The Preacher's Bible

Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.

²Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

⁴Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, “May Jehovah be with you.” They answered him, “May Jehovah bless you.”

⁶The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. ⁷She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she rested a little in the house.”

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field, and don’t go from here, but stay here close to my maidens. ⁹Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Haven’t I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink from that which the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?”

¹¹Boaz answered her, “I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before. ¹²May Jehovah repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from Jehovah, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not as one of your servants.”

¹⁴At meal time Boaz said to her, “Come here, and eat some bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” She sat beside the reapers, and they passed her parched grain. She ate, was satisfied, and left some of it.

¹⁵When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don’t reproach her. ¹⁶Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it. Let her glean, and don’t rebuke her.”

¹⁷So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸She took it up, and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she had enough.

¹⁹Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Jehovah, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

²¹Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall 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 maidens, and that they not harm you in any other field.” ²³So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.