Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field

2 Now Naomi had a relative^(A) on her husband’s side, a man of standing^(B) from the clan of Elimelek,^(C) whose name was Boaz.^(D)

² And Ruth the Moabite^(E) said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain^(F) behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.^(G)”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters.^(H) As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.^(I)

⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!^(J)”

“The Lord bless you!^(K)” they answered.

⁵ Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”

⁶ The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite^(L) who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves^(M) behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest^(N) in the shelter.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed^(A) the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^{[a](B) 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^(C) 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!^(D)”

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!^(E)” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.^(F) “He has not stopped showing his kindness^(G) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative;^(H) he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b](I)”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite^(J) 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^(K) and wheat harvests^(L) were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.