Ruth 2

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, a man of standing from the family of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out into the fields and pick up leftover grain behind anyone who'll let me.” “Go ahead, my daughter,” she said.

So she went out and started gleaning in the fields behind the harvesters. And as it turned out, she found herself in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelek.

And just then Boaz came out from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” “The Lord bless you,” they answered.

And Boaz said to the man in charge of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is that?”

And the man said, “She's the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi.

She said, ‘Let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came out and she's been on her feet from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”

So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don't go gleaning in another field, and don't go away from here. Stay with the women who work for me.

Watch the field where the men are harvesting and follow along behind the women. I've told the men not to touch you. And when you're thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the men have filled.”

And she bowed down with her face to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favour with you, that you'd take notice of me — a foreigner?”

And Boaz answered her, “I've been told everything you've done for your mother-in-law since your husband died — how you left your father and mother and the land you were born in, and came to a people you didn't know before.

May the Lord repay you for what you've done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you've come for shelter.”

“I hope I go on finding favour with you, sir,” she said. “You've comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I'm not even one of your servants.”

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread, and dip it in the wine vinegar.” So she sat down with the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over.

And when she got up to glean, Boaz gave his men orders. “Let her glean among the sheaves. Don't say anything to her.

Better still, pull out some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't tell her off.”

So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed what she'd gathered, and it came to about an ephah of barley.

She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she'd gathered. And Ruth brought out what she'd had left over from her meal and gave it to her.

And her mother-in-law said, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” And Ruth told her mother-in-law whose field she'd been working in. “The man I worked with today is called Boaz,” she said.

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “The Lord bless him. He hasn't stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” And she said, “That man is a close relative of ours. He's one of our guardian-redeemers.”

And Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they've finished all my harvest.’”

And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It'll be good for you, my daughter, to go out with his women. In someone else's field you might be harmed.”

So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean, until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.