Ruth 2

Modern English Version

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a man of prominence and means from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the field and glean among the heads of grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ So she went to glean in the field behind the harvesters. She happened to come to a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴ Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ So the servant who was in charge of his harvesters answered, “She is the young Moabitess woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather grain among the bundles behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has remained from morning until now, though she rested a little while in the house.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field and leave this one. Stay close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field in which they reap and follow after them. I have commanded the men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should acknowledge me, a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered and said to her, “I have been told all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord reward your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here, and eat some bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.”

So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate and was full and had some left over. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, “Let her glean even among the bundles, and do not harm her. ¹⁶ Also pull out some grain for her from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean it, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah^[a] of barley. ¹⁸ She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She drew it out and gave her what she had left, after she had been satisfied.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.”

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.”

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeeming relatives.”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even told me, ‘You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go with his young women, for in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.