Semantic Analysis
Semantic Analysis: Ruth (Hebrew Original, LXX Greek Cross-Reference)
Curriculum: Ruth Destination language: Spanish Core passage: Ruth 1:16–17 Generated: Phase 1, Step 1
Methodology Note
The book of Ruth was composed in Biblical Hebrew, not Koine Greek. Because the TRI pipeline’s standard instruction set requests original-language analysis, this document treats Hebrew as the original-language authority for every term and cites the Septuagint (LXX) Greek rendering as a secondary cross-reference column wherever it illuminates continuity with New Testament vocabulary already anchored in the baseline Romans Language Package (e.g., LXX κύριος for YHWH connects directly to the baseline’s Critical-risk “Señor” entry for κύριος in Romans 10:9). Where a term in Ruth corresponds to a term already recorded in translation_memory.json or bible_term_registry.json, the baseline Spanish rendering is reused exactly and flagged “[BASELINE TERM].” New terms required for Ruth’s distinctive doctrines (Hesed, Kinsman-Redeemer, Providence in ordinary life, Gentile inclusion, Levirate/genealogy law) are introduced following the same schema and risk-tiering conventions as the baseline.
PART 1 — Core Passage Verse-by-Verse: Ruth 1:16–17
Ruth 1:16
“But Ruth said, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.’”
Hebrew: וַתֹּאמֶר רוּת אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי־בִי לְעָזְבֵךְ לָשׁוּב מֵאַחֲרָיִךְ כִּי אֶל־אֲשֶׁר תֵּלְכִי אֵלֵךְ וּבַאֲשֶׁר תָּלִּינִי אָלִין עַמֵּךְ עַמִּי וֵאלֹהַיִךְ אֱלֹהָי
| # | Term (Hebrew / LXX Greek) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | אַל־תִּפְגְּעִי / μὴ ἐπανάστρεψόν (LXX paraphrase) | al-tifge’i (root פגע, paga) | “Do not strike upon / meet against me” | Range: neutral “meet, encounter” → “urge insistently, press, entreat” → (rarely) “attack" | "urge,” “entreat,” “press,” “beg,” “plead with” | Ruth firmly refuses to let Naomi talk her out of her decision; this is resolve, not a timid request. | ”No insistas en que…” / “No me ruegues que…” — Medium risk. Must preserve the force of firm, settled resolve; a translation that reads as a soft or hesitant request undercuts the verse’s rhetorical power as the hinge of the whole book. |
| 2 | לְעָזְבֵךְ / καταλιπεῖν σε | le’azvekh (root עזב, azab) | “to leave/abandon you" | "leave,” “abandon,” “forsake,” “desert” — same root used of Israel forsaking God or God not forsaking his people (cf. Deut 31:6) | “leave,” “abandon,” “forsake,” “desert” | Loyalty language echoing covenant non-abandonment vocabulary elsewhere in the Old Testament. | ”dejarte” / “abandonarte” — Medium risk. Prefer “abandonarte” in teaching contexts to surface the covenant-loyalty resonance (Hesed doctrine), while “dejarte” is acceptable for smoother narrative flow. |
| 3 | לָשׁוּב / τοῦ ἀποστρέψαι | lashuv (root שוב, shuv) | “to turn back / return” | Physical return; also used elsewhere in the OT for spiritual “turning back” (repentance) | “return,” “turn back,” “go back” | The book’s structural keyword (used ~12x in ch. 1 alone: Naomi returning to Judah, urging the women to return to Moab, Ruth refusing to return). | “volver” / “regresar” — Medium risk, primarily consistency risk: this verb recurs so often in ch. 1 that inconsistent Spanish verb choice across the chapter will obscure the literary structure. Standardize on one primary verb (“volver”) for the whole chapter. |
| 4 | תֵּלְכִי / אֵלֵךְ / πορεύσῃ / πορεύσομαι | telkhi / ‘elekh (root הלך, halak) | “you go / I will go” | Simple motion verb; idiomatically extends to “walk of life, conduct" | "go,” “walk,” “journey with” | Total, unconditional accompaniment — the first clause of the loyalty oath. | ”ir” — Low lexical risk, but High doctrinal weight as the anchor statement for the Loyalty and Faithfulness doctrine; must not be softened with a conditional or qualified verb form. |
| 5 | תָּלִּינִי / אָלִין / καταλύσῃς / καταλύσω | talini / alin (root לין, lin) | “you lodge / I will lodge" | "spend the night,” “lodge,” “dwell temporarily,” extended to “make one’s home" | "lodge,” “stay,” “dwell” | Shared domicile — going beyond travel companionship to permanent shared life. | ”posar” (RV-register) or “quedarme a vivir” — Medium risk. “Posar” preserves formal Reina-Valera register but is uncommon in everyday modern Spanish; ensure surrounding teaching material glosses it so the shared-life sense is not lost on readers unfamiliar with the archaic verb. |
| 6 | עַמֵּךְ עַמִּי / ὁ λαός σου λαός μου | ammekh ammi | ”your people, my people” | עם (am): people, nation, kinship/covenant community | ”people,” “nation,” “kin” | Ruth renounces her Moabite ethnic-religious identity and formally joins herself to Israel, the covenant people — the pivotal statement for the doctrine of Gentile inclusion in God’s redemptive plan. | ”tu pueblo será mi pueblo” (“pueblo” reused per baseline’s general register for covenant community) — Critical risk. Although the baseline Romans package rates the general term “gentiles” as Low risk, this specific statement is doctrinally load-bearing at a much higher tier: it is Ruth’s conversion-and-adoption confession, the OT counterpart to Romans 10:9’s salvation confession. Must be translated with full covenantal weight, not read as mere relocation or in-law courtesy. |
| 7 | וֵאלֹהַיִךְ אֱלֹהָי / καὶ ὁ θεός σου θεός μου | elohayikh elohai | ”your God, my God” | אֱלֹהִים (Elohim): God/deity in the majestic-plural form, here specifying the God of Israel (YHWH) against Chemosh, the national god of Moab | ”God,” “your deity” | Exclusive covenant confession of faith — Ruth abandons Chemosh worship for exclusive allegiance to YHWH. Structurally parallel to the NT confession “Jesus is Lord” already flagged Critical in the baseline. | ”Dios” [BASELINE TERM — reuse “Dios” exactly] — Critical risk. Must be taught explicitly as an exclusive, personal confession of faith, not a vague acknowledgment of “the local deity” or a culturally polite accommodation to her mother-in-law’s household religion. Pair with a teaching note contrasting YHWH with Chemosh (cf. Numbers 21:29; Judges 11:24) to prevent a flattened, generic-monotheism reading. |
Ruth 1:17
“‘Where you die I will die, and there will I be buried. May the LORD do so to me and more also, if anything but death parts me from you.’”
Hebrew: בַּאֲשֶׁר תָּמוּתִי אָמוּת וְשָׁם אֶקָּבֵר יַעֲשֶׂה יְהוָה לִּי כֹה וְכֹה וְכֹה יֹסִיף כִּי הַמָּוֶת יַפְרִיד בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵךְ
| # | Term (Hebrew / LXX Greek) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8 | תָּמוּתִי אָמוּת / ἀποθάνῃς ἀποθανοῦμαι | tamuti / amut (root מות, mut) | “you die / I will die” | Standard verb for physical death | ”die” | Extends the loyalty oath to the point of death — total, unconditional identification with Naomi’s fate. | ”morir” — Low lexical risk; High rhetorical weight as the second clause of the loyalty oath. |
| 9 | וְשָׁם אֶקָּבֵר / ἐκεῖ ταφήσομαι | vesham eqqaver (root קבר, qabar, Niphal) | “and there I will be buried” | Passive “be buried”; burial location in the Ancient Near East signified permanent familial/covenantal belonging | ”be buried,” “buried there” | Ruth requests burial in Israelite soil among Naomi’s people rather than in Moab — a concrete, irreversible sign of her adopted identity. | ”y allí seré sepultada” — Medium risk. The cultural significance of burial-place-as-belonging is not self-evident to modern readers; a brief teaching note is recommended so the phrase is not read as a merely incidental detail. |
| 10 | יַעֲשֶׂה יְהוָה לִּי כֹה וְכֹה / ποιήσαι μοι κύριος | ya’aseh YHWH li khoh vekhoh | ”may YHWH do to me thus and thus” | Self-imprecatory oath formula invoking the covenant name of God as witness and enforcer of the vow | ”May the LORD do so to me,” “as the LORD lives” (functionally) | Ruth swears by the very name of the God she has just claimed as her own — evidence the confession of v.16 is not sentimental but a binding covenant oath. | ”Jehová” (YHWH) — Critical risk, new registry entry required (see below). This curriculum recommends “Jehová,” consistent with the Reina-Valera (RV1960/RVA2015) register the baseline Language Package anchors to, but this rendering carries a live collision risk in contemporary Spanish-speaking culture: “Jehová” is strongly associated with the Testigos de Jehová (Jehovah’s Witnesses), a nontrinitarian movement well known throughout Spain and Latin America. Every occurrence must carry a teaching note distinguishing the historic Reina-Valera translation convention for the divine covenant name YHWH from that movement’s usage and theology. See new registry entry lord_yhwh in the Core Glossary. |
| 11 | כִּי הַמָּוֶת יַפְרִיד בֵּינִי וּבֵינֵךְ / ὅτι θάνατος διαστελεῖ ἀνὰ μέσον ἐμοῦ καὶ σοῦ | ki hammavet yafrid beini uveinekh (root פרד, parad) | “for/unless death separates between me and you" | "separate,” “divide,” “part" | "separate,” “part,” “divide” | Closes the oath with a totalizing declaration: only death itself will end this bond. Echoes forward to Romans 8:38–39’s “nothing shall separate us” — already documented in the baseline under Assurance of Salvation. | ”separar” — Medium/High risk. Preserve the absolute, unconditional force of the vow; do not soften into a merely sentimental statement of affection. Recommended teaching cross-reference to Romans 8:38–39 for continuity of “nothing/nothing but death shall separate” language across the two curricula. |
Summary of Core Passage Doctrinal Load: Ruth 1:16–17 is the theological hinge of the entire book, compressing four of the six curriculum doctrines into two verses: Loyalty and Faithfulness (the oath structure itself), Hesed/Covenant Loving-kindness (Ruth extends unmerited loyalty beyond any legal obligation, since she is a widow with no remaining duty to Naomi), Inclusion of Gentiles (the “your people/your God” confession), and — by narrative anticipation — Providence (the reader already knows Naomi is returning to Bethlehem where the Kinsman-Redeemer plot will unfold). Every rendering choice here must be reviewed with theologian oversight, consistent with the baseline’s Critical-tier routing.
PART 2 — Chapter-by-Chapter Study of the Whole Book
Chapter 1 (additional terms beyond the core passage)
Chapter 1 introduces the famine, the deaths of Elimelech and his sons, Naomi’s decision to return, Orpah’s departure, and Ruth’s oath (core passage, above). Additional load-bearing terms:
| Term (Hebrew / LXX) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| חֶסֶד / ἔλεος | chesed | ”loyal love, covenant kindness” | Spans “kindness,” “mercy,” “loyalty,” “steadfast love” — a fusion of affection and covenant obligation, stronger than any single English or Spanish word | ”kindness,” “mercy,” “steadfast love,” “lovingkindness” | Ruth 1:8 — Naomi prays that the LORD deal with her daughters-in-law as they have dealt (chesed) with the dead and with her. This is the anchor term for the entire curriculum’s Hesed doctrine. | ”misericordia” (RV-tradition default) — Critical risk. “Misericordia” in Spanish-speaking Catholic culture carries strong associations with divine mercy/compassion (e.g., the “Divina Misericordia” devotion) but under-conveys chesed’s covenant-loyalty dimension. Recommend pairing with a consistent explanatory gloss, e.g., “misericordia” + teaching note “amor leal y fiel dentro de una relación de pacto,” in every occurrence (1:8; 2:20; 3:10). Do not substitute a bare “bondad” (kindness) alone, which loses the covenantal weight, nor “lealtad” alone, which loses the relational warmth — chesed requires both held together. |
| שוב / ἐπιστρέφω | shuv | ”return” | See core passage #3 | ”return” | Repeated ~12x in ch. 1: Naomi returning to Judah; urging her daughters-in-law to return to Moab; the narrator’s summary “so Naomi returned.” Structural keyword. | ”volver” — Medium risk (consistency). |
| דָּבַק / κατακολουθέω | davaq | ”to cling, cleave, stay closely attached” | Same root as Genesis 2:24 “a man shall cleave to his wife" | "cling,” “cleave to,” “stay with” | 1:14 — “Ruth clung to her [Naomi].” Marital-covenant vocabulary transferred to the mother-in-law relationship, deepening the loyalty theme. | ”aferrarse” / “quedarse unida a” — Medium risk; a teaching note linking this verb to its marital-covenant use elsewhere strengthens the Loyalty and Faithfulness doctrine. |
| שַׁדַּי / ὁ ἱκανός | Shaddai | ”Almighty” | Ancient divine title of unclear etymology, traditionally “Almighty,” possibly “All-Sufficient" | "Almighty,” “the Almighty God” | 1:20–21 — Naomi renames herself “Mara” (bitter) because “Shaddai has dealt very bitterly with me." | "Todopoderoso” — Low/Medium risk; standard, unambiguous across Spanish Bible traditions. |
| מָרָא / נָעֳמִי (name wordplay) | Mara / No’omi | ”bitter / pleasant” | Proper-name wordplay; not a doctrinal term per se but essential to the Providence-in-ordinary-life theme | ”Mara” (bitter), “Naomi” (pleasant/my delight) | Naomi’s self-renaming dramatizes her perceived abandonment by God even as the narrative is already setting up his hidden providential care. | ”Mara” (transliterated, with a footnote gloss “amarga”) — Low risk lexically; High teaching value for the Providence doctrine — flag for a translator note explaining the wordplay, since it is invisible in Spanish without one. |
| הָלַכְתִּי… הֱשִׁיבַנִי / ἐπέστρεψέν με | ”I went away full… the LORD has brought me back empty” | — | Contrast structure (“full/empty”) | “full,” “empty” | 1:21 — Naomi’s lament frames the entire book’s central tension: God’s hidden hand amid apparent loss, resolved only by the book’s end (redemption, marriage, birth, genealogy). | “llena / vacía” — Low risk; standard vocabulary, but flag for Providence teaching notes tying 1:21’s lament to 4:14–17’s resolution. |
Chapter 2
Introduces Boaz, gleaning, and the first hints of the Kinsman-Redeemer plot.
| Term (Hebrew / LXX) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| מוֹדַע / γνώριμος | moda | ”acquaintance, relative” | Broader/weaker than go’el; simply “a relative known to the family" | "kinsman,” “relative,” “acquaintance” | 2:1 — introduces Boaz as “a relative of Naomi’s husband,” planting the Kinsman-Redeemer seed before the legal term go’el is used. | ”pariente” — Medium risk; must not be confused with or collapsed into the later technical term go’el (“redentor/pariente redentor” — see ch. 3–4). Keep the two Spanish terms visibly distinct so the reader tracks the escalation from “a relative” to “the redeemer.” |
| לֶקֶט / συλλέγειν στάχυς | leket | ”gleaning, gleaned grain” | Legal-agricultural term rooted in Leviticus 19:9–10; Deuteronomy 24:19–21 | ”gleaning,” “leftover grain” | 2:2–3 — Ruth exercises a legally protected provision for the poor, widow, and foreigner. Ties Providence-in-ordinary-life to concrete OT social law. | ”espigar” / “recoger espigas” — Low/Medium risk; requires a background note on the Levitical gleaning law for readers without OT literacy, per the baseline’s “assume varying degrees of OT literacy” instruction. |
| מִקְרֶה / περιπίπτω | miqreh | ”chance, happening" | "Chance encounter,” “as it happened” — narratively neutral surface vocabulary describing what the reader knows to be providentially ordered | ”happened,” “as it turned out,” “by chance” | 2:3 — “she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz.” The narrator deliberately uses ordinary “chance” language for an event the whole book frames as God’s hidden orchestration — the central literary device of the Providence doctrine. | ”resultó que” / “aconteció que” — High risk. Must not be rendered in a way that overstates either randomness (denying providence) or explicit divine causation not stated in the Hebrew (overstating the text). Preserve the ordinary, “of course this was just how it happened” surface register, and carry the doctrinal tension into the teaching notes rather than the translation itself — directly parallel to how the baseline handles Romans 8:28 “all things work together.” |
| כָּנָף / πτέρυξ | kanaph | ”wing(s)” (also “skirt/corner of a garment”) | Physical wing of a bird; metaphorically God’s protective covering; literally the corner/hem of a garment (see ch. 3) | “wings,” “skirt,” “corner of the garment” | 2:12 — Boaz blesses Ruth: “a full reward from the LORD… under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Sets up the deliberate echo when Ruth asks Boaz to “spread the corner of your garment” over her in 3:9 (same Hebrew word). | “alas” (2:12, metaphorical protection) vs. “manto / borde del manto” (3:9, literal garment act) — High risk. The two Spanish renderings are necessarily different words for the same Hebrew root; the literary connection (divine protection in 2:12 anticipating and legitimating Boaz’s role as the vehicle of that protection in 3:9) must be preserved through an explicit teaching cross-reference note, since the wordplay is invisible in translation. |
| חָסָה / ἐλπίζω / πεποιθέναι | chasah | ”to take refuge, seek shelter” | Trust/refuge vocabulary common in the Psalms | ”take refuge,” “seek shelter,” “trust” | 2:12 — “under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” Faith vocabulary applied to Ruth’s decision to join Israel. | ”refugiarte” — Medium risk; reinforce the Faith doctrine already established in the baseline (fe = personal trust, not inherited religiosity) by teaching this as Ruth’s active trust, not passive fate. |
| מַשְׂכֻּרֶת / ἀπόδομα, μισθός | maskuret | ”wages, reward” | Legal/economic term for payment or recompense | ”reward,” “wages,” “recompense” | 2:12 — “may your reward be full from the LORD." | "recompensa” — Medium risk: in a curriculum sequence that also teaches Romans (grace vs. merit already Critical in the baseline), ensure a teaching note clarifies that Ruth’s “reward” is God’s gracious response to covenant loyalty, not a wage earned that obligates God — avoid importing a merit-transaction reading into Ruth that would contradict the baseline’s grace doctrine. |
| חֶסֶד (again) | chesed | — | — | — | 2:20 — Naomi: “Blessed be he… who has not forsaken his kindness (chesed) to the living and the dead.” Boaz’s gleaning provision is named an act of chesed, tying human loyalty to divine chesed. | ”misericordia” [reuse ch. 1 rendering] — Critical risk, consistent with ch. 1 entry above. |
| בָּרוּךְ / εὐλογημένος | barukh | ”blessed” | Standard blessing formula | ”blessed,” “may he be blessed” | Repeated blessing formulas throughout ch. 2 (and the whole book). | “bendito” / “bendecir” — Low/Medium risk; standard vocabulary, no significant collision risk in Spanish-speaking Christian culture. |
Chapter 3
The threshing-floor scene; the term go’el becomes explicit.
| Term (Hebrew / LXX) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| גֹּאֵל / ἀγχιστεύς | go’el | ”kinsman with the legal right/duty of redemption” | A near relative obligated by kinship law to redeem family land (Leviticus 25:25), redeem a relative from debt-slavery (Lev 25:47–49), avenge blood (Numbers 35), or — as here — marry a childless widow to preserve the family line and inheritance | ”redeemer,” “kinsman-redeemer,” “next of kin,” “avenger” | 3:9 — Ruth explicitly names Boaz “a redeemer” (go’el) for the first time in the book, formally invoking the kinship-redemption legal category. Central term for the Kinsman-Redeemer doctrine and the primary OT type of Christ’s redemptive work (cf. Job 19:25; Isaiah 41:14; and NT fulfillment language already Critical in the baseline: “redención,” “justicia imputada”). | “redentor” / “pariente redentor” — Critical risk. Must be taught with the full legal-kinship background (not merely “someone who saves”) so that the Boaz-as-type/Christ-as-fulfillment typology is theologically precise rather than a vague inspirational analogy. Equally important: do not let the human, legal, land-and-marriage redemption Boaz performs collapse into or diminish the unique, once-for-all soteriological redemption accomplished by Christ (cf. baseline’s “salvación,” “justificación” — both Critical). Boaz’s act is a type; Christ’s is the fulfillment, and the distinction must be taught explicitly every time this term recurs. |
| קָרוֹב / ἐγγίζων | qarob | ”near, close (in kinship)“ | Legal proximity term establishing redemption priority | ”nearer,” “closer relative” | 3:12 — “there is a redeemer nearer than I” — introduces the legal complication requiring resolution in ch. 4. | ”más cercano” — Medium risk; standard vocabulary but must clearly convey legal priority, not merely emotional closeness. |
| חַי יְהוָה / ζῇ κύριος | chai YHWH | ”as YHWH lives” | Solemn oath formula | ”as the LORD lives” | 3:13 — Boaz swears an oath paralleling Ruth’s oath in 1:17, reinforcing the mutual-loyalty theme between the two main characters. | ”vive Jehová” [consistent with the ch.1 YHWH decision — see registry entry lord_yhwh] — Critical risk, same considerations as 1:17. |
| אֵשֶׁת חַיִל / γυνὴ δυνάμεως | eshet chayil | ”woman of strength/valor/noble character” | חַיִל (chayil): “strength,” “capability,” “valor,” “excellence” — same phrase later applied to the ideal wife in Proverbs 31:10 | ”woman of noble character,” “virtuous woman,” “excellent woman,” “woman of worth” | 3:11 — Boaz’s public commendation of Ruth, echoing Proverbs 31 and elevating Ruth’s loyalty (ch. 1–2) to a recognized covenantal virtue. | ”mujer virtuosa” (RV-tradition) or “mujer de noble carácter” — Medium risk. “Virtuosa” in colloquial Spanish risks narrowing to sexual chastity alone; the underlying Hebrew is broader (capability, valor, moral excellence). A brief teaching gloss is recommended to widen the popular connotation back to the full semantic range. |
| כָּנָף (again) / πτέρυξ | kanaph | ”corner of the garment” (see ch. 2) | — | — | 3:9 — Ruth asks Boaz to “spread your garment/wing over your servant,” a customary idiom for a marriage proposal invoking the protective-redemption imagery of 2:12. | ”extiende el borde de tu manto sobre tu sierva” — High risk, see ch. 2 entry; the connection to 2:12 must be preserved via teaching note. |
Chapter 4
The legal resolution at the town gate and the closing genealogy.
| Term (Hebrew / LXX) | Transliteration | Literal Meaning | Semantic Range | English Variants | Contextual Theological Meaning | Spanish Rendering & Risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| גֹּאֵל (again) / ἀγχιστεύς | go’el | — | — | — | Repeated 4:1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 14 — the legal resolution of the redeemer question; the nearer kinsman declines, Boaz formally accepts the role. | ”redentor” / “pariente redentor” [reuse ch. 3 rendering exactly] — Critical risk, as above. |
| קָנָה / κτάομαι | qanah | ”to acquire, buy, purchase” | Commercial-legal acquisition term, distinct from but paired with go’el in this transaction (land purchase combined with marriage) | “buy,” “acquire,” “purchase” | 4:4–10 — the legal transaction combines land-redemption and marriage into a single formal act at the town gate. | ”comprar” / “adquirir” — High risk of conflation. Must be kept lexically distinct from “redimir” (used for go’el) even though the same transaction involves both actions, so that the economic-legal transfer of land is not confused with, nor does it flatten, the deeper kinship-redemption/typological sense carried by go’el. |
| חָלַץ נַעֲלוֹ / ὑπολύεται τὸ ὑπόδημα | chalats na’alo | ”he removed/drew off his sandal” | Ancient Near Eastern legal-transfer custom sealing the transaction publicly | ”took off his sandal,” “removed his shoe” | 4:7–8 — the nearer kinsman formally transfers his redemption right to Boaz. Note: this custom must be distinguished from the shaming sandal-removal ritual of Deuteronomy 25:9–10 (levirate refusal); in Ruth it is a neutral legal-transfer sign, not a rebuke. | ”se quitó la sandalia” / “se quitó el zapato” — Medium risk; requires an explanatory cultural-legal note so readers do not import the shame connotation from the Deuteronomy passage. |
| עֵדִים / μαρτύρες | edim | ”witnesses” | Standard legal term | ”witnesses” | 4:9–11 — the elders and townspeople formally witness the transaction, publicly legitimating Boaz’s redemption of Ruth and Naomi’s line. | ”testigos” — Low risk; standard legal-narrative vocabulary. |
| לְהָקִים שֵׁם־הַמֵּת עַל־נַחֲלָתוֹ | lehaqim shem-hammet al-nachalato | ”to raise up the name of the dead over his inheritance” | The conceptual core of levirate-style marriage (cf. Deuteronomy 25:5–10), applied here through the broader go’el kinship-redemption category rather than strict brother-in-law levirate law | ”to perpetuate the name of the dead,” “to raise up an heir for the deceased” | 4:5, 10 — the stated legal purpose of Boaz’s marriage to Ruth: preserving Elimelech’s/Mahlon’s name and inheritance in Israel. | ”para levantar el nombre del difunto sobre su heredad” — High risk. Teaching notes must clarify that Ruth’s case is analogous to, but technically distinct from, the strict Deuteronomy 25 levirate law (Boaz is not Ruth’s brother-in-law but a more distant go’el kinsman); conflating the two legal categories without this distinction risks doctrinal imprecision in the Kinsman-Redeemer teaching. |
| וַתֵּלֶד … בֹּעַז … עוֹבֵד … יִשַׁי … דָּוִד / ἐγέννησεν | holid / vateled | ”and he/she bore / became the father of” | Standard genealogical-succession verb, identical in form and function to the NT genealogies (cf. Matthew 1:1–17’s γεννάω chain) | “was the father of,” “bore,” “became the ancestor of” | 4:18–22 — the closing genealogy: Perez → … → Boaz → Obed → Jesse → David. This is the doctrinal payoff of the entire book: an ordinary, hidden-providence story of a Moabite widow’s loyalty resolves into the Davidic line, and through David, into the genealogy of Christ (Matthew 1:5; Luke 3:32). | “engendró” / “fue padre de” [align with established Spanish Gospel-genealogy convention, e.g., Mateo 1] — High/Critical risk (Genealogy Pointing to David and Christ doctrine). Lexically simple, but doctrinally the single highest-value cross-reference in the book; must be translated to visibly match the verb pattern already established in Spanish Gospel genealogies so students recognize the continuity. |
| מוֹאָבִיָּה / Μωαβῖτις | Mo’aviyah | ”Moabite woman” | Ethnic-national identity term; Moabites were historically excluded from the assembly of Israel (Deuteronomy 23:3) and remembered for the Moab-Israel conflicts of Judges 3 and Numbers 22–25 | ”the Moabite,” “Ruth the Moabitess” | Used throughout, but its full theological weight lands at 4:13–17 and the genealogy: a woman from a people under covenantal exclusion becomes the great-grandmother of King David. | ”la moabita” — High risk, doctrinally central to Inclusion of Gentiles. Teaching notes must surface the tension the original audience would have felt (Deuteronomy 23:3’s exclusion) and its resolution in Ruth’s inclusion, rather than letting “moabita” read as a flat ethnic label. |
| David, Israel | דָּוִד / יִשְׂרָאֵל | — | — | — | 4:17, 22 | ”David” / “Israel” [BASELINE TERMS — reuse exactly] — Low risk, standard proper names per the baseline. |
Coverage Confirmation
All four chapters of Ruth have been analyzed. No chapter was found to introduce zero new theological vocabulary; every chapter contributes load-bearing terms to at least one of the six curriculum doctrines. This document, together with analysis/08_core_glossary.md, constitutes full-book coverage per the PRD Phase 1 mandate.