Gleaning in Boaz’s Field

2 Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side—from Elimelech’s family—a prominent man of substance whose name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess, said to Naomi, “Please let me go out to the field and glean grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth went out and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. She just so happened to be in the field of Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

⁴ Soon after Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “Adonai be with you.”

They replied, “May Adonai bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ “She is a Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab,” the foreman replied. ⁷ “She asked ‘Please allow me to glean and gather among the barley sheaves behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has been working in the field since morning until now, except for a little while in the shelter.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field or even pass on from here, but stay close to my female workers. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that they are harvesting, and follow after them. I strongly ordered the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, you can go to the jars and drink from the water the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell upon her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you have noticed me, even though I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied and said to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me—how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May Adonai repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by Adonai, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ She said, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, even though I am not one of your maidservants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and eat some bread and dip your piece into the wine vinegar.” So she sat beside the harvesters and he held out to her roasted grain. She ate until she was full, and some was still left. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his workers saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, do not humiliate her. ¹⁶ Also be sure to pull out some grain for her from the sheaves and leave them for her to pick up, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. When she thrashed what she had gathered, there was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ She carried it back to town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth took some out and gave her what was left over after eating her fill.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the one who noticed you be blessed!”

She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and she said, “The name of the man for whom I worked is Boaz.”

²⁰ So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Adonai who has not stopped his kindness to the living or to the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is closely related to us, one of our kinsmen-redeemers.”^[a]

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close to my workers until they have finished the entire harvest.’”

²² Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter-in-law, that you go out with his female workers, so that you will not be harmed in another field.”

²³ So she stayed close to Boaz’s female workers, gleaning until both the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were completed. Meanwhile she lived with her mother-in-law.

Naomi the Matchmaker

3 Naomi her mother-in-law said to her “My daughter, should I not be seeking a resting place for you, so it may go well for you? ² Now, is Boaz, with whose female workers you have been, not our relative? Look, he will be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ So bathe and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Let it be that when he lies down and you know the place where he lies down, go uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

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

⁷ After Boaz ate, drank, and was in a good mood, he went to lie down at the far side of the grain pile. So she came to the grain pile quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ Now in the middle of the night, the man was startled and pulled back—and to his surprise, a woman was lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Ruth, your handmaid,” she answered. “Spread the corner of your garment over your handmaid, for you are a goel.”

¹⁰ “May you be blessed by Adonai, my daughter!” he replied. “You have made the latter act of loyalty greater than the first, by not running after the young men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ Now my daughter, do not be afraid! Everything you propose, I will do for you, for everyone in town knows that you are a woman of valor. ¹² Although it is true that I am a goel, there is one who is a closer goel than me. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he will be your goel—good! Let him do so. But if he is not willing to be your goel, then I will be your goel myself, as surely as Adonai lives. Lie down until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could be distinguished from another, for he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ Then he said, “Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.” She held it out and he poured six measures of barley into it and put it on her. Then he returned to town.

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

So Ruth told her all that the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said “He gave me six measures of barley, for he said, ‘You shouldn’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ “Wait, my daughter,” Naomi said, “until you find out how the matter turns out, for he will not rest until he has settled the matter today.”

Who Will Redeem?

4 Meanwhile Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And all of a sudden, the goel about whom Boaz had spoken passed by. “Come over,” he called, “and sit down here, my friend.” So he came over and sat down.

² Then Boaz took ten of the town’s elders and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down. ³ Then he said to the goel, “Naomi, who has returned from the region of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belongs to our brother Elimelech. ⁴ I thought I should inform you saying, ‘Buy it in the presence of the people sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if it will not be redeemed, then tell me, so that I can know, because there is no one else in line to redeem it. I am after you.’”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi’s hand, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance.”

⁶ The kinsman said, “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, or else I might endanger my own inheritance. You, take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

⁷ Now in the past in Israel, one removed his sandal and gave it to another, in order to finalize the redemption and transfer of a matter. This was a legal transaction in Israel.

⁸ So the kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” then took off his shoe.

⁹ Boaz announced to the elders and all the people: “You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his brothers or from the gate of his town. You are witnesses today.”

¹¹ All the people at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May Adonai make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrath and be renowned in Bethlehem. ¹² May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah,^[b] through the seed that Adonai will give you by this young woman.”

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When he went to her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Adonai, who has not left you without a goel today. May his name be famous throughout Israel. ¹⁵ Moreover, He will be to you a renewer of life and a sustainer of your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶ Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom, and took care of him. ¹⁷ The neighboring women gave him a name saying “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸ These are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, ²¹ Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, ²² Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

Life for a Dying Son

⁴³ After the two days, He went on from there into the Galilee. ⁴⁴ Now Yeshua Himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ But when He came into the Galilee, they welcomed Him. For they had seen all He had done at the feast in Jerusalem, since they also had gone up to celebrate.

⁴⁶ So He went again to Cana of the Galilee, where He had turned the water into wine. Now there was a nobleman whose son was sick in Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Yeshua had come from Judea to the Galilee, he went to Him and begged Him to come down and heal his son; for he was about to die.

⁴⁸ Then Yeshua said to him, “Unless you all see signs and wonders, you’ll never believe!”

⁴⁹ The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

⁵⁰ Yeshua tells him, “Go! Your son lives!”

The man believed the word that Yeshua said to him and started off. ⁵¹ While on his way down, his servants met him, saying that his son was living. ⁵² So he asked them the hour when the boy began to get better. They said, “The fever left him yesterday at about the seventh hour.”^[a]

⁵³ Then the father realized that it was the same hour Yeshua said to him, “Your son lives!” Now he himself believed, along with his whole household. ⁵⁴ Yeshua did this as the second sign, after He had come again from Judea into the Galilee.