²² When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap all the way to the edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the resident alien;^(A) I am the Lord your God.”

¹⁹ “When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.^{(A) 20} When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, do not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow. ²¹ When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, do not glean what is left. What remains will be for the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow. ²² Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. Therefore I am commanding you to do this.^(B)

² Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain^(A) behind someone with whom I find favor?”

Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened^(B) to be in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

⁴ Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.”^(C)

“The Lord bless you,”^(D) they replied.

⁵ Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. ⁷ She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?’ She came and has been on her feet since early morning, except that she rested a little in the shelter.”^[a]

¹⁵ When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. ¹⁶ Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her.” ¹⁷ So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about twenty-six quarts^[a] of barley. ¹⁸ She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”^(A)

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

²³ Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished.^(A) And she lived with^[a] her mother-in-law.