² Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative^(A) of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.^(B)

⁵ If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her.^{(A) 6} The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel.^(B)

⁷ However, if a man does not want to marry his brother’s wife,^(C) she shall go to the elders at the town gate^(D) and say, “My husband’s brother refuses to carry on his brother’s name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.”^{(E) 8} Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, “I do not want to marry her,” ⁹ his brother’s widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals,^(F) spit in his face^(G) and say, “This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother’s family line.” ¹⁰ That man’s line shall be known in Israel as The Family of the Unsandaled.

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

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite^(F) 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^(G) and wheat harvests^(H) were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me.

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)

¹¹ Both the one who makes people holy^(A) and those who are made holy^(B) are of the same family. So Jesus is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.^{[a](C) 12} He says,

¹³ And again,

And again he says,

¹⁴ Since the children have flesh and blood,^(G) he too shared in their humanity^(H) so that by his death he might break the power^(I) of him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil^(J)—