Core Glossary
Ruth — Core Glossary (Hmong Language Package, extends Romans Baseline v1.0)
This glossary lists every load-bearing term identified in analysis/07_semantic_analysis.md, drawing from every chapter of Ruth (1-4). Terms marked (baseline TM) are reused verbatim from assets/translation_memory.json per the hard rule that established renderings must never be altered. Terms marked (NEW — proposed) are candidate renderings surfaced by this full-book review and require formal Phase 2 TM-revision ratification before becoming permanent, per the governing note in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §10.
A. Terms Reused Exactly from the Baseline Romans TM
| # | English Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX Greek (translit.) | Hmong Rendering (baseline TM, unchanged) | Risk Level | Doctrine(s) | Ruth Chapters | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| B1 | God | Elohim | theos | Vajtswv | Low | 4 (Gentile Inclusion), 5 (Loyalty) | 1, 4 | Ruth 1:16’s “your God my God” clause; reuse exactly. |
| B2 | Lord (YHWH) | YHWH | kyrios | tus Tswv | Low (Critical in context, see D-table) | 1 (Hesed), 5 (Loyalty) | 1, 4 | Ruth 1:17’s oath formula; divine-name substitution forbidden per Romans §3.1 — reuse exactly, never a transliterated divine name. |
| B3 | Death | mavet | thanatos | txoj kev tuag | Low (elevated cultural weight noted, see D-table) | 5 (Loyalty) | 1 | Ruth 1:17 death/burial clause; lexical rendering unchanged, but cultural-weight note attached in analysis §1. |
| B4 | Mercy | (cf. chesed’s LXX gloss) | eleos | txoj kev khuv leej | Medium | 1 (Hesed) — related but distinct | 1, 2 | LXX renders chesed as eleos; baseline mercy term is related but insufficient alone for chesed’s full range — kept distinct, not substituted. |
| B5 | Love | ahev | agapaō | kev hlub | Low | 1 (Hesed), 5 (Loyalty) | 4 | Ruth 4:15, “your daughter-in-law who loves you” — human demonstration of hesed-loyalty. |
| B6 | Redemption | ga’al (related institution) | apolytrōsis (NT parallel; LXX itself uses agchisteuō) | kev txhiv | Medium | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 2, 3, 4 | Base concept reused as the doctrinal anchor for the NEW kinsman-redeemer compound term (see D-table); LXX’s own word (agchisteuō) is a different lexeme, so this is a doctrinal, not lexical, reuse. |
| B7 | Promise / Covenant pledge | (conceptual: covenant loyalty) | epangelia (conceptual parallel) | lus cog tseg | Low | 1 (Hesed) | 1 | Used as a compositional building-block for the NEW hesed term (below), not a direct textual match. |
| B8 | Heir / Inheritance | nachalah | klēronomia | tus qub txeeg qub teg | Low | 6 (Genealogy), 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 4 | Strong positive cultural bridge, already validated in Romans baseline. |
| B9 | Witness | edim | martyres | tus timkhawv | Low | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 4 | Direct, uncomplicated reuse for the gate-elders scene. |
| B10 | Nations / Gentiles (conceptual base) | am / goy | ethnē (conceptual parallel); LXX Ruth uses laos/xenē | lwm Haiv Neeg | Low | 4 (Gentile Inclusion) | 1, 2 | Base noun-root (“haiv neeg”) reused compositionally for Ruth 1:16’s “your people, my people” clause. |
| B11 | Idol | (conceptual: Moab’s gods, contrasted) | eidōlon (conceptual parallel) | dab mlom | High | 4 (Gentile Inclusion) | 1 | Not textually present in Ruth but essential background for teaching the force of Ruth’s renunciation of Moabite religion in 1:16. |
| B12 | Power (divine) | (root of Shaddai’s traditional gloss) | dynamis (conceptual parallel) | Vajtswv hwjchim (mandatory qualifier pattern) | High | 3 (Providence) | 1 | Qualifier-pattern reused for the NEW “Shaddai” term below; bare hwjchim remains forbidden. |
| B13 | Kingdom / covenant people (conceptual) | am | laos | (supports B10 above) | Low | 4 | 1 | — |
| B14 | Grace (salvific, unmerited) | — | charis | txiaj ntsim | Critical | (cross-reference only) | 2 | Forbidden substitution alert: LXX Ruth 2:2,10,13 uses the identical Greek word χάρις for Ruth’s ordinary social “favor” request. txiaj ntsim must NOT be used for this Ruth context — see NEW “favor” entry in D-table. |
B. New Terms Surfaced by Ruth — Proposed Renderings Pending Phase 2 TM Ratification
| # | English Term | Hebrew (translit.) | LXX Greek (translit.) | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Proposed Hmong Rendering | Risk Level | Doctrine(s) | Chapters | Rationale / Collision Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N1 | Hesed (covenant loving-kindness) | chesed | eleos | Steadfast, loyal, covenant-bound love/kindness beyond obligation | loving-kindness, steadfast love, loyalty, faithfulness, mercy, grace | ”kindness” (KJV/ESV/NIV/NASB); “loyal love,” “covenant faithfulness” (study Bibles) | txoj kev hlub ruaj khov raws li lo lus cog tseg | Critical | 1 (Hesed) — anchor doctrine of the whole curriculum | 1, 2, 3 | No single baseline term captures hesed’s full range; risk of flattening into generic kev hlub (loses covenant-obligation force), collapsing into txiaj ntsim (Critical-locked for salvific grace only — forbidden), or txoj kev khuv leej (mercy alone, loses steadfast-loyalty force). Compound built from three already-safe components to avoid all three collisions. |
| N2 | Kinsman-Redeemer (go’el) | go’el / ga’al | agchisteus / agchisteuō | Near-relative holding the legal right/duty to redeem land, persons, or lineage | redeemer, near kinsman, guardian-redeemer, closest relative (encompasses land-redemption, person-redemption, and levirate marriage) | “near kinsman” (KJV); “redeemer” (ESV); “guardian-redeemer” (NIV); “closest relative” (NASB) | tus kwvtij uas muaj cai thiab luag num txhiv | High | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) — named curriculum doctrine | 2, 3, 4 | Built on baseline-safe kev txhiv (redemption) plus kinship-qualifier; must be kept phonetically/visually distinct from txiv neeb (shaman) — unrelated word, but flagged for print/speech-clarity caution. Etymologically distinct from NT apolytrōsis; teach as complementary type, not identical term. |
| N3 | Miqreh (chance/happenstance, providence-irony) | miqreh | peripiptō (verbal) | An unplanned occurrence; “she happened to come” | chance, hap, fortune, coincidence — used ironically, since the narrative reveals it as providence | ”her hap was” (KJV); “she happened to come” (ESV/NASB); “as it turned out” (NIV) | neutral descriptive phrase avoiding hmoov-family vocabulary entirely; e.g. “nws txawm tuaj cuag tau…” (she happened/came to arrive at…) | Critical | 3 (Providence) | 2 | Direct collision risk with the Romans baseline’s permanently forbidden hmoov (fate) vocabulary for personal divine action; text’s surface “chance” language must never be rendered in a way that reads as impersonal fatalism, since the narrative’s entire point is to subvert that reading. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED before finalizing phrase.] |
| N4 | Shaddai (the Almighty, providence-lament context) | Shaddai | ho hikanos | Traditional “Almighty”; covenant-patriarchal divine title | Almighty, All-sufficient One, sovereign power | ”the Almighty” (KJV/ESV/NIV/NASB) | Vajtswv uas muaj Hwjchim Loj Kawg Nkaus | High | 3 (Providence) | 1 | Must always pair “Vajtswv” with “hwjchim” per Romans mandatory-qualifier rule; bare hwjchim forbidden (identical to shaman’s ritual power). |
| N5 | Chen / “favor” (ordinary social favor, NOT salvific grace) | chen | charis | Favor, grace, kind regard (everyday social idiom) | goodwill, kind treatment, social favor — non-technical, non-soteriological | ”find favor” (all major versions) | kev tau txais kev hlub tshua (or: kev pom zoo ntsoov) | Critical | (cross-cutting; guards Doctrine 1 & 3 boundaries) | 2 | Forbidden substitution: txiaj ntsim must never render this term. LXX uses the identical Greek word (charis) the Romans baseline Critical-locks for salvific grace; Ruth’s usage is an ordinary ANE social-petition idiom and must be kept lexically separate to avoid importing soteriological weight onto Ruth’s simple request to Boaz. |
| N6 | ”Your people, my people / your God, my God” (conversion-oath formula) | ammekh ammi / elohayikh elohai | laos… / theos… | Renunciation of one covenant-people/deity identity for another | vow of total ethnic-religious re-identification | ”your people shall be my people, your God my God” (all versions) | koj haiv neeg yuav yog kuv haiv neeg; koj tus Vajtswv yuav yog kuv tus Vajtswv | Medium (people clause) / High doctrinal weight (God clause, though lexically Low-risk Vajtswv) | 1 (Hesed), 4 (Gentile Inclusion), 5 (Loyalty) | 1 | Core Passage clause; the “God” clause is the theological hinge of Ruth’s conversion and must never be softened into a merely social statement. |
| N7 | Oath formula: “May the LORD do so to me, and more also” | ya’aseh YHWH li koh vekhoh | tade poiēsai moi kyrios kai tade prostheiē | Self-imprecatory covenant oath naming YHWH as enforcer | ANE legal oath-curse formula | ”The LORD do so to me, and more also” (KJV/ESV/NASB); “May the LORD deal with me” (NIV) | thov kom tus Tswv ua li ntawd rau kuv, thiab tseem ntxiv dua li ntawd rau kuv | Critical | 1 (Hesed), 5 (Loyalty) | 1 | Core Passage clause; risk of assimilation into existing Hmong customary oath/curse-before-spirits patterns unless explicitly taught as invoking Israel’s God alone, replacing (not supplementing) any Moabite deity-oath framework. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED.] |
| N8 | Nokriyyah / foreigner (specific Moabite stigma) | nokriyyah | xenē | A female foreigner outside covenant membership | legal-social outsider status, here with specific Moabite-exclusion background (Deut 23:3-6) | “foreigner” (all versions) | tus poj niam txawv teb chaws | Medium | 4 (Gentile Inclusion) | 2 | Comprehension/teaching gap regarding Moabite-specific exclusion history; not a Hmong traditional-religion collision. |
| N9 | Kanaph / “wings” (divine protection metaphor) | kanaph | pteryx | A bird’s wing; metaphorical shelter | protective covering, refuge | ”wings” (all versions) | descriptive image of a hen/bird sheltering young under its wings | Medium | 3 (Providence), 4 (Gentile Inclusion) | 2 | Note dual usage: recurs in 3:9 with an added marital sense (N10) — keep interpretively distinct in teaching. |
| N10 | Kanaph / “garment corner” (marriage-proposal symbol) | kanaph | pteryx | The corner/hem of a cloak | symbolic act of claiming/betrothing/protecting | ”spread your garment/skirt/covering” (varies by version) | descriptive rendering of the garment-corner gesture, with mandatory teaching note linking back to N9 | Medium-High | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer), 3 (Providence) | 3 | Propriety-sensitivity risk if presented without cultural framing; text itself insists on propriety (3:13-14). |
| N11 | Threshing floor scene (“uncover his feet,” “lie down”) | goren / gillah margelot / shakhav | halōn / apokalypseis… / koimaō | Night-time approach and formal claim-gesture at the threshing floor | euphemistic, legally-coded courtship/claim sequence, not sexual | euphemistic phrasing retained in all major versions, usually footnoted | literal rendering + mandatory propriety-affirming teaching note | Medium | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer), 1 (Hesed) | 3 | Register/comprehension/propriety risk, not a traditional-religion collision. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED on final phrasing.] |
| N12 | Eshet chayil / “woman of noble character” | eshet chayil | gynē dynameōs | Woman of strength, competence, moral worth | practical competence + moral integrity + social honor | ”virtuous woman” (KJV); “worthy woman” (ESV); “woman of noble character” (NIV); “woman of excellence” (NASB) | tus poj niam uas muaj lub npe zoo thiab siab ncaj | Low-Medium | 1 (Hesed), 4 (Gentile Inclusion) | 3 | Comprehension-level only; positive term, no collision. |
| N13 | ”Raise up the name of the dead” (levirate purpose clause) | lehaqim et-shem hamet | anastēsai to onoma tou tethnēkotos | To continue a deceased man’s lineage/name via levirate marriage | legal-genealogical lineage-preservation; verb root shared with resurrection vocabulary | ”perpetuate/maintain/raise up the name of the dead” (varies) | kom tus txiv tuag lub npe thiab nws tej cuab tam nyob mus li | Medium | 6 (Genealogy), 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 4 | Positive bridge via Hmong clan-widow-remarriage custom (structurally analogous, not identical); note unplanned but real typological resonance with NT resurrection-vocabulary (anistēmi family). |
| N14 | Sandal-removal legal custom | na’al | hypodēma | Footwear-based legal ratification gesture | symbolic transfer/waiver of redemption right | ”drew off his shoe/sandal” (all versions, footnoted) | literal rendering + mandatory explanatory footnote | Low-Medium | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 4 | Comprehension gap only; no Hmong equivalent custom exists. |
| N15 | Blessing formula (fertility/household prosperity, Rachel/Leah/Perez/Tamar) | barakh | eulogeō | Ordinary formal blessing wishing fertility/prosperity | material/household blessing, invoking matriarchal precedent | ”bless” (all versions) | koob hmoov (baseline TM, reused within its sanctioned scope) | Medium | 1 (Hesed) — boundary-keeping note | 4 | Correct sanctioned use of koob hmoov per Romans baseline’s own carve-out for ordinary material blessing; must be explicitly distinguished in teaching from N1 (hesed) and from B14 (txiaj ntsim), which this must never blend into. |
| N16 | Naomi / Mara name-wordplay | Naomi / Mara | Nōemin / Mara (transliterated, pun lost) | “My pleasantness” vs. “Bitter” | proper-name pun dramatizing theological crisis | transliterated + footnoted in all versions | transliteration + mandatory first-occurrence footnote (modeled on baseline abba_father convention) | Low-Medium | 3 (Providence) | 1 | Comprehension-only; footnote required or the pun (and its narrative resolution by ch. 4) is lost. |
| N17 | Bethlehem, “house of bread” | Beit Lechem | Bēthleem | ”House of bread” | ironic place-name framing the famine/harvest narrative arc | transliterated “Bethlehem,” often footnoted | transliteration + mandatory first-occurrence footnote | Low-Medium | 3 (Providence), 6 (Genealogy) | 1, 4 | Footnote required to preserve irony and Christological (birthplace) resonance for Doctrine 6. |
| N18 | Shuv / “return, turn back” (structural keyword) | shuv | apostrephō / hypostrephō / epistrephō | To turn back, return | repeated structural keyword dramatizing the Moab-vs-Israel decision point | ”return/turn back” (all versions) | rov qab (consistent repetition preserved across the chapter) | Low | 4 (Gentile Inclusion), 5 (Loyalty) | 1 | Stylistic-consistency note only; no collision, but repetition pattern should be preserved for structural effect. |
| N19 | ”Kinsman” (ordinary, non-technical, ch. 2 preview) | moda’ | gnōrimos | An acquaintance/relative with recognized social relationship | ordinary kinship term, precursor to the technical go’el designation | ”kinsman” (KJV); “relative” (ESV/NIV/NASB) | tus kwvtij | Low | 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) | 2 | Ordinary vocabulary; reserve the full technical N2 phrase for go’el’s formal legal activation in ch. 3-4. |
| N20 | Genealogy / toledot formula and “Obed” | toledot; Oved | geneseis; Ōbēd | Formal genealogical record; “Obed” = “serving/worshiping” | standard biblical genealogical literary form; proper name | ”these are the generations of…” (all versions); “Obed” transliterated | transliterated proper names (Auved/Yexi/Davi pending confirmation) + mandatory Matthew 1:1 cross-reference note | Medium | 6 (Genealogy) — doctrinal climax | 4 | [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm existing Hmong OT transliteration standards for Obed/Jesse/David/Boaz/Perez before finalizing]; γένεσις root directly links to Matt 1:1’s genealogy of Christ — teaching emphasis mandatory or Doctrine 6’s climax is lost on readers. |
C. Risk-Tier Summary (per baseline risk_tier_definitions)
- Critical (5 new terms): N1 (Hesed), N3 (Miqreh/chance-providence), N5 (Chen/favor — direct χάρις collision), N7 (Oath formula naming YHWH); plus cross-referenced B2 (Lord/YHWH) and B14 (Grace, guard-rail only).
- High (3 new terms): N2 (Kinsman-Redeemer), N4 (Shaddai), N10 (garment-corner marriage symbol, Medium-High).
- Medium (10 new terms): N6 (people/God clause, people-half only), N8, N9, N11, N13, N14, N15, N16 (Low-Medium), N17 (Low-Medium), N20.
- Low / Low-Medium (2 new terms): N12, N18, N19.
D. Escalation Notes for Phase 2
All Critical and High risk terms in section B above require the same human-theologian pre-publication review routing established in assets/doctrine_risk_registry.json’s convention, and must not receive alternate renderings without a formal TM-revision review once ratified. Terms flagged [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED] inline in 07_semantic_analysis.md must not be silently resolved during Phase 2 generation; they must be surfaced to a human theologian and, where relevant, a native Hmong speaker familiar with existing Hmong Old Testament translation conventions, per the escalation rules already established in 12_ai_translation_requirements.md §9.
Critical Risk Terms
Grace
Approved rendering: txiaj ntsim
Transliteration: charis
Doctrine: (cross-reference guard-rail only — not textually rendered in Ruth)
Rejected alternatives: koob hmoov (fortune/blessing) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for salvific grace, per Romans baseline
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly, functioning here as a forbidden-substitution guard-rail. The LXX uses this identical Greek word (charis) for Ruth’s ordinary social ‘favor’ request (2:2, 2:10, 2:13); txiaj ntsim must NEVER be used to render that request — see chen_favor_ordinary_social below, which is the correct, formally distinct rendering.
Hesed Covenant Loving Kindness
Approved rendering: txoj kev hlub ruaj khov raws li lo lus cog tseg
Transliteration: chesed (Heb.) / eleos (LXX)
Doctrine: Hesed (Covenant Loving-kindness)
Rejected alternatives: bare kev hlub (love) — rejected, loses covenant-obligation force entirely, txiaj ntsim (grace) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, Critical-locked exclusively for unmerited salvific favor and must never be reused for an interpersonal-covenant virtue, koob hmoov (fate/fortune-blessing) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN, would invert steadfast covenant loyalty into a merit-and-luck transaction, the same inversion the Romans baseline forbids for charis
NEW ENTRY — anchor doctrine term for the entire curriculum (Ruth 1:8; 2:20; 3:10; echoed 4:14-15). No single Hmong lexical item captures hesed’s triple range (affection + steadfastness + covenant obligation); this compound is deliberately built from three already-safe baseline components (kev hlub=love, lus cog tseg=promise/covenant, ruaj khov=firm/steadfast) so it cannot collapse into any of the three collision paths above. Getting this term wrong flattens or inverts the entire book’s theology, not merely isolated verses. Must read identically at all three structural high points to preserve the narrative’s deliberate parallelism (Naomi’s hesed-blessing on the daughters-in-law, 1:8; Boaz’s hesed toward Ruth and the dead, 2:20; Boaz’s commendation of Ruth’s hesed exceeding her first act, 3:10).
Miqreh Chance Providence
Approved rendering: neutral descriptive phrase deliberately avoiding hmoov-family vocabulary, e.g. ‘nws txawm tuaj cuag tau…’ (she happened/came to arrive at…)
Transliteration: miqreh (Heb.) / peripiptō (LXX, verbal)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
Rejected alternatives: any hmoov-family (fate/luck/chance) vocabulary — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN; identical collision risk to the Romans baseline’s election_choose prohibition, here approached from the inverse narrative direction since the source text’s own surface language uses chance-vocabulary
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 2:3, ‘she happened to come to the field of Boaz,’ is the single highest-risk clause in the book. The narrator deliberately uses ‘chance’ vocabulary at the theologically decisive hinge-point, later retrospectively revealed (2:20) as God’s unseen providential guidance. A mandatory forward-pointing teaching note anchoring to 2:20’s disclosure is required at every occurrence, or the doctrine collapses into confirmed impersonal fatalism. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm chosen phrase carries no unintended hmoov connotation in any regional idiom.]
Chen Favor Ordinary Social
Approved rendering: kev tau txais kev hlub tshua
Transliteration: chen (Heb.) / charis (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting (Hesed and Providence boundary-keeping)
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) — PERMANENTLY FORBIDDEN for this referent; the LXX’s identical Greek word (charis) is Critical-locked in the Romans baseline for unmerited salvific grace only, and using it here would wrongly import full soteriological weight onto Ruth’s ordinary ANE social petition to Boaz
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 2:2, 2:10, 2:13, ‘find favor in your eyes.’ This is the single highest systemic cross-book risk in the whole Language Package: any Phase 2 generation process trained on the Romans TM will reflexively reach for txiaj ntsim since it is the ‘correct’ answer for charis everywhere else in the corpus. Ruth is the one context where that reflex must be explicitly overridden. Kept formally distinct from both grace (txiaj ntsim) and mercy (txoj kev khuv leej).
Oath Formula Lord Do So
Approved rendering: thov kom tus Tswv ua li ntawd rau kuv, thiab tseem ntxiv dua li ntawd rau kuv
Transliteration: ya’aseh YHWH li koh vekhoh, koh yosif (Heb.) / tade poiēsai moi kyrios kai tade prostheiē (LXX)
Doctrine: Loyalty and Faithfulness
Rejected alternatives: any generic/impersonal wish-formula omitting ‘tus Tswv’ as the named enforcer — rejected, collapses the conversion-oath’s force into vague wish-language, assimilation to Hmong customary spirit-invoked oath/curse formulas — rejected, must be taught as replacement, not supplementation, of that ritual framework, mirroring the Romans baseline’s pehawm replacement-not-addition convention
NEW ENTRY — Core Passage clause, Ruth 1:17, a self-imprecatory covenant oath naming YHWH (rendered tus Tswv) as guarantor/enforcer. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm the oath-formula phrasing does not echo any existing Hmong customary curse/oath idiom associated with spirit-invocation.] Critical because Hmong traditional religion has a live, real-world ritual template (ancestor/spirit-invoked oath-curses) into which this verse could otherwise be assimilated.
High Risk Terms
Idol
Approved rendering: dab mlom
Transliteration: (conceptual: Chemosh, Moab’s national deity); eidōlon (conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: The Inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Redemptive Plan
Rejected alternatives: generic ‘statue’ softening — rejected
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Not textually present as a word in Ruth, but essential background for teaching the true force of Ruth’s renunciation in 1:16 — without naming what she turns FROM, the conversion-oath’s weight collapses into a vague relocation.
Power
Approved rendering: Vajtswv hwjchim
Transliteration: (conceptual root of Shaddai); dynamis (conceptual parallel)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
Rejected alternatives: bare, unqualified hwjchim — FORBIDDEN, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly including its mandatory qualifier pattern. Directly underlies shaddai_the_almighty below.
Kinsman Redeemer Goel
Approved rendering: tus kwvtij uas muaj cai thiab luag num txhiv
Transliteration: go’el / ga’al (Heb.) / agchisteus / agchisteuō (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
Rejected alternatives: bare ‘tus kwvtij’ (ordinary kinsman) — rejected for the technical legal sense; under-marks the legal-right-plus-duty dimension, reserved instead for the informal ch.2 preview mention (see kinsman_ordinary_moda), bare ‘kev txhiv’ alone — rejected, over-generalizes and loses the kinship-legal-right dimension, sounding like any ordinary act of buying something back
NEW ENTRY — the single most important new term in this Language Package given the named curriculum doctrine ‘The Kinsman-Redeemer’ (Ruth 2:20; 3:9, 3:12-13; 4:1-10). Built on the baseline-safe kev txhiv (redemption) root plus a kinship qualifier so it reads as kinship-legal redemption specifically, distinct from yet typologically pointing toward Christ’s ransom-price redemption. MANDATORY: the kinship term chosen (kwvtij) must be kept phonetically/visually distinct from txiv neeb (shaman) — an unrelated but phonetically adjacent term already flagged for avoidance in Hmong Christian ministry vocabulary. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm final phrase reads clearly as kinship-relative with zero aural confusion with txiv neeb across regional Hmong dialect pronunciation.] Must always be used in full at its formally activated legal occurrences (ch.3-4); never abbreviate to the ordinary term at those points.
Shaddai The Almighty
Approved rendering: Vajtswv uas muaj Hwjchim Loj Kawg Nkaus
Transliteration: Shaddai (Heb.) / ho hikanos (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
Rejected alternatives: bare unqualified ‘hwjchim’ — FORBIDDEN per Romans baseline, identical to a shaman’s (txiv neeb) ritual power
NEW ENTRY — Naomi’s bitterness-lament title (Ruth 1:20-21). Must always pair ‘Vajtswv’ with ‘hwjchim’ per the Romans baseline’s mandatory-qualifier rule. High risk specifically because this title is invoked in an emotionally raw, blame-laden register — precisely the register where a qualifier is likeliest to be dropped for brevity/impact, producing an accidental shamanic-power reading.
Conversion Oath God Clause
Approved rendering: koj tus Vajtswv yuav yog kuv tus Vajtswv
Transliteration: ve’lohayikh elohai (Heb.) / ho theos sou theos mou (LXX)
Doctrine: The Inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Redemptive Plan
Rejected alternatives: any softened social-only reading (e.g. ‘I will live the way your people live’) — rejected, must preserve the first-person exclusive-religious-allegiance confession
NEW ENTRY — Core Passage clause, Ruth 1:16, the theological center of the whole oath. Lexically reuses Low-risk ‘Vajtswv’ but flagged High for doctrinal weight: this is the Old Testament’s clearest pre-exilic individual Gentile conversion confession and must never be softened into a merely social statement. Must be taught alongside the idol (dab mlom) entry so the implied renunciation of Moabite dab-worship is not lost.
Medium Risk Terms
Mercy
Approved rendering: txoj kev khuv leej
Transliteration: eleos
Doctrine: Hesed (Covenant Loving-kindness)
Rejected alternatives: txiaj ntsim (grace) used interchangeably for mercy — rejected, distinct theological emphases
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. This is the LXX’s own chosen gloss for chesed (Ruth 1:8, 2:20) but is narrower than the Hebrew term’s full range — captures compassion toward the miserable but not steadfast covenant loyalty. Kept lexically distinct from, and never a full substitute for, hesed_covenant_loving_kindness.
Redemption
Approved rendering: kev txhiv
Transliteration: apolytrōsis (NT parallel); LXX Ruth itself uses agchisteuō
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Functions in Ruth as the doctrinal (not lexical) root underlying kinsman_redeemer_goel below. The LXX’s own word for Ruth’s institution (agchisteuō, kinship-legal-right redemption) is etymologically distinct from the NT’s ransom-price term (apolytrōsis); teach as complementary facets of one typology, never as identical terms.
Conversion Oath People Clause
Approved rendering: koj haiv neeg yuav yog kuv haiv neeg
Transliteration: ammekh ammi (Heb.) / ho laos sou laos mou (LXX)
Doctrine: The Inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Redemptive Plan
Rejected alternatives: lwm Haiv Neeg (Gentiles/outsiders) — rejected, inappropriate here since Ruth is renouncing outsider-status, not being labeled one
NEW ENTRY — Core Passage clause, Ruth 1:16. Must always be rendered grammatically parallel to, and immediately adjacent to, conversion_oath_god_clause below as a single indivisible confession — never split across separate sentences or lessons. Hmong’s own strong clan/lineage (haiv/xeem) identity categories can aid comprehension via the known concept of clan-adoption but could also flatten this into a merely social tribe-change if taught in isolation from the God-clause.
Nokriyyah Foreigner
Approved rendering: tus poj niam txawv teb chaws
Transliteration: nokriyyah (Heb.) / xenē (LXX)
Doctrine: The Inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Redemptive Plan
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 2:10, Boaz’s astonished acknowledgment of Ruth’s outsider status. Requires a teaching note on the specific Moabite exclusion background (Deut 23:3-6); comprehension/teaching gap only, not a traditional-religion collision.
Wings Divine Protection
Approved rendering: tis noog uas thaiv thiab npog (descriptive hen/bird-sheltering-young image)
Transliteration: kanaph (Heb.) / pteryx (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 2:12, Boaz’s blessing on Ruth for taking refuge under YHWH’s ‘wings.’ Natural, widely intelligible Hmong agrarian image. Note dual usage: the same base word recurs in Ruth 3:9 with an added marital-proposal sense (garment_corner_marriage_symbol) — must be kept interpretively distinct in teaching even though the same base image is used.
Threshing Floor Scene
Approved rendering: mus rau ntawm qhov chaw ntaus qoob thaum hmo ntuj, qhib tej pam ntawm nws txhais taw thiab pw ntawm qhov ntawd (raws li kevcai thov txhiv) + mandatory propriety-affirming teaching note
Transliteration: goren / gillah margelot / shakhav (Heb.) / halōn / apokalypseis ta pros podōn autou / koimaō (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 3:3-4, 3:7-9, 3:13-14, the night-time approach and formal claim-gesture at the threshing floor, explicitly affirmed by the text itself as proper, not a sexual encounter. Register/comprehension/propriety risk, not a traditional-religion collision. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm chosen phrasing neither introduces unintended sexual connotation nor loses the custom’s legal-symbolic meaning.]
Raise Up Name Of Dead Levirate
Approved rendering: kom tus txiv tuag lub npe thiab nws tej cuab tam nyob mus li
Transliteration: lehaqim et-shem hamet al-nachalato (Heb.) / anastēsai to onoma tou tethnēkotos epi tēs klēronomias autou (LXX)
Doctrine: Genealogy Pointing to David and Christ
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 4:5, 4:10, the legal-genealogical purpose clause of levirate marriage. Positive structural (not identical) bridge via Hmong clan-widow-remarriage custom. Note the unplanned but real typological resonance: the Hebrew/Greek verb ‘raise up’ (qum/anistēmi) is the same verb-family later used for resurrection in the New Testament — flag for Doctrine 6 teaching.
Blessing Formula Fertility Household
Approved rendering: koob hmoov
Transliteration: barakh (Heb.) / eulogeō (LXX)
Doctrine: Hesed (Covenant Loving-kindness) — boundary-keeping note only
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 4:11-12, the elders’/townspeople’s ordinary formal blessing on the new marriage, invoking Rachel, Leah, and the Perez-Tamar precedent, wishing fertility/household prosperity. This is a correct, sanctioned use of koob hmoov per the Romans baseline’s own carve-out (‘koob hmoov reserved exclusively for ordinary material blessing contexts, never for salvific grace’). Medium risk is purely boundary-keeping: must be explicitly fenced from hesed_covenant_loving_kindness and from grace/txiaj ntsim in all teaching, so this correct instance never becomes a gateway for reintroducing koob hmoov into either of those Critical-locked domains.
Genealogy Toledot Obed
Approved rendering: transliterated proper names + genealogical formula (e.g. ‘Auved yug Yexi, Yexi yug Davi’) + mandatory Matthew 1:1 cross-reference note
Transliteration: toledot / Oved (Heb.) / geneseis / Ōbēd (LXX)
Doctrine: Genealogy Pointing to David and Christ
Rejected alternatives: ad hoc invented transliterations independent of the existing Hmong Old Testament tradition — rejected; must confirm against Vaj Lug Kub Npaiv Npaum standard spellings first
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 4:17-22, the doctrinal climax of the book: ’…Obed fathered Jesse, Jesse fathered David,’ using the same Greek genealogical root (genesis/gennaō) as Matthew 1:1’s genealogy of Jesus Christ. [TRANSLATOR REVIEW NEEDED: confirm standard existing Hmong OT transliterations for Obed/Jesse/Boaz/Perez before finalizing.] The mandatory Matthew 1:1 cross-reference note is required at every occurrence — without it, Doctrine 6’s entire payoff silently disappears even though no lexical error is detectable in the text itself.
Gleaning Law
Approved rendering: kev khaws tej qoob loo seem tseg rau cov pluag thiab cov txawv teb chaws
Transliteration: leket (Heb.) / syllegō (LXX, verbal)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 2:2-3, the Mosaic legal provision (Lev 19:9-10; 23:22) through which Ruth meets Boaz — the ordinary legal-economic mechanism through which God’s providence operates. No codified Hmong legal equivalent, though communal harvest-sharing is agrarian-intelligible; comprehension-level teaching point only.
Low Risk Terms
God
Approved rendering: Vajtswv
Transliteration: Elohim (Heb.) / theos (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: Ntuj (impersonal sky/heaven) — rejected, lacks personal deity sense, dab (spirit) — rejected, denotes false/lesser spirit
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Lexically Low risk but carries High doctrinal weight at Ruth 1:16 (‘your God, my God’) as a first-person confession of exclusive allegiance against Moab’s national deity — see conversion_oath_god_clause below.
Lord
Approved rendering: tus Tswv
Transliteration: YHWH (Heb.) / kyrios (LXX)
Doctrine: General / Cross-cutting
Rejected alternatives: transliterated divine name (e.g. ‘Yehauvas’) — FORBIDDEN, per Romans package §3.1 precedent
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Used throughout Ruth to render YHWH (LXX kyrios). Critical in the specific context of Ruth 1:17’s self-curse oath — see oath_formula_lord_do_so below; the mandatory-review flag there applies to the oath’s usage, not to this base rendering.
Death
Approved rendering: txoj kev tuag
Transliteration: mavet (Heb.) / thanatos (LXX)
Doctrine: Loyalty and Faithfulness
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly (lexical rendering unchanged). CULTURAL-WEIGHT ELEVATION NOTE for Ruth: burial and ancestral-clan-grouping carry substantially higher weight in Hmong culture than in the Romans context; Ruth’s forfeiture of clan-burial-reunion (1:17) should be taught with a dedicated note connecting this to the cost of covenant conversion.
Love
Approved rendering: kev hlub
Transliteration: ahev (Heb.) / agapaō (LXX)
Doctrine: Loyalty and Faithfulness
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Used for Ruth’s human love toward Naomi (4:15) as the fruit/demonstration of hesed-loyalty; must be taught as narrower than the full hesed doctrine term (hesed_covenant_loving_kindness) and never substituted for it.
Promise
Approved rendering: lus cog tseg
Transliteration: epangelia (conceptual parallel; no single Hebrew lexeme in Ruth)
Doctrine: Hesed (Covenant Loving-kindness)
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Used compositionally as one of three baseline-safe components underlying the hesed_covenant_loving_kindness compound term; not a direct textual match to any single Ruth word.
Nations Gentiles
Approved rendering: lwm Haiv Neeg
Transliteration: am / goy (Heb.); ethnē (conceptual parallel; LXX Ruth itself uses laos/xenē)
Doctrine: The Inclusion of Gentiles in God’s Redemptive Plan
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. The noun-root ‘haiv neeg’ is reused compositionally in conversion_oath_people_clause below; the full phrase ‘lwm Haiv Neeg’ is NOT applied directly to Ruth after her oath, since she is renouncing outsider status, not being described as a permanent outsider.
Heir
Approved rendering: tus qub txeeg qub teg
Transliteration: nachalah (Heb.) / klēronomos, klēronomia (LXX)
Doctrine: Genealogy Pointing to David and Christ
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Strong positive cultural bridge via Hmong lineage-inheritance custom; applies to Obed as heir and to the inheritance-preservation function of the kinsman-redeemer transaction (Ruth 4:1-10).
Witness
Approved rendering: tus timkhawv
Transliteration: edim (Heb.) / martyres (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
Inherited from Romans package, reused exactly. Direct, uncomplicated reuse for the gate-elders scene (Ruth 4:9, 4:11).
Kinsman Ordinary Moda
Approved rendering: tus kwvtij
Transliteration: moda’ (Heb.) / gnōrimos (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
NEW ENTRY — ordinary, non-technical kinship term for Boaz’s introduction (Ruth 2:1) prior to the go’el institution’s formal legal activation in ch.3-4. Must not be conflated with, or substituted for, kinsman_redeemer_goel once the legal claim is formally activated.
Cling Hold Fast
Approved rendering: nrog nkaus / tuav ruaj
Transliteration: davaq (Heb.) / kollaō (LXX)
Doctrine: Loyalty and Faithfulness
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 1:14, the physical-attachment verb marking the narrative decision-point for covenant loyalty (Ruth clinging vs. Orpah departing). Concrete image transfers cleanly into Hmong idiom; no collision with traditional religion.
Shuv Return Turn Back
Approved rendering: rov qab
Transliteration: shuv (Heb.) / apostrephō / hypostrephō / epistrephō (LXX)
Doctrine: Loyalty and Faithfulness
NEW ENTRY — repeated structural keyword throughout Ruth ch.1 (~12x) dramatizing the Moab-vs-Israel decision point, resolved by Ruth’s single refusal (1:16-17). Stylistic-consistency requirement: this repetition pattern must be preserved consistently and not varied for literary elegance, so the Hebrew original’s keyword-density remains perceptible in Hmong.
Famine
Approved rendering: kev tshaib nqhis / kev tsis muaj qoob loo
Transliteration: ra’av (Heb.) / limos (LXX)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 1:1, the famine in Bethlehem (‘house of bread’) driving the whole narrative into motion. Concrete, universally intelligible hardship vocabulary; no collision. Establishes the providence-irony resolved later at the barley harvest (ch.2) and Bethlehem’s meaning (bethlehem_house_of_bread).
Widow
Approved rendering: poj ntsuam
Transliteration: almanah (Heb.) / chēra (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 1:1-5, the shared social-legal status of Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah establishing their vulnerability and driving the kinsman-redeemer plot. Stable existing Hmong social term; no collision. Foundational identity-term for Doctrines 2 (Kinsman-Redeemer) and 3 (Providence).
Medium-High Risk Terms
Garment Corner Marriage Symbol
Approved rendering: ceg tsho / qab tsho uas thaij npog (descriptive garment-corner gesture) + mandatory teaching note linking to wings_divine_protection
Transliteration: kanaph (Heb.) / pteryx (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 3:9, Ruth’s formal, legally-coded marriage-proposal request to Boaz. Propriety-sensitivity risk if presented without cultural framing (could read as scandalous rather than a formal proposal). Requires mandatory teaching note preserving the 2:12/3:9 wordplay link (God’s providential shelter fulfilled in human/marital form) and affirming the request’s textually-insisted propriety (3:13-14).
Low-Medium Risk Terms
Eshet Chayil Woman Of Noble Character
Approved rendering: tus poj niam uas muaj lub npe zoo thiab siab ncaj
Transliteration: eshet chayil (Heb.) / gynē dynameōs (LXX)
Doctrine: Hesed (Covenant Loving-kindness)
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 3:11, Boaz’s public affirmation of Ruth’s already-known reputation. Comprehension-level only; positive term reinforcing that Ruth’s hesed-driven loyalty has earned her honored, not merely tolerated, standing in Israel.
Sandal Removal Custom
Approved rendering: kev hle khau muab rau (raws li Yixalayees tus kevcai laus) + mandatory explanatory footnote
Transliteration: na’al (Heb.) / hypodēma (LXX)
Doctrine: The Kinsman-Redeemer
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 4:7-8, footwear-based legal ratification gesture confirming the transfer/waiver of the redemption right. No equivalent Hmong custom exists; comprehension gap only, render literally with a mandatory footnote.
Naomi Mara Name Wordplay
Approved rendering: transliteration (Nau-au-mi / Mala) + mandatory first-occurrence footnote glossing the meanings (‘my pleasantness’ / ‘bitter’)
Transliteration: Naomi / Mara (Heb.) / Nōemin / Mara (LXX, transliterated, pun lost)
Doctrine: God’s Providence in Ordinary Life
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 1:20, Naomi’s name-reversal request dramatizing her theological crisis, narratively resolved by 4:14-17. Footnote convention modeled on the baseline Romans abba_father entry (retain + gloss, never drop).
Bethlehem House Of Bread
Approved rendering: Npe-lehees + mandatory first-occurrence footnote
Transliteration: Beit Lechem (Heb.) / Bēthleem (LXX)
Doctrine: Genealogy Pointing to David and Christ
NEW ENTRY — Ruth 1:1, 1:19, 4:11. Footnote required at first occurrence to preserve the famine/harvest narrative irony (‘house of bread’ amid famine) and its Christological birthplace resonance for Doctrine 6.