Boaz Meets Ruth
Now Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a mighty man of valor, from the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.
And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go, please, to the field, and glean among the ears of grain behind whoever I find favor in his eyes.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
And she went, and came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers; and her chance chanced on the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech.
And look — Boaz came from Bethlehem; and he said to the reapers, “The LORD be with you.” And they said to him, “The LORD bless you.”
And Boaz said to his young man who stood over the reapers, “Whose is this young woman?”
And the young man who stood over the reapers answered and said, “She is a Moabite young woman, the one who returned with Naomi from the field of Moab.
And she said, ‘Let me glean, please, and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ And she came, and she has stood from the morning until now — she has rested in the house only a little.”
And Boaz said to Ruth: “Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and do not pass on from this one; and stay close here with my young women.
Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and go behind them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men draw.”
And she fell on her face and bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you take notice of me — and I a foreigner?”
And Boaz answered and said to her: “It has surely been told to me — all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband: how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and went to a people you had not known before.
May the LORD repay your work, and may your wages be full from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
And she said, “Let me find favor in your eyes, my lord — for you have comforted me, and have spoken to the heart of your servant, though I am not even like one of your servants.”
And Boaz said to her at mealtime, “Come near here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.” And she sat beside the reapers; and he held out roasted grain to her, and she ate and was satisfied, and had some left over.
And she rose to glean. And Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even between the sheaves, and do not humiliate her.
And also pull out some for her from the bundles on purpose, and leave it for her to glean; and do not rebuke her.”
And she gleaned in the field until the evening; and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.
And she lifted it and came into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought out and gave her what she had left over after she was satisfied.
And her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be blessed.” And she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed is he by the LORD, who has not forsaken his loyal love with the living or with the dead.” And Naomi said to her, “The man is near of kin to us; he is one of our redeemers.”
And Ruth the Moabite said, “He also said to me, ‘Stay close with the young men who are mine, until they have finished all my harvest.’”
And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that they do not meet you in another field.”
And she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.