006_kim_589-601 13/02/15 12:50 Pagina 593 THE AGENT OF ḤESED IN NAOMI’S BLESSING (RUTH 2,20) 593 the ambiguity here. Though one may study the ambiguity for literary or theological understanding of the text, the fact remains that “Naomi knows who she was referring to, either Yahweh or Boaz” 14. If the implicit agent of ḥesed is YHWH, the subordinate clause ex- presses the praise of YHWH 15. According to this understanding, Naomi, who revealed her bitterness toward YHWH, is now confessing that YHWH has not abandoned ḥesed with her family, both the living and the dead. Eskenazi and Frymer-Kensky reason that the relative pronoun cannot refer to Boaz because nothing suggests that Boaz has done ḥesed to Naomi’s husband while he was alive 16. On the other hand, if the implicit agent of ḥesed is Boaz, the relative clause can be interpreted as providing grounds for blessing Boaz. According to this understanding, Boaz displays special kindness toward Ruth by granting her more rights and privileges than normal gatherers could expect from the landowner. As Campbell puts it, “the Ruth story is basically about extraordi- nary caring and concern, kindness that is above and beyond the call of duty” 17. II. Syntactic issues In the expression “l […] $wrb”, the preposition l is traditionally taken to mark the noun it governs as the agent of the blessing 18. However, Pardee suggests that “l […] $wrb” is the passivized form of “B l A $rb” (literally, “bless A to B” or “recommend A for blessing to B”), which ex- presses “a verbal blessing, directed to a deity” 19. In this vein, Waltke and O’Connor translate our clause as “May he be pronounced blessed to YHWH”, categorizing the verb $rb as a verb of speaking 20. Joüon – Muraoka acknowledge the usage proposed by Pardee, but still understand the preposition l in Ru 2,20 as the marker of agent 21. Bush states that Pardee’s argument would make a strong case for Boaz as the agent of ḥesed, since in that case the rva clause would be a causal clause that gives 14 SAXEGAARD, Character Complexity, 169. 15 W. RUDOLPH, Das Buch Ruth, Das Hohe Lied, Die Klagelieder (KAT; Gütersloh 1962) 51. 16 ESKENAZI – FRYMER-KENSKY, Ruth, 43. 17 CAMPBELL, Ruth, 110. 18 GKC, §121f; P. JOÜON, Grammaire de l’hébreu biblique (Rome 21996) §132f. 19 D.G. PARDEE, “The Preposition in Ugaritic”, UF 8 (1976) 221-223. 20 B.K. WALTKE – M. O’CONNOR, An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syn- tax (Winona Lake, IN 1990) 206-207. 21 P. JOÜON – T. MURAOKA, A Grammar of Biblical Hebrew (SubBi 27; Rome 22009) §132f n. 5.