Ruth Works in Boaz’s Field
Ruth 2Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side from the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz, and he was very wealthy. Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain behind someone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” She went out and began to glean in the field behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech.
Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “May YHWH be with y’all.”
They answered him, “May YHWH bless you.”
Then Boaz asked his servant who oversaw the harvesters, “Who does this young woman belong to?”
The servant who oversaw the harvesters answered, “It is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has continued from the morning until now, except for a short rest in the hut.”
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Don’t go glean in another field. Don’t leave this place, but stay here close to my maidens. Keep your eyes on the field that they harvest and follow after them. Indeed, I have commanded the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the water jars that the young men filled.”
Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you would notice me, a foreigner?”
Boaz answered her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been reported-reported to me: how you left your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before. May YHWH repay your work. And may a full reward be given to you from YHWH, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
Then she said, “Let me find favor in your eyes, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”
At meal time Boaz said to her, “Come here, eat some food, and dip your bread in the vinegar.”
She sat beside the harvests, and they passed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and saved the leftover. When she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the bundles, and y’all don’t reprimand her. Y’all must also pull-pull some from the bundles and leave it for her to glean. And y’all must not rebuke her.”
So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gathered, and it was about an ephah+2:17 An ephah is about thirty pounds of barley. She carried it back into the city, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Ruth also brought out and gave Naomi what she had left after she had eaten enough.
Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be he who noticed you.”
She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May YHWH bless him, the one who has not withdrawn his lovingkindness to the living and to the dead.” Then Naomi also said to her, “The man is our close relative, one of our kinsmen-redeemers.”
Ruth the Moabite said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’”
Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, so that you do not meet harm in another field.” So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley and wheat harvests, and she lived with her mother-in-law.