Ruth 2-3

Evangelical Heritage Version

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative^[a] of her husband, a wealthy, generous^[b] man from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “I am going to go out to the fields, so that I can glean^[c] ears of grain wherever I may find favor in the eyes of the owner.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”

³ So Ruth went out and gleaned in the grain fields after the reapers. It happened that she was in the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. ⁴ At just that time, Boaz happened to come out from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “The Lord bless you!”

⁵ Then Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me follow the reapers and glean and gather stalks into sheaves.’ So she came and has been working from early morning till now—except for a short rest in the shelter.”^[d]

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter.^[e] Do not go off to glean in some other field. In fact, do not leave this one at all! Just stick close to my young women here.^{[f] 9} Keep your eyes on the field where the men are reaping so that you can follow my women. I have commanded the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, you may go to the jars and drink from whatever the young men draw out.”

¹⁰ Then Ruth bowed down with her face to the ground. She said to Boaz, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, so that you acknowledge me even though I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied to her, “I have been fully informed about all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband and how you left behind your father and mother and the homeland of your relatives, and you came to a people whom you did not know previously. ¹² May the Lord reward your work, and may you be paid in full by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge!”

¹³ Then Ruth said, “I have found such favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and you have spoken to the heart of your servant girl—although I cannot be compared to one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some of the food, and dip your piece of bread into the sour wine.”^[g] So she sat down beside the reapers, and Boaz heaped up a serving of roasted grain for her. She ate until she was full and had some left over.

¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz ordered his workers, “She may glean even among our sheaves. You are not to humiliate her in any way. ¹⁶ In fact, you can even pull out some stalks from the piles for her, and you can drop them on purpose so that she can glean them, and do not rebuke her at all.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed what she had gleaned. It amounted to almost a bushel^[h] of barley.

¹⁸ When she picked it up and went into town, her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Ruth also took what she had left over from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

¹⁹ Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May the man who took notice of you be blessed!”

So she told her mother-in-law in whose field she had worked: “The name of the man in whose field I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose faithfulness^[i] has not forsaken^[j] the living and the dead!”

Naomi also said to her, “This man is related to us. He is even one of our family’s redeemers.”^[k]

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stick close to my workers until they have finished all of the harvest on the land that belongs to me.’”

²² Then Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you can go out with his young women, so that you will not be molested by men in some other field.”

²³ So Ruth stuck close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the completion of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth Proposes Marriage at the Threshing Floor

3 Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I seek security^[l] for you so that you will be well taken care of? ² Isn’t Boaz, whose young women you have been with, our relative? Look, he will be winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight. ³ So bathe, put on perfume, and dress up. Then go down to the threshing floor. Do not present yourself to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ But when he lies down, take note of the place where he lies down. Then go up to him, uncover his legs, and lie down there. He himself will tell you what you should do.”

⁵ Ruth said to her, “All that you say to me, I will do!” ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor, and she did everything that her mother-in-law had commanded her to do.

⁷ After Boaz ate and drank, and his heart was happy, he went to lie down at the edge of the grain pile. Then Ruth came up to him quietly, and she uncovered his legs and lay down there. ⁸ In the middle of the night, the man was startled^[m] and turned over, and there was a woman lying on his legs!^[n]

⁹ He said, “Who are you?”

She said, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread out the skirt of your robe^[o] over your servant, for you are a family redeemer.”

¹⁰ Then he said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter! You have made your last act of kindness better than the first by not going to look for a young man, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ So now, my daughter, do not be afraid. I will do everything that you are asking. Indeed, all the people at the city gate^[p] know that you are an honorable woman. ¹² Now it is indeed true—certainly I am a family redeemer—but nevertheless there is a redeemer who is closer than I am. ¹³ Spend the night here. If in the morning he acts as a redeemer for you, good. Let him redeem. But if he does not want to act as a redeemer for you, then I will act as a redeemer for you myself, as the Lord lives! Lie down here until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay down at his feet until morning. She got up before it was light enough for anyone to recognize a person.

But Boaz thought, “No one should know that a woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ So he said, “Come here and hold out the shawl that you are wearing.” So she held it out. He measured out six scoops^[q] of barley into it for her to carry home. Then he^[r] returned to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came back to her mother-in-law, Naomi said, “How did it turn out, my daughter?”

Then Ruth told her all that the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said, “He gave me these six scoops of barley, and he said, ‘You must not return to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out. For the man will not rest until he has taken care of this matter today!”