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18 She picked up her grain[a] and went back to town.

Her mother-in-law noticed how much Ruth[b] had gleaned and had brought back from what was left over from her lunch. 19 So her mother-in-law quizzed her, “Where did you glean today? Where, precisely, did you work? May the one who took notice of you be blessed.”

So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

20 Naomi replied, “May the one who hasn’t abandoned his gracious love to the living or to the dead be blessed by the Lord.” Naomi added, “This man is closely related to us, our related redeemer,[c] as a matter of fact!”

21 Then Ruth the Moabite woman added, “He also told me ‘Stay close to my young men until they have completed my entire harvest.’”

22 Naomi responded to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is prudent, my daughter, for you to go out with his women servants, so someone won’t attack you in another field.” 23 So Ruth[d] continued to stay close to the young women who worked for Boaz, gathering grain until both the barley and wheat harvests were complete, all the while living with her mother-in-law.

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Footnotes

  1. Ruth 2:18 The Heb. lacks her grain
  2. Ruth 2:18 Lit. she
  3. Ruth 2:20 I.e. a close male relative responsible to redeem inheritances (Lev. 25:25), to free relatives from indentured servitude (Lev. 25:47-55), to avenge deaths (Deut. 19:1-13), and to financially support, care for, and (in certain limited cases) to marry a widow related to him (Deut. 25:5-10); and so throughout the book
  4. Ruth 2:23 Lit. she

18 She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over(A) after she had eaten enough.

19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!(B)

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

20 “The Lord bless him!(C)” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.(D) “He has not stopped showing his kindness(E) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative;(F) he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[a](G)

21 Then Ruth the Moabite(H) said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

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

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Footnotes

  1. Ruth 2:20 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).