Ruth Gleans in the Field of Boaz
1Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out to the fields and gather the leftover grain behind anyone who will show me favor.” Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3So she went out to the fields and gathered grain behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the portion of the field that belonged to Boaz, of the family of Elimelech. 4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “Yahweh be with you.” “Yahweh bless you,” they answered. 5Boaz asked the young man in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6The young man in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. 7She asked, ‘Let me gather grain among the sheaves, behind the reapers,’ and she has been on her feet since morning, with hardly a moment’s rest.” 8Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter — do not gather grain in any other field, and do not go anywhere else. Stay close to my young women. 9Keep your eyes on whatever field they are reaping and follow behind them. I have told the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what they have drawn.” 10She bowed low, her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes, that you notice me — a foreigner?” 11Boaz answered her, “I have been told everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died — how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people you did not know before. 12May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” 13She said, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord. You have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not even one of your servants.” 14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread, and dip it in the sour wine.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he handed her roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and had some left over. 15When she got up to gather grain again, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her gather even among the sheaves, and do not embarrass her. 16And pull out some stalks from the bundles on purpose and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.” 17So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed what she had gathered, it came to about an ephah of barley. 18She picked it up and went into town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered. Ruth also brought out what she had kept back from her meal and gave it to her. 19Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be the one who noticed you.” So Ruth told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with, saying, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.” 20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by Yahweh, who has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” Naomi added, “That man is a close relative of ours — one of our guardian-redeemers.” 21Ruth the Moabite said, “He even told me, ‘Stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that no one bothers you in another field.” 23So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gathering grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
