Ruth

Ruth

In the days when the judges judged,

there was a famine in the land.

A man from Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the fields of Moab—

he, his wife, and his two sons.

The man’s name was Elimelek,

and his wife’s name was Naomi.

The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion,

Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah.

They came into the fields of Moab and remained there.

Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died—

and she was left with her two sons.

They took Moabite wives;

the name of the one was Orpah,

and the name of the other, Ruth.

They lived there about ten years.

Then both Mahlon and Kilion also died,

and the woman was left

without her two children and her husband.

She rose with her daughters-in-law to return from the fields of Moab,

for she had heard in the fields of Moab

that YHWH had visited His people and given them bread.

She set out from the place where she had been,

and her two daughters-in-law with her.

They went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law,

“Go, return each of you to your mother’s house.

May YHWH deal faithfully with you,

as you have dealt with the dead and with me.

May YHWH grant that you find rest,

each in the house of her husband.”

Then she kissed them,

and they lifted up their voices and wept.

They said to her,

“No, we will return with you to your people.”

But Naomi said,

“Turn back, my daughters.

Why should you go with me?

Do I still have sons in my womb

that they may become your husbands?

Turn back, my daughters; go your way,

for I am too old to have a husband.

If I should say I have hope,

even if I had a husband tonight and bore sons,

would you therefore wait until they were grown?

Would you therefore refrain from marrying?

No, my daughters,

for it is exceedingly bitter to me for your sake

that the hand of YHWH has gone out against me.”

They lifted up their voices and wept again.

Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye,

but Ruth clung to her.

Naomi said,

“See, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods;

return after your sister-in-law.”

But Ruth said:

“Do not urge me to leave you

or to turn back from following you.

Where you go, I will go,

and where you lodge, I will lodge.

Your people shall be my people,

and your God my God.

Where you die, I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May YHWH do so to me, and more also,

if anything but death parts you and me.”

When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her,

she said no more.

So the two of them went on

until they came to Bethlehem.

And when they came to Bethlehem,

the whole town was stirred because of them,

and the women said,

“Is this Naomi?”

She said to them,

“Do not call me Naomi (Pleasant);

call me Mara (Bitter),

for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.

I went away full,

and YHWH has brought me back empty.

Why call me Naomi,

when YHWH has testified against me,

and the Almighty has brought calamity upon me?”

So Naomi returned,

and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her,

who returned from the fields of Moab.

They came to Bethlehem

at the beginning of the barley harvest.

———

Now Naomi had a relative of her husband,

a worthy man of the clan of Elimelek,

whose name was Boaz.

And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi,

“Let me go to the field and glean

among the ears of grain after someone

in whose eyes I find favor.”

And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.”

So she went out and gleaned in the field after the reapers,

and by chance she came to the portion of the field

belonging to Boaz,

who was of the clan of Elimelek.

Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem.

He said to the reapers,

“YHWH be with you!”

And they answered him,

“YHWH bless you!”

Then Boaz said to his young servant who was in charge of the reapers,

“Whose young woman is this?”

And the servant answered,

“She is the Moabite woman,

who came back with Naomi from the fields of Moab.

She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather

among the sheaves behind the reapers.’

So she came,

and she has continued from early morning until now,

except for a short rest.”

Then Boaz said to Ruth,

“Listen, my daughter.

Do not go to glean in another field

or leave this one,

but stay close to my young women.

Let your eyes be on the field that they reap,

and go after them.

Have I not charged the young men not to touch you?

And when you are thirsty,

go to the vessels and drink

what the young men have drawn.”

Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said,

“Why have I found favor in your eyes,

that you should take notice of me,

since I am a foreigner?”

But Boaz answered her,

“All that you have done for your mother-in-law

since the death of your husband has been fully told me—

how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth,

and came to a people you did not know before.

May YHWH repay you for what you have done,

and may you receive a full reward from YHWH,

the God of Israel,

under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

Then she said,

“I have found favor in your eyes, my lord,

for you have comforted me

and spoken kindly to your servant,

though I am not like one of your servants.”

At mealtime Boaz said to her,

“Come here and eat some bread

and dip your morsel in the wine.”

So she sat beside the reapers,

and he passed to her roasted grain.

She ate until she was satisfied,

and she had some left over.

When she rose to glean,

Boaz instructed his young men, saying,

“Let her glean even among the sheaves,

and do not reproach her.

Also pull out some from the bundles for her

and leave it for her to glean,

and do not rebuke her.”

So she gleaned in the field until evening.

Then she beat out what she had gleaned,

and it was about an ephah of barley.

She took it up and went into the city.

Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.

She also brought out and gave her what food she had left over

after being satisfied.

Her mother-in-law said to her,

“Where did you glean today?

And where have you worked?

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.”

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law,

“Blessed be he by YHWH,

whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!”

Naomi also said to her,

“The man is a close relative of ours,

one of our redeemers.”

And Ruth the Moabitess said,

“Besides, he said to me,

‘You shall keep close to my young men

until they have finished all my harvest.’”

And Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law,

“It is good, my daughter,

that you go out with his young women,

lest in another field you be assaulted.”

So she kept close to the young women of Boaz,

gleaning until the end of the barley and wheat harvests.

And she lived with her mother-in-law.

———

Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her,

“My daughter, should I not seek rest for you,

that it may be well with you?

Is not Boaz our kinsman,

with whose young women you were?

Behold, he is winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.

Wash and anoint yourself,

and put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor,

but do not make yourself known to the man

until he has finished eating and drinking.

When he lies down, observe the place where he lies;

then go and uncover his feet and lie down,

and he will tell you what to do.”

And she said to her,

“All that you say, I will do.”

So she went down to the threshing floor

and did just as her mother-in-law had commanded her.

And when Boaz had eaten and drunk,

and his heart was good,

he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain.

Then she came softly,

and uncovered his feet and lay down.

At midnight the man trembled and turned over—

and behold, a woman lay at his feet!

He said,

“Who are you?”

And she answered,

“I am Ruth, your servant.

Spread the corner of your cloak over your servant,

for you are a redeemer.”

And he said,

“May you be blessed by YHWH, my daughter.

You have shown more kindness in this last act than at the first,

in that you have not gone after young men,

whether poor or rich.

And now, my daughter, do not fear.

I will do for you all that you ask,

for all the people of my town know

that you are a woman of strength.

And now it is true that I am a redeemer,

yet there is another redeemer closer than I.

Stay tonight, and in the morning,

if he will redeem you, good—let him redeem you.

But if he is not willing to redeem you,

then, as YHWH lives, I will redeem you.

Lie down until morning.”

So she lay at his feet until morning,

but rose before one could recognize another.

And he said,

“Let it not be known

that the woman came to the threshing floor.”

And he said,

“Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.”

So she held it,

and he measured out six measures of barley and put it on her.

Then she went into the city.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said,

“How did things go, my daughter?”

Then she told her all that the man had done for her,

saying,

“He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said,

‘You must not go back empty to your mother-in-law.’”

And Naomi said,

“Wait, my daughter, until you learn how the matter turns out,

for the man will not rest

but will settle the matter today.”

———

Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there.

And behold, the redeemer of whom Boaz had spoken came by.

Boaz said,

“Turn aside, friend; sit down here.”

And he turned aside and sat down.

And he took ten men of the elders of the city and said,

“Sit down here.”

So they sat down.

Then he said to the redeemer,

“Naomi, who has come back from the fields of Moab,

is selling the portion of land

that belonged to our brother Elimelek.

I thought I would inform you and say,

‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here

and in the presence of the elders of my people.’

If you will redeem it, redeem it.

But if you will not, tell me, that I may know,

for there is no one besides you to redeem it,

and I come after you.”

And he said,

“I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said,

“The day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi,

you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess,

the widow of the dead,

in order to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.”

Then the redeemer said,

“I cannot redeem it for myself,

lest I impair my own inheritance.

Take my right of redemption yourself,

for I cannot redeem it.”

Now this was the custom in former times in Israel

concerning redeeming and exchanging:

to confirm a transaction, one drew off his sandal

and gave it to the other,

and this was the manner of attestation in Israel.

So when the redeemer said to Boaz,

“Buy it for yourself,”

he drew off his sandal.

Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people,

“You are witnesses this day

that I have bought from the hand of Naomi

all that belonged to Elimelek

and all that belonged to Kilion and Mahlon.

Also Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon,

I have acquired to be my wife,

to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance,

that the name of the dead may not be cut off

from among his brothers

and from the gate of his native place.

You are witnesses this day.”

Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said,

“We are witnesses.

May YHWH make the woman

who is coming into your house

like Rachel and Leah,

who together built up the house of Israel.

May you act worthily in Ephrathah

and be renowned in Bethlehem.

And may your house be like the house of Perez,

whom Tamar bore to Judah,

because of the offspring that YHWH will give you

by this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife.

And he went in to her,

and YHWH gave her conception,

and she bore a son.

Then the women said to Naomi,

“Blessed be YHWH,

who has not left you this day without a redeemer,

and may his name be renowned in Israel!

He shall be to you a restorer of life

and a nourisher of your old age,

for your daughter-in-law, who loves you,

who is more to you than seven sons,

has given birth to him.”

Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap

and became his nurse.

And the women of the neighborhood gave him a name,

saying,

“A son has been born to Naomi.”

They called his name Obed.

He was the father of Jesse,

the father of David.

Genealogy of the Messiah’s Line

Now these are the generations of Perez:

Perez fathered Hezron,

Hezron fathered Ram,

Ram fathered Amminadab,

Amminadab fathered Nahshon,

Nahshon fathered Salmon,

Salmon fathered Boaz,

Boaz fathered Obed,

Obed fathered Jesse,

and Jesse fathered David.