Ruth 2

Ruth gleans in the field of Boaz

¹Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of wealth and standing from the clan of Elimelech. His name was Boaz. ²Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out to the fields and glean ears of grain behind anyone who will look on me with favor.” Naomi answered her, “Go, my daughter.” ³So she set out, came to a field and gleaned behind the harvesters. As it happened, she came to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech. ⁴Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He greeted the harvesters, “The LORD be with you!” and they answered him, “May the LORD bless you!” ⁵Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?” ⁶The servant in charge of the harvesters answered, “She is a young Moabite woman, the one who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. ⁷She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ So she came, and she has been on her feet from early morning until now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”^{a 8}Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to glean in any other field, and do not move on from this one. Stay here close to my young women. ⁹Keep your eyes on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have ordered the young men not to lay a hand on you. And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink from the water the young men have drawn.” ¹⁰Ruth fell face down and bowed to the ground. She said to him, “Why have I found such favor with you, that you would take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?” ¹¹Boaz answered her, “I have heard the whole story of what you have done for your mother-in-law after your husband’s death: how you left your father and mother and the land where you were born, and came to a people you had never known before. ¹²May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you receive your full wages from the LORD, the God of Israel, beneath whose wings you have come for refuge.” ¹³She said, “May I go on finding favor in your eyes, my lord. You have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not even one of your servant women.”^{b 14}When mealtime came, Boaz said to her, “Come over here and help yourself to some bread. Dip your piece in the sour wine.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and still had some left over. ¹⁵When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his young men: “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not embarrass her. ¹⁶And even pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to glean. Do not scold her.” ¹⁷So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it came to about 20 quarts of barley. ¹⁸She picked it up and went into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Ruth also brought out what she had left over after eating her fill, and gave it to her. ¹⁹Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man she had worked with. “The man I worked with today is named Boaz,” she said. ²⁰Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May the LORD bless him! The LORD has not stopped showing his faithful love to the living and to the dead.” Naomi went on, “That man is a close relative of ours. He is one of our family redeemers.”^{c 21}Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even told me, ‘Stay close to my workers until they have finished all my harvest.’” ²²Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is best, my daughter, that you go out with his young women. In someone else’s field you might be harmed.” ²³So Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were over. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.