On the Greek text. The Greek throughout follows the standard critical text — uniform in its main wording across the modern editions (NA28, SBLGNT, THGNT), and itself an ancient, public-domain text; NA28's distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced.

The Book of Ruth (LXX) — Interlinear: Themes, Outlines & Translation Notes

A consolidated companion to the Ruth data set: every chapter of LXX Ruth (1–4) rendered as a six-tier Greek reverse-interlinear (Greek · gloss · parsing/case · syntax · semantic force · lexical note), with per-verse discourse analysis and a chapter argument-outline.

This document gathers the theme, the argument outline (the outline movements authored into each data file), and the translation / textual / exegetical notes (the text_note of each file, reproduced verbatim) — followed by a summary of the major translation and interpretive cruxes that were deliberately annotated rather than silently resolved. Ruth, set in the days of the judges, tells of loyal love (hesed) across the boundary of Israel and Moab — Ruth's oath, Boaz the kinsman-redeemer, and the genealogy that runs to David; the LXX renders a notably literal Greek that the church read as part of the Octateuch. The Greek follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint (Rahlfs–Hanhart in its main wording, itself an ancient public-domain text); the distinctively copyrighted apparatus is not reproduced, and versification follows the LXX.

Scope

Chapter	Verses	Words annotated	Outline movements
Ruth 1	22	520	5
Ruth 2	23	604	3
Ruth 3	18	407	4
Ruth 4	22	531	5
Total	85	2,062	17

Each annotated word carries Greek, a working gloss, color-coded grammatical case, parsing (Tense·Voice·Mood·Person·Number + lemma), a Wallace-style syntactic-function label, an aspectual semantic-force label (verbal forms), and a condensed lexical note. As translation Greek, the annotation additionally flags Hebraisms and the underlying Hebrew idiom where it illuminates the rendering.

The argument of the book

The macro-structure of the whole book — its major movements — under which the chapter-by-chapter detail below unfolds. LXX Ruth is a close, kaige-like rendering of the Hebrew; its four scenes move from emptiness in Moab to fullness in Bethlehem. (Section divisions are interpretive; the more common analysis is generally followed.)

I · 1 — Emptiness. Famine, Moab, three deaths; Naomi's return with Ruth, whose oath binds her to Naomi's people and God; 'call me Mara.'
II · 2 — Gleaning. Ruth happens upon the field of Boaz; favor, protection, and the first hint of redemption under the wings of the God of Israel.
III · 3 — The threshing floor. Naomi's plan; Ruth's request that Boaz spread his wing over her; the nearer kinsman acknowledged; 'he will not rest until he has finished the matter.'
IV · 4 — Redemption. The gate scene and the sandal; Boaz takes Ruth; the blessing of the elders; Obed born to Naomi's lap; the genealogy from Perez to David.

Chapter-by-chapter

Ruth 1 — ΡΟΥΘ Α′

Theme. The prologue of the book: a Bethlehemite family flees famine for Moab and is progressively stripped of every member except Naomi, who returns home empty — but with her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, whose oath of covenant loyalty (vv.16–17) is the theological hinge on which the whole narrative turns.

Outline.

A · 1:1–5 — A famine, a migration, and a family destroyed in Moab. The narrative opens with a double ἐγένετο formula situating the action in the days of the judges and in the famine (1:1). The Bethlehemite Αβιμελεχ migrates with his wife Νωεμίν and two sons to Moab, but he dies there (1:2–3). The sons take Moabite wives, Ορφα and Ρουθ, and after ten years they too die, leaving Νωεμίν bereft of both husband and sons (1:4–5). The three deaths punctuate the unit with relentless finality, stripping Naomi down to her two daughters-in-law.
B · 1:6–10 — Naomi resolves to return; she urges her daughters-in-law to go home. Hearing that κύριος has visited his people with bread, Νωεμίν rises to return to Judah (1:6). She sets out with her two daughters-in-law, then stops on the road and blesses them, urging them to return each to her mother's house, invoking κύριος's ḥesed for them (1:7–8). She prays that κύριος grant them rest in a husband's house and kisses them farewell; they weep and declare they will go with her (1:9–10).
C · 1:11–14 — Naomi's second argument: bitterness and hopelessness. Νωεμίν presses her case with a reductio: she has no more sons in her womb, no husband, no prospect of sons even if she re-married tonight — and would they wait? (1:11–13). The argument from impossibility is sealed with her declaration that the hand of the LORD has gone out against her; they lift their voices and weep again (1:13–14). At this point the two daughters-in-law diverge: Ορφα kisses her mother-in-law farewell and goes back, but Ρουθ clings (1:14).
D · 1:15–18 — Ruth's oath of covenant loyalty. Νωεμίν points out that Ορφα has returned to her people and her gods, and bids Ρουθ do likewise (1:15). Ρουθ's response is the theological and literary climax of the chapter: a solemn oath binding her to Naomi's people, land, and God — wherever Naomi goes she will go, where Naomi dies she will die, and only death will part them (1:16–17). The oath is clinched with a self-imprecation in the name of κύριος (1:17). Seeing Ruth's resolute determination (1:18), Νωεμίν falls silent.
E · 1:19–22 — Arrival in Bethlehem and Naomi's self-renaming. The two women travel and arrive in Bethlehem, and all the city is stirred on their account (1:19). When the women ask 'is this Νωεμίν?', she corrects them sharply: 'Call me Μαρά' — bitterness, not pleasantness — because the Almighty has dealt bitterly with her (1:20). She went out full and the LORD brought her back empty, and she challenges them to name her accordingly (1:21). The chapter closes with a narrative frame noting they arrived at the beginning of the barley harvest, and identifying Ρουθ as the Μωαβῖτις — setting up the crucial meeting of chapter 2 (1:22).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text of Ruth 1 follows the standard critical text of the Septuagint as established in the Rahlfs–Hanhart edition (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006), an ancient and public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Ruth in the LXX stands in a tradition of notably literal, kaige-style translation: nearly every Hebrew wayyiqtol is rendered by καὶ + aorist (καί-parataxis), and the narrative opening formula וַיְהִי is calqued as καὶ ἐγένετο (1:1). This Hebraizing literalism makes Ruth an important textual witness to the proto-MT Hebrew Vorlage. The translator consistently represents the divine name יהוה with κύριος (1:6, 8, 9, 13, 17, 21) — the standard LXX convention. The Hebrew proper names are transliterated rather than translated: Νωεμίν (Naomi; LXX spelling, used alongside Μαρά at 1:20), Ρουθ, Ορφα (the Moabite daughters-in-law), Μωαβ and its gentilic Μωαβῖτις (1:4, 22), Βαιθλεεμ (Bethlehem, 1:1, 2, 19, 22), Ιουδα (Judah), and Ελιμελεχ and Αβιμελεχ (variant spellings of the husband's name in different traditions; Rahlfs reads Αβιμελεχ at 1:2, 3; the proper name is indeclinable in Greek). At 1:8 κύριος ποιήσαι μεθ᾿ ὑμῶν ἔλεος ('may the LORD deal loyally with you') is a theological crux: ἔλεος renders חֶסֶד (ḥesed), the covenantal loving-kindness that is the book's theological centrepiece; the Greek makes it a noun-object construction rather than the abstracted quality of the Hebrew. At 1:16–17, Ruth's oath of loyalty — ὅπου ἐὰν πορευθῇς πορεύσομαι … ὁ θάνατός σου θάνατός μου — is one of the most celebrated passages in biblical literature; the LXX reproduces it faithfully, and the solemnising oath formula (τάδε ποιήσαι μοι κύριος καὶ τάδε προσθείη, 1:17) echoes the standard Hebrew imprecation with κύριος added for clarity. At 1:20–21 the name-play of Naomi/Mara (Νωεμίν/Μαρά = 'pleasantness'/'bitterness') is preserved in transliteration: the LXX does not translate either name but leaves the wordplay implicit for Greek readers. Minor text-critical variations (the presence or absence of δή in 1:11; variants in the verb tense of 1:6) are not noted.

Ruth 2 — ΡΟΥΘ Β′

Theme. Through a single barley-harvest day in Bethlehem, divine providence and human loyalty converge: the foreign gleaner Ruth, clinging to her mother-in-law in a strange land, stumbles providentially onto the field of Boaz — kinsman, man of substance, and man of genuine piety — who extends extravagant protection and provision, pronounces the wings-of-refuge benediction over her, and is revealed by Naomi as one of Israel's redeemers, setting the legal and theological foundation for the restoration of Elimelech's line.

Outline.

A · 2:1–3 — The gleaning field: Ruth goes out to gather. The narrator introduces Boaz as a kinsman of Elimelech's family and a man of substance (v.1). Ruth asks Naomi's leave to glean, and Naomi sends her (v.2). Ruth goes and by providence lights upon the portion of the field belonging to Boaz (v.3) — the narrator's figura etymologica περιέπεσεν περιπτώματι signals providential accident beneath what appears to be mere chance.
B · 2:4–16 — Boaz and Ruth: generosity extended in word and deed. Boaz arrives greeting his harvesters with a liturgical exchange (vv.4–5), inquires about the stranger, and receives a full report from the overseer (vv.6–7). Boaz addresses Ruth directly with protections and provisions — stay, follow my girls, drink from my water (vv.8–9). Ruth's prostrated question of unworthiness (v.10) draws from Boaz a benediction rooting her loyalty to Naomi in the covenant metaphor of divine wings (vv.11–12). She responds with humble gratitude (v.13). At the meal Boaz serves her and she eats to satiety (v.14). Boaz then commands his servants to leave extra bundles and not rebuke her (vv.15–16).
C · 2:17–23 — Return to Naomi: the name revealed and the arrangement settled. Ruth beats out her gleaning and returns with an ephah of barley plus the leftovers from her meal (vv.17–18), and Naomi marvels at the quantity (v.18). When Naomi asks where she worked, Ruth names the field-owner; Naomi pronounces a blessing, invokes YHWH's ἔλεος toward the living and the dead, and reveals Boaz as near-kin and potential redeemer (vv.19–20). Ruth reports Boaz's standing invitation through the whole harvest (v.21). Naomi endorses the plan for Ruth's safety (v.22), and the chapter closes noting Ruth gleaned through both barley and wheat harvests while dwelling with Naomi (v.23).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text follows the Rahlfs–Hanhart Septuaginta (2nd ed., Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), whose main wording is an ancient, public-domain text; the critical apparatus is not reproduced. Ruth is preserved in a single main recension (the 'Old Greek') without the rival kaige revision that marks other LXX books, making Rahlfs' base text unusually stable. The book's translation technique is notably literal — often a word-for-word calque of the Hebrew — so the LXX furnishes a second witness to the consonantal text of Ruth rather than a paraphrase of it. Chapter 2 introduces Boaz under the transliteration Βοος (indeclinable, rendering Hebrew בֹּעַז bōʿaz), and the Moabite woman as Ρουθ (likewise indeclinable). The gleaning legislation of Leviticus 19:9–10 underlies the chapter's action; the LXX renders the activity with συλλέγω ('collect, gather') and its cognate noun δράγμα ('bundle, sheaf'). The supervisor's address to Boaz in v.6 uses the Hebraism ἡ παῖς ἡ Μωαβῖτις, marking Ruth by ethnic identity ('the Moabite girl'). At v.7 the phrase ἕως ἑσπέρας ('until evening') renders a Hebrew clause that is partially obscure in the MT; the LXX reads smoothly. At v.12 the celebrated image of YHWH's wings under which Ruth has taken refuge (יְהוָה אֱלֹהֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל) is rendered by Κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραήλ with πτέρυγες ('wings'), and the word μισθός ('reward, wages') introduces the theme of recompense that the rest of the book develops. The LXX sometimes adds small connectives and explanatory glosses not in the MT: e.g., the repeated καί linking clauses and the explanatory relative clauses specifying kin relationships. Verse 20's exclamation ηὐλόγηται ('may he be blessed') is a perfect-form precative, a Hebraism calqued from the Hebrew passive participle בָּרוּךְ.

Ruth 3 — ΡΟΥΘ Γ′

Theme. At the threshing floor Naomi's motherly strategy and Ruth's bold, legally-grounded petition converge into the chapter's hinge act: Ruth asks Boaz to spread his wing (πτερύγιον) over her — simultaneously claiming the shelter his earlier prayer invoked (2:12) and invoking the law of kinsman-redemption (ἀγχιστεία) — to which Boaz responds with a blessing, an honest disclosure of a nearer claimant, and a sworn commitment to redeem her himself if that man declines, leaving the resolution poised to fall with the dawn.

Outline.

A · 3:1–5 — Naomi's plan: Ruth goes to the threshing floor. Naomi opens with a rhetorical question about seeking ἀνάπαυσιν ('rest/settlement') for Ruth (v.1) and discloses that Boaz — their γνωστός ('known kinsman') — will be winnowing barley that very night (v.2). She gives Ruth a carefully staged sequence of instructions: wash, anoint, dress, go up to the threshing floor, conceal herself until he has eaten and drunk, then note where he lies, uncover his feet, and lie down, leaving the next move to him (vv.3–4). Ruth's assent is absolute (v.5).
B · 3:6–9 — Ruth at the threshing floor: the petition. Ruth executes the plan exactly (v.6); Boaz finishes his festive meal and lies down at the heap's edge (v.7); Ruth comes ἐν κρυφῇ ('secretly'), uncovers his feet, and lies down (v.7). At midnight Boaz starts awake, turns, and sees — through Naomi's ἰδοὺ-eyes — a woman at his feet (v.8). His question (Τίς εἶ σύ;) is met by Ruth's double act: self-identification as his δούλη ('servant-girl') and the petition to spread his πτερύγιον ('wing/garment-corner') over her because he is her ἀγχιστεύς ('kinsman-redeemer') — the chapter's central crux (v.9).
C · 3:10–13 — Boaz's response: blessing, commendation, and the complication. Boaz pronounces Ruth εὐλογημένη by the Lord God (v.10) and declares her present ἔλεος ('steadfast kindness') greater than the first — choosing the older kinsman-redeemer over any young man, poor or rich (v.10). He assures her that all his people know her as γυνὴ δυνάμεως ('a woman of worth/valor,' v.11), acknowledges his ἀγχιστεία with ἀληθῶς ('truly'), but discloses the complication: a nearer kinsman exists (v.12). He commits under the oath ζῇ κύριος ('as the Lord lives') to redeem her himself if the nearer man declines (v.13).
D · 3:14–18 — Ruth returns to Naomi: the gift and the wait. Ruth lies at his feet until before dawn (v.14), and Boaz instructs that her visit to the threshing floor not become known (v.14). He gives her six measures of barley carried in her shawl (v.15), and she goes to the city and reports everything to Naomi (vv.15–16). Ruth explains that Boaz's stated reason for the gift was to prevent her returning to Naomi κενή ('empty'), reversing the emptiness of 1:21 (v.17). Naomi closes the chapter counselling patient expectation: the man will not rest until the matter is settled today (v.18).

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text follows Rahlfs–Hanhart (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006) as the standard critical text of the LXX, an ancient public-domain text; the distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Ruth chapter 3 is the threshing-floor scene: Naomi coaches Ruth in a nocturnal approach to Boaz that is at once bold, charged with social risk, and framed throughout by the idiom of the ἀγχιστεία ('right/duty of the near kinsman'). The LXX translation of Ruth is notably literal in its rendering of the Hebrew, a quality that makes the Greek almost a lemma-by-lemma calque of the MT and is characteristic of what scholars call a 'quantitative equivalence' technique: particles are preserved (הִנֵּה → ἰδού), the word order stays close, and even Hebrew idioms are carried across rather than rendered freely. Key vocabulary of this chapter: ἅλων (threshing floor, vv.2, 3, 6, 14), the locus of the scene; πτερύγιον (wing/garment-corner, v.9), the central symbolic gesture — 'spread your wing over your servant-girl' renders the Hebrew כְּנָפֶךָ and enacts the imagery of Boaz's earlier prayer (2:12) that God would shelter Ruth under his wings (πτέρυγες); ἀγχιστεύς / ἀγχιστεία (kinsman-redeemer / right of redemption, vv.9, 12, 13), the legal institution of the גֹּאֵל, here rendered by a rare Greek term coined or borrowed to carry the social-legal weight; γνωστός (acquaintance/close kinsman, v.2). A major LXX–MT divergence falls at v.4: LXX reads 'you shall go in and uncover from the side of his feet and shall lie down' (ἀποκαλύψεις τὰ πρὸς ποδῶν αὐτοῦ), while MT has 'uncover his feet' — the LXX formulation is slightly more circumspect. At v.15 LXX reads 'six measures of barley' without specifying units (the MT says 'six seahs'), and the subject of 'went into the city' is ambiguous: Rahlfs gives καὶ αὐτὸς εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν ('and he went into the city'), i.e. Boaz, while some witnesses and the MT support 'she went.' This chapter's Greek is marked by narrative parataxis (καί-chains), frequent imperatives as Naomi directs Ruth (λοῦσαι, ἀλείψαι, περιβαλοῦ, κατάβηθι, μὴ γνωρισθῇς), and the pivotal use of ἰδού to mark Naomi's confident prediction and Boaz's startled recognition.

Ruth 4 — ΡΟΥΘ Δ′

Theme. The book's resolution: Boaz convenes a legal assembly at the city gate, the anonymous kinsman-redeemer yields his right by the sandal rite, Boaz publicly acquires both land and Ruth in a levirate declaration before witnesses, the people and elders pronounce a double blessing over the union, the LORD grants conception and Ruth bears a son whom the neighbourhood women name Obed — and the closing genealogy, echoing the toledoth formula of Genesis, traces the line from Perez through ten generations to David, revealing that the hesed of a Moabitess and the faithfulness of Boaz lie at the root of Israel's royal house.

Outline.

A · 4:1–6 — The gate scene: the unnamed redeemer yields his right. Boaz goes up to the gate of Bethlehem and seats himself (1a); the unnamed kinsman-redeemer passes by and Boaz calls him to sit (1b). Boaz convenes ten elders as witnesses (2). He presents the case: Naomi is selling the parcel of land belonging to Elimelech, and the nearest kinsman has the first right of redemption (3–4). When the redeemer agrees to buy, Boaz adds the obligation: to take Ruth the Moabitess as wife and raise up the name of the dead (5). The redeemer immediately withdraws, for he fears damaging his own inheritance — he hands the right to Boaz (6).
B · 4:7–10 — The sandal rite and Boaz's public declaration. The narrator inserts a parenthesis explaining the ancient Israelite custom of formalising redemption or exchange by one party removing his sandal and giving it to the other (7); in accordance with this, the redeemer removes his sandal (8). Before the elders and all the people Boaz declares that he has acquired all that belonged to Elimelech and his sons (9) and that he takes Ruth the Moabitess as his wife to perpetuate the name of the dead over his inheritance (10).
C · 4:11–12 — The blessing of the people and elders. All the people at the gate and the elders witness and pronounce a double blessing: may the LORD make Ruth like Rachel and Leah who built the house of Israel (11a), and may Boaz be renowned in Bethlehem/Ephrathah (11b). A second blessing draws a comparison: may his house be like that of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring the LORD will give from this young woman (12) — embedding Ruth in Judah's messianic genealogical line.
D · 4:13–17 — Marriage, conception, birth, and the naming of Obed. Boaz takes Ruth as wife; the LORD grants conception and she bears a son (13). The women of Bethlehem praise the LORD who has not left Naomi without a redeemer, and they predict that his name will be proclaimed in Israel (14). They describe the child as a restorer of life and a nourisher of Naomi's old age, born of a daughter-in-law worth more than seven sons (15). Naomi takes the child and nurses him, and the neighbourhood women name him Ὠβήδ (16–17).
E · 4:18–22 — The genealogy from Perez to David. A formal genealogical colophon traces the line: Perez begat Hezron (18), Hezron begat Aram (19), Aram begat Aminadab (19), Aminadab begat Nahshon (20), Nahshon begat Salmon (20), Salmon begat Boaz (21), Boaz begat Obed (21), Obed begat Jesse (22), Jesse begat David (22). The list uses the LXX name-forms that reappear verbatim in Matt 1:3–6 and Luke 3:31–33, anchoring Ruth's story in the Davidic — and ultimately messianic — line.

Translation & textual notes. The Greek text follows Rahlfs–Hanhart (Septuaginta, rev. ed. 2006) in its main wording — an ancient, public-domain text; the distinctively copyrighted critical apparatus is not reproduced. Verse punctuation, paragraphing, and capitalization are editorial and conventional. Chapter 4 is the resolution of the whole book: the anonymous redeemer (ὁ ἀγχιστεύων, 'the one who is next-of-kin') renounces his right at the town gate, Boaz redeems both the land and Ruth, and the closing genealogy anchors the story in the line of David. The key technical term ἀγχιστεύω (and its noun ἀγχιστεύς / ἀγχιστεία) translates Hebrew גאל, 'to act as kinsman-redeemer,' and is used eleven times in the chapter (vv. 1, 3, 4[×3], 6[×2], 8, 14); its NT echo is Gal 4:5 (ἐξαγοράζω) and the whole theology of redemption. At vv. 7–8 the LXX preserves an explanatory parenthesis on the sandal-removal custom (a practice the translator apparently found archaic), rendering the sandal gesture (Hebrew נעל) as a legal symbol of transfer; the LXX diverges slightly from MT at v. 7 ('the custom in former times in Israel concerning redemption and exchange'), and the glossing parenthesis in v. 7 is part of the Greek text itself. At v. 11 the blessing of the elders names Rachel and Leah as builders of the house of Israel and invokes Ephrath and Bethlehem; at v. 12 Perez, son of Tamar and Judah, is named — a Hebraism-dense genealogical aside that the LXX renders with its characteristic spelling Φαρές. The closing genealogy (vv. 18–22) uses LXX name-forms that recur in the NT: Σαλμών (Matt 1:4–5; Luke 3:32), Βοός (Matt 1:5), Ὠβήδ (Matt 1:5; Luke 3:32), Ἰεσσαί (Matt 1:5–6), Δαυίδ (Matt 1:6), making Ruth 4:18–22 the direct template for the Matthaean and Lukan genealogies. A key LXX/MT divergence occurs at v. 4: the LXX has Boaz address the redeemer in the second person, while MT has Boaz speaking to the elders in the third; the LXX reading is followed here. At v. 17 the LXX does not reproduce the Hebrew note 'a son is born to Naomi' but instead has the women name the child directly; the name Ὠβήδ is the LXX transliteration of עובד. Orthographic variants (movable-ν; Βοόζ/Βοός/Βοώς; Σαλμών/Σαλμάν) are not noted.

Major translation & exegetical cruxes

Where the Greek legitimately admits more than one rendering or reading — or where the LXX diverges from the Hebrew — the point was flagged in the lexical notes and chapter text_notes rather than decided silently; the more common analysis was generally taken and the alternative noted. The principal cruxes in LXX Ruth:

Reference	Crux	Discussion
1:2	Αβιμελεχ vs. MT Elimelech	The MT husband-name is אֱלִימֶלֶךְ (Elimelech, 'my God is king'), but the LXX Rahlfs text consistently reads Αβιμελεχ — the name of the Philistine king of Gerar (Gen 20–21; 26). This is one of the most striking LXX/MT proper-name divergences in the book; it may reflect a scribal confusion in the Vorlage, an alternate tradition, or a tendency to assimilate to a better-known name.
1:8	ἔλεος (ḥesed)	The LXX renders חֶסֶד as ἔλεος ('mercy / pity') throughout the book, but ḥesed encompasses much more: covenant loyalty, obligation-exceeding generosity, and familial faithfulness. ἔλεος captures the relational warmth but not the legal-covenantal dimension; some argue the LXX systematically impoverishes the concept. The word is the book's theological key-term and occurs at 2:20 and 3:10 as well.
1:13	μὴ κύριέ μοι	This phrase is a genuine crux in the LXX text. The Rahlfs–Hanhart edition reads μὴ κύριέ μοι ('no, my lord/daughters'), but κύριέ as a vocative for human address is highly unusual and may reflect a corruption or a misreading. Several manuscripts supply θυγατέρες μου ('my daughters') as the direct address, which fits the context and parallels vv.11 and 12. The reading is flagged here as uncertain.
1:14	ἐκολλήθη (דָּבַק, 'cleave')	The aorist passive ἐκολλήθη ('was joined / clung') renders דָּבַק, the covenant-bonding verb of Gen 2:24 ('a man shall cleave to his wife') and Deut 10:20 ('you shall cleave to the LORD your God'). The LXX's use of κολλάω here is almost certainly deliberate: Ruth's clinging to Naomi is cast in the language of the highest covenantal fidelity. The same root appears in 1 Cor 6:17.
1:16–17	Ruth's oath (ὅπου ἐὰν πορευθῇς … τάδε ποιήσαι μοι κύριος)	The oath's structure — two parallel conditional-relative pairs (πορευθῇς/πορεύσομαι; αὐλισθῇς/αὐλισθήσομαι) followed by two verbless identity-claims (λαός; θεός) and a death-saying, sealed with a divine self-imprecation — is highly formal and poetic. In the LXX the oath formula τάδε ποιήσαι μοι κύριος καὶ τάδε προσθείη is the standard biblical imprecation (1 Sam 3:17; 14:44; 2 Sam 3:9). Ruth's confession ὁ θεός σου θεός μου ('your God is my God') is significant for the LXX's implicit argument that a Gentile can voluntarily join Israel and its covenant God — a counter-text to Deut 23:3.
1:20	ὁ ἱκανός (שַׁדַּי, El Shaddai)	The LXX renders שַׁדַּי as ὁ ἱκανός ('the Sufficient / Able One') in Ruth 1:20–21 — elsewhere it uses ὁ παντοκράτωρ ('the Almighty'). The choice of ἱκανός ('capable / sufficient') is unusual and theologically pointed: the very God who is sufficient to provide is the one who has brought Naomi low. The divine name flags the patriarchal register of the lament.
1:21	πλήρης / κενή ('full' / 'empty')	The antithesis ἐγὼ πλήρης ἐπορεύθην, καὶ κενὴν ἀπέστρεψέν με κύριος is the chapter's rhetorical climax. The LXX renders מְלֵאָה / רֵיקָם ('full' / 'empty-handed') faithfully. The 'full/empty' pair carries both literal (family) and metaphorical (providential) weight, and is the inverse of what Bethlehem ('house of bread') will provide; κενή (accusative object complement) is syntactically striking — the LORD 'returned her as empty,' not 'returned her to emptiness.'
2:3	περιέπεσεν περιπτώματι ('she happened upon by chance')	Figura etymologica rendering Hebrew וַיִּקֶר מִקְרֶהָ — the idiom marks an event that appears accidental but is narratively framed as providential. The same root (קרה) is used in the Hebrew for 'chance/fate' and recurs only in Qohelet (Eccl 2:14–15) in the OT, heightening the irony: the most 'providential' moment in Ruth is described in the vocabulary of bare chance.
2:7	ἕως ἑσπέρας οὐ κατέπαυσεν ἐν τῷ ἀγρῷ μικρόν	The Hebrew counterpart (כְּמְעַט שִׁבְתָּהּ הַבַּיִת) is syntactically ambiguous and has been variously rendered; most commentators read 'except for a little rest in the house.' The LXX instead renders the whole clause positively as unbroken labor through the whole day — a smoother but potentially divergent reading.
2:12	ὑπὸ τὰς πτέρυγας αὐτοῦ ('under his wings')	The wings-of-refuge image (πτέρυγες / כְּנָפַיִם) links YHWH's protective act to the later garment-corner (also כָּנָף / πτέρυξ) that Boaz will spread over Ruth at the threshing floor (3:9) — a deliberate verbal-theological connection suggesting that Boaz's kinsman-redemption is the concrete form of YHWH's winged shelter.
2:12	μισθός ('reward, wages')	Renders Hebrew מַשְׂכֻּרְתֵּךְ ('your wages/reward'); the commercial-legal register (μισθός / ἀποτίσαι) frames YHWH's blessing as just recompense, activating a motif (the loyal worker deserves full pay) developed through the גֹּאֵל legal framework in chapters 3–4.
2:14	ἐψήφισεν αὐτῇ Βοος ἄλφιτον	LXX ψηφίζω here renders Hebrew צָבַט ('to hand over, serve'); ψηφίζω normally means 'count, reckon' (cf. Luke 14:28; Rev 13:18), so the sense 'portion out, serve' is unusual and may reflect a different Hebrew vorlage or an idiomatic extension. Some LXX manuscripts vary this word.
2:20	ὅτι οὐκ ἐγκατέλιπεν τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ	The subject of ἐγκατέλιπεν is ambiguous: it is grammatically most natural to read YHWH (the antecedent Κύριος in Naomi's blessing formula) as the one who has not abandoned his ἔλεος, but some interpreters read Boaz as the subject ('who has not forsaken his kindness toward the living and the dead'). The LXX does not resolve the ambiguity. ἔλεος renders Hebrew חֶסֶד, the key theological term of Ruth, encompassing both covenant loyalty and active loving-kindness.
2:20	ἀγχιστευόντων ἡμᾶς ('those who redeem us')	First appearance of ἀγχιστεύω in Ruth, rendering the Hebrew גֹּאֵל ('kinsman-redeemer'); v.1 had deliberately used the softer γνώριμος ('known person/acquaintance'), deferring the legal disclosure until this climactic moment. The ἀγχιστεύων's legal duties — land redemption, levirate marriage, blood-vengeance — underpin the entire plot of chapters 3–4.
3:9	πτερύγιόν σου ('your wing/garment-corner')	The central symbolic act of the chapter. Hebrew כָּנָף ('wing') is the same word used by Boaz in 2:12 of YHWH's sheltering wings; here Ruth invites Boaz to become the human agent of that divine sheltering by spreading his garment-corner over her — simultaneously a marriage proposal, a claim on the ἀγχιστεία, and a symbolic enactment of the kinsman-redeemer's protective role. The LXX πτερύγιον (diminutive, 'little wing') may also denote the tasseled corner (tzitzit) of an Israelite's garment.
3:11	φυλὴ τοῦ λαοῦ μου ('the tribe of my people')	LXX reads φυλή ('tribe') where MT has שַׁעַר ('gate'), i.e. the legal assembly at the city gate. The LXX either mistranslated or understood the gate as representing the communal gathering of the tribe. The MT 'all the gate of my people know you are a woman of worth' makes better legal sense (the gate is where legal and social reputation is established), but the LXX phrasing shows the translator's interpretive choices.
3:12	ἀγχιστεὺς ἐγγίων ὑπὲρ ἐμέ ('a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I')	The unnamed nearer kinsman of this verse is the legal obstacle that drives chapter 4. He is never named in Ruth (he is called פְּלֹנִי אַלְמֹנִי = 'so-and-so' in MT 4:1; LXX has ὁ δεῖνα). His existence is not a device of dramatic complication alone but reflects the genuine priority of kinship order in the institution of the גֹּאֵל/ἀγχιστεύς.
3:15	εἰσῆλθεν εἰς τὴν πόλιν (subject ambiguous: 'he / she went into the city')	One of the chapter's best-known text-critical cruxes. Rahlfs prints the text without an explicit subject after the grain-giving, though some LXX manuscripts have αὐτός ('he,' Boaz) and others support the feminine subject (Ruth). The MT is similarly ambiguous (וַיָּבֹא / וַתָּבֹא). Most modern commentators prefer Ruth as the subject (she goes to report to Naomi), making 3:16 a natural sequel; but the LXX main text as printed implies Boaz goes to the city — perhaps to begin the legal process without delay.
3:18	ἀναπαύσεται / ἀνάπαυσιν (verbal echo binding vv.1 and 18)	Naomi opened the chapter seeking ἀνάπαυσιν ('rest/settlement') for Ruth (v.1); she closes it predicting that Boaz (ὁ ἀνήρ) will not ἀναπαύσεται ('give himself rest') until the matter is settled today. The shared root creates a deliberate frame: the one who is to be the agent of Ruth's rest will himself be restless until he has secured it, a miniature narrative ring that ties the chapter's theology of committed loyalty (ἔλεος/χεσεδ) into its very structure.
4:4	κἀγὼ εἶπα · Ἀποκαλύψω τὸ οὖς σου	The LXX idiom ἀποκαλύψω τὸ οὖς σου ('I will uncover your ear') is a Hebraism of גָּלָה אֹזֶן — a private disclosure. MT addresses the redeemer in the 3rd person throughout v.4 (Boaz speaking to the elders); the LXX shifts to 2nd person direct address. The LXX reading is exegetically smoother but may reflect a Hebrew Vorlage or a translator's interpretive move.
4:6	μήποτε διαφθείρω τὴν κληρονομίαν μου	The redeemer's fear of 'ruining' (διαφθείρω) his own inheritance is the crux of the whole chapter. The exact economic mechanism is debated: a new male heir born of Ruth could subdivide the redeemer's existing estate (if he had daughters as sole heirs), or he feared legal complications with a Moabitess widow (Deut 23:3). The LXX subjunctive after μήποτε underscores the feared contingency.
4:7	τοῦτο τὸ δικαίωμα ἔμπροσθεν ἐν τῷ Ἰσραήλ	The entire verse is a parenthetical narrator's aside explaining the sandal custom — present in both MT and LXX but signalling to the reader that the practice was already archaic when the book was written (or translated). LXX renders Hebrew מְנָעָל ('sandal') as ὑπόδημα. The custom parallels (but differs from) the halizah rite of Deut 25:9, where it is the widow who removes the sandal of the man who refuses to redeem. Here the redeemer removes his own sandal voluntarily.
4:11	ποίησον δύναμιν ἐν Εφραθα	The phrase ποίησον δύναμιν ('do/show worth/valour') is a Hebraism of עֲשֵׂה חַיִל — 'prove yourself a man of worth.' LXX δύναμις normally = 'power, force, host' rather than 'worth, wealth, valour' (Hebrew חַיִל); the LXX translator chose δύναμιν over other options (ἰσχύς, ἀρετή), creating a slight semantic oddity. The phrase nonetheless captures the social-honour sense intended.
4:15	ἀγαθή σοι ὑπὲρ ἑπτὰ υἱούς	The comparative ἀγαθή ... ὑπέρ ('better than') renders Hebrew טוֹבָה ... מִ with ὑπέρ functioning as the comparative marker — a Hebraism. Seven sons represent the ideal number of male heirs (cf. 1 Sam 2:5; Job 1:2). The women's declaration that Ruth is worth more than seven sons is the book's rhetorical climax, positioning a Moabitess above Israel's highest domestic ideal.
4:17	ἐκάλεσαν αὐτῷ αἱ γείτονες ὄνομα	The naming of the child by the neighbouring women rather than by the mother or father is unique in the OT. In MT the women 'call a name for him' (וַתִּקְרֶאנָה לוֹ הַשְּׁכֵנוֹת שֵׁם), and the LXX renders this faithfully. The active role of the female community as birth-witnesses and name-givers reflects the communal character of the book and frames Obed's birth as a public and theological event, not merely a private one.

How the data set is organized

lxx-interlinear/data/ruth{1..4}.json — the durable scholarly content: one JSON object per chapter (reference, titles, text-note, outline, and verses with per-word annotation and per-verse discourse notes). The data set shares the nt-interlinear toolkit and schema with the New Testament volumes.
lxx-interlinear/ — the LXX data home and index builder; rendering reuses the chapter-agnostic nt-interlinear toolkit (stdlib-only HTML; headless-Chromium PDF). Adding a chapter (or a book) requires no code changes.
Rendered artifacts — Ruth{1..4}.html and .pdf under lxxsite/Ruth/, linked from its index.html in the Septuagint site root.

The interpretive tiers (syntactic function, semantic force, discourse structure, and the proposed argument outlines) are interpretive by nature; where readings legitimately differ, the more common analysis was generally chosen, and the lexical notes are condensed orientation rather than a substitute for a lexicon (e.g. LEH / Muraoka) or a full commentary.