1Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a man of substance and standing, from the clan of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
2Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
3So she went out, and she came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, her chance fell upon the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
4And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “Yahweh be with you.” And they answered him, “Yahweh bless you.”
5Then Boaz said to his young man who was stationed over the reapers, “To whom does this young woman belong?”
6The young man stationed over the reapers answered and said, “She is a Moabite young woman, the one who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
7She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she came, and she has remained from the morning until now; her sitting in the house has been but a little while.”
8Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and do not pass on from here, but stay close here with my young women.
9Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and go along after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”
10Then she fell on her face and bowed to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”
11Boaz answered and said to her, “It has surely been told me, all that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband: how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and went to a people you did not know before.
12May Yahweh repay your work, and may your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken to the heart of your servant, though I am not even like one of your servants.”
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers, and he held out roasted grain to her; and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
15When she rose to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not shame her.
16And also pull out some for her from the bundles on purpose, and leave it that she may glean it, and do not rebuke her.”
17So she gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it came to about an ephah of barley.
18She took it up and came into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out and gave her what she had left over after she was satisfied.
19Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the one who took notice of you.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”
20Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by Yahweh, whose loyal love has not forsaken the living or the dead.” And Naomi said to her, “The man is a near relative to us; he is one of our redeemers.”
21Ruth the Moabite said, “He also said to me, ‘Stay close with the young men who are mine until they have finished all my harvest.’”
22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that you are not harmed in another field.”
23So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.
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