Good News Translation shows the order of the sentences of the source text. The Hebrew order is: (1) “don’t be afraid”; (2) “I will do everything you ask”; (3) “all people know that you are a good woman.” However, the object of Ruth’s fear is not the possibility of Boaz’s refusing help to her, but the possibility that the people of the town will oppose her because she is of Moabite origin. See Gerleman, op. cit., ad loc.: “Sie soll auch keine Angst haben, daß man ‘im Tor’ wegen ihrer moabitischen Herkunft Einwände erheben wird.” A change in the order of clauses seems essential in order to make the relation more explicit than in Good News Translation. One may translate, for example: “Dear woman, do not be afraid, for everyone in town knows that you are a good woman. I will do….”

Everyone in town renders a Hebrew expression which is literally “the whole gate of my people.” The gate is mentioned here as the center of the social life of the community. For its importance, see the comments on 4.1 and compare a parallel expression in 4.10. In this type of context “gate” refers to the city, and “the whole gate” is a reference to the whole city in the sense of “all the people of the city” or “all of the citizens.” This expression occurs only here in the Old Testament, but its meaning is quite certain. There seems no reason to think that this is a specific reference to some council of the people, as is suggested by the Smith-Goodspeed translation. It is rare that one can employ a term for “gate” in reference to a city, particularly since in most parts of the world cities no longer have gates. However, in certain ancient translations a term for gate has been retained with certain interesting possibilities of interpretation. A good example of this is the translation of the Vulgate: omnis populus qui habitat intra portas urbis meae. It is not completely clear how the Greek translation has to be evaluated. Septuagint has pasa phulē laou mou, in which phulē (“race, tribe”) could be a defective writing of pulē (“gate”). This is, for example, Gerleman’s interpretation. On the other hand, phulē may have the meaning of “a body of men united by local habitation” (see Liddell-Scott, s.v.), so that the Greek could be translated as “the whole body of my people” (i.e., “townspeople”). Is pulē/phulē an intentional pun of the Greek translator? Compare, however, the Syriac reading: “the whole tribe of our people.”

In Hebrew the adjective fine implies ability, efficiency, and moral worth. New English Bible emphasizes the first aspect of meaning by translating “a capable woman,” but most other translations prefer to indicate the factor of moral worth or value; for example, “a worthy woman,” “a good woman,” or a fine woman. The Targum’s qualification tsaddiqtaʾ presupposes a meaning “pious” in view of the following addition: “and you have the power to bear the yoke of the divine commandments.”

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 .