Ruth / Ruth Gleans in Boaz's Field

Ruth Gleans in Boaz's Field

Ruth 2:1-23

Chapter 2

¹ And Naomi knew a man of strength from the clan of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. ² And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears after anyone in whose sight I find favor." She said to her, "Go, my daughter." ³ She went and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. Her chance happened upon the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the family/clan of Elimelech. ⁴ Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, "The LORD be with you!" And they said to him, "The LORD bless you!" ⁵ Boaz said to his young man who was standing over the reapers, "To whom does this young woman belong?" ⁶ And the boy who was standing over the reapers answered and said, "She is a Moabite girl who has returned with Naomi from the field of Moab." ⁷ She said, "Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers." And she came and has stood from the morning until now, except that she rested a little in the house. ⁸ And Boaz said to Ruth, "Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field, and do not go away from this one, and in this way you shall stay with my young women." ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field where they are reaping, and go after them. Have I not commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn. ¹⁰ She fell on her face and prostrated herself to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found grace in your eyes, that you recognize me, when I am a foreign woman?" ¹¹ Boaz answered and said to her, "Tell me all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband: you abandoned your father and your mother and your native land, and you went to a people that you did not know yesterday or three days ago." ¹² May the LORD repay your work, and may your reward be full from the LORD, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge. ¹³ And she said, "May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and you have spoken to the heart of your maidservant, and I am not like one of your maidservants." ¹⁴ And Boaz said to her at mealtime, "Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the vinegar." And she sat beside the reapers, and he offered her parched grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over. ¹⁵ And she rose to glean, and he commanded his young men, saying, "Even among the sheaves she shall glean, and you shall not shame her." ¹⁶ Also pull out some for her from the bundles and leave them, and she will glean them. Do not reproach her. ¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening and beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ She lifted it up and came to the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out and gave her what was left over from the meal of the seven. ¹⁹ And her 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." And she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and she said, "The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz." ²⁰ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed is he by the LORD, who has not abandoned his steadfast love to the living and to the dead." And Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative to us; he is our kinsman-redeemer." ²¹ Ruth the Moabite said, "He also said to me, 'You shall stay with my young men until they finish all my harvest.'" ²² And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, "Good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women so that they will not meet you in another field." ²³ She clung to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.