Word study
Ruth
8 Hebrew and 1 Greek words behind this English word
The original-language words that the Berean Standard Bible translates with “ruth”. English often uses one word where Hebrew or Greek has several, each with its own shade of meaning. Under each word are verses where it is translated this way; choose the word itself for its full study: every verse, how else it is translated, the forms it takes and what the dictionaries say.
At a glance
How often each original word is translated “Ruth” or one of its forms.
Compare the Hebrew words side by side
Hebrew and Aramaic words (Old Testament)
- רוּת RûthRuthtranslated this way 12 times of its 12 uses · Strong’s H7327Noun · Translated: Ruth 12Full study and all 12 verses →
Ruth 1:4 who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years,
Ruth 1:14 Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
- הוּא hûhe, shetranslated this way 1 time of its 1,425 uses · Strong’s H1931Pronoun · Translated: he 269, it 151, that 114, on that 87Full study and all 1,320 verses →
- הָלַךְ hâlakgo, come, walktranslated this way 1 time of its 1,461 uses · Strong’s H1980Verb · Translated: go 338, went 173, walk 116, Come 84Full study and all 1,299 verses →
- לָקַט lâqaṭpick or gather uptranslated this way 1 time of its 37 uses · Strong’s H3950Verb · Translated: gather 14, gathered 8, glean 6, gleaned 3Full study and all 34 verses →
Ruth 2:17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.
- דָּבַק dâbaqcling, cleave, keep closetranslated this way 1 time of its 54 uses · Strong’s H1692Verb · Translated: cling 12, hold fast 6, overtook 4, clung 3Full study and all 52 verses →
Ruth 2:23 So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
- חֲמוֹת chămôthhusband's mothertranslated this way 1 time of its 11 uses · Strong’s H2545Noun · Translated: mother-in-law 10, day ruth's mother-in-law 1Full study and all 10 verses →
- בּוֹא bôcome in, come, go in, gotranslated this way 1 time of its 2,442 uses · Strong’s H935Verb · Translated: come 358, came 298, bring 209, brought 201Full study and all 2,217 verses →
- נָגַד nâgadbe conspicuoustranslated this way 1 time of its 360 uses · Strong’s H5046Verb · Translated: tell 83, told 67, reported 31, declare 18Full study and all 339 verses →
Ruth 3:16 When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked her, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her all that Boaz had done for her.
Greek words (New Testament)
- Ῥούθ RhoúthRuthtranslated this way 1 time of its 1 use · Strong’s G4503Noun · Translated: Ruth 1Full study and its 1 verse →
Matthew 1:5 Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,
How to study a word well
- Start from the verse, not the dictionary. Find which Hebrew or Greek word stands in the verse you are studying. One English word often translates several different original words.
- Read every place the word is used. A word means what its writers used it to mean. The list of verses and the count by book show its range, and who uses it most.
- Look at how it is translated. A word rendered five different ways has a wider meaning than any one English word can carry.
- Notice the form. A command is not a statement, and a passive verb is something done to the subject. The form in your verse is part of the meaning.
- See what it keeps company with. The words that appear beside it again and again show how the Bible itself connects ideas.
- Then read the dictionaries. They give the considered view of scholars, with their evidence.
- Come back to the verse. Context decides. A word does not carry every one of its meanings into every verse, and where a word came from does not settle what it means in a sentence written centuries later.
What the Bible says about Ruth: passages by topic →
Scripture text and translation counts: Berean Standard Bible. Full entry: Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906, public domain), in the digital edition Brown-Driver-Briggs Enhanced by unfoldingWord (Joel Ruark, J. de Joode), based on data by Eliran Wong and Stephen Ku; its additions are used under CC BY 4.0. Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary: Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible Project, CC BY 4.0. Hebrew-to-English verse numbering: original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb, CC BY 4.0. We reformatted the data, linked the references to this site’s Bible text and left out words in other scripts that the source holds only as images. These are historical reference works; an entry gives its authors’ view, and a word’s meaning in any verse depends on how it is used there.