Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man of the family of Elimelech whose name was Boaz.^{(A) 2} And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain behind someone in whose sight I may find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”^{(B) 3} So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. ⁴ Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered, “The Lord bless you.”^{(C) 5} Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “To whom does this young woman belong?” ⁶ The young man who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.^{(D) 7} She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now without resting even for a moment.”^[a]

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.” ¹⁰ Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”^{(E) 11} But Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before.^{(F) 12} May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”^(G)

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ She picked it up and came into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Then she took out and gave her what was left over after she herself had been satisfied.^{(A) 19} Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, saying, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”^{(B) 20} Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!” Naomi also said to her, “The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.”^{[a](C) 21} Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close by my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ” ²² Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, otherwise someone might bother you in another field.” ²³ So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz, gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother-in-law.^(D)

The Marriage of Boaz and Ruth

4 No sooner had Boaz gone up to the gate and sat down there than the next-of-kin^[a] of whom Boaz had spoken came passing by. So Boaz said, “Come over;^[b] sit down here.” And he went over and sat down.^{(A) 2} Then Boaz took ten men of the elders of the town and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down. ³ He then said to the next-of-kin,^[c] “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech.^{(B) 4} So I thought I would tell you of it and say: Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you^[d] will not, tell me, so that I may know; for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I come after you.” So he said, “I will redeem it.”^{(C) 5} Then Boaz said, “The day you acquire the field from the hand of Naomi, you are also acquiring Ruth^[e] the Moabite, the widow of the dead man, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance.”^{(D) 6} At this, the next-of-kin^[f] said, “I cannot redeem it for myself without damaging my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”^(E)

⁷ Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and exchanging to confirm a transaction: the one took off a sandal and gave it to the other; this was the manner of attesting in Israel.^{(F) 8} So when the next-of-kin^[g] said to Boaz, “Acquire it for yourself,” he took off his sandal. ⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired from the hand of Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to maintain the dead man’s name on his inheritance, in order that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his kindred and from the gate of his native place; today you are witnesses.”^{(G) 11} Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you produce children^[h] in Ephrathah and bestow a name in Bethlehem;^{(H) 12} and, through the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”^(I)

The Genealogy of David

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord made her conceive, and she bore a son.^{(J) 14} Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you this day without next-of-kin,^[i] and may his name be renowned in Israel!^(K)