would normally be able to pick up. The “bundle” in this instance would refer to the stalk the harvester held in one hand when he would cut with a sickle. Usually, only what would fall to the ground by chance would be available for those who were gleaning, but in this instance the harvesters get instructions to drop some of the stalks intentionally and leave them for Ruth. In order that this process may be perfectly clear, one may need to translate “pull out some of the heads of grain from the bundles which you have in your hand as you cut them, and leave some stalks for Ruth to pick up.” The admonition to “pull out some heads of grain” is quite emphatic in the Hebrew form, Hebrew has an absolute infinitive followed by an imperfect of the same verb shalal, which occurs only here in the Old Testament. For the absolute infinitive having the form of the construct infinitive, see Joüon, par. 123. The emphasis on the action is stronger when the infinitive is placed before the finite form. See Joüon, par. 123. Septuagint translated the verbal forms twice, probably to mark the two events of “holding in one’s hand” and “throwing sideways.” In the second case, some minuscules have a deviating reading soreusate, from a verb meaning “to heap one thing on another,” which might well be a translation of a Hebrew verb salal (“cast up”). and it can therefore be translated in some languages as “you shall by all means pull out … for her.”
Leave them for her to pick up may need to be somewhat more explicit in some languages as “leave them for her to find and pick up.” One should not imply that the reapers were to be careless in their work so that Ruth would have to pick up what they unintentionally left.
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 .