Ruth 2:4-17
Evangelical Heritage Version
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.”[a]
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter.[b] 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.[c] 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.”[d] 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[e] of barley.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Ruth 2:7 Literally house. The Hebrew of the verse is difficult, and translations vary in their understanding.
- Ruth 2:8 Daughter is a cordial term, but it also indicates that the person addressed has a lower social status than the speaker does. It may also indicate a difference of age.
- Ruth 2:8 Boaz’s men were cutting the grain, and his women were gathering it. By receiving permission to be right with Boaz’s women, Ruth was placed into an advantageous position for gleaning.
- Ruth 2:14 In days before pasteurization and refrigeration, sweet wine quickly became sour. This sour wine was the daily beverage of workers and soldiers. When it was too sour to drink, it was vinegar.
- Ruth 2:17 Literally about an ephah, which is about ⅔ of a bushel. This may be about thirty pounds, though estimates of the weight of an ephah vary greatly.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.