Passage

Ruth 3.1

Book: Ruth · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

1. And Naomi her mother-in-law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

And now is not Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to-night in the threshing-floor. 3. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the threshing-floor, but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. (Ruth 3:1-3, ASV)

WEB

1. Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?

Now isn’t Boaz our kinsman, with whose maidens you were? Behold, he will be winnowing barley tonight on the threshing floor. 3. Therefore wash yourself, anoint yourself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor, but don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. (Ruth 3:1-3, WEB)

KJV

1. Then Naomi her mother in law said unto her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?

And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor. 3. Wash thyself therefore, and anoint thee, and put thy raiment upon thee, and get thee down to the floor: but make not thyself known unto the man, until he shall have done eating and drinking. (Ruth 3:1-3, KJV)

YLT

1. And Naomi her mother-in-law saith to her, 'My daughter, do not I seek for thee rest, that it may be well with thee?

and now, is not Boaz of our acquaintance, with whose young women thou hast been? lo, he is winnowing the threshing-floor of barley to-night, 3. and thou hast bathed, and anointed thyself, and put thy garments upon thee, and gone down to the threshing-floor; let not thyself be known to the man till he complete to eat and to drink; (Ruth 3:1-3, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Naomi, in direct speech
Audience: Ruth, her daughter-in-law
Location: Naomi's home in Beth-lehem
Time period: the days when the judges judged (Ruth 1:1), at the end of the barley and wheat harvests (2:23)

Theological reading

"My daughter, shall I not seek rest for thee, that it may be well with thee?" On the road from Moab Naomi had prayed, "Jehovah grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband" (Ruth 1:9). Now she sets out to secure the thing she prayed for. The KJV tags "rest" in the two verses as H4496 and H4494, two nouns from the same root; in both places it means a settled home in marriage.

The verse marks a change in Naomi. The woman who said "call me Mara" and "Jehovah hath brought me home again empty" (1:20-21) now plans for someone else's good. Her plan, explained in the next three verses, rests on the fact she has learned in chapter 2: "is not Boaz our kinsman?" (3:2).

Prayer and action are not set against each other here. Naomi asked Jehovah for rest for Ruth, and she also takes a costly and risky step toward it. The book presents both as faithful.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

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Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.