Ruth Chapters

Your God Will Be My God

1 | ¹There was a famine in the land during the time of the Judges, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah departed with his wife and two sons to sojourn in the country of Moab. ²The man was Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. A little later, after they had settled in Moab, ³Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died. She was left with her two sons, ⁴who married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.

After living in Moab for about ten years, ⁵Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left bereft of her husband and two sons. ⁶Having heard that the Lord had come to help his people by giving them food, Naomi prepared to return home. ⁷With her two daughters-in-law, she took the road back to Judah.

⁸It was then Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house. And may the Lord be kind to you, as you have been to your dead and me. ⁹May he also grant each of you rest in the home of another husband.” She kissed them goodbye. But they wept aloud ¹⁰and said to her, “No, we will go back with you to your people.”

¹¹Naomi said, “Return home, my daughters. Why should you accompany me when I have no more sons to become your husbands? ¹²Return home, my daughters. I am now too old to marry again. Even if I hope to have a husband tonight and give birth to sons, ¹³ would you remain unmarried, waiting for them to grow up? No, my daughters! I won’t share my lot with you; it is too bitter. The Lord’s hand has been raised against me!”

¹⁴Again, they sobbed and wept. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law returns to her people and gods. You, too, must return. Go after her.”

¹⁶Ruth replied, “Don’t ask me to leave you, for I will go where you go and stay where you stay. Your people will be my people and your god, my God. ¹⁷Where you die, there, will I die and be buried. May the Lord deal with me severely if anything except death separates us.” ¹⁸Realizing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi stopped urging her.

¹⁹So the two went on till they reached Bethlehem. Their arrival set the town astir. Women asked, “Can this be Naomi?” ²⁰She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Lord has made life bitter for me. ²¹I came away full but go back empty. Why call me Naomi when the Lord has afflicted me?”

²²Thus, Naomi returned from Moab with her Moabite daughter-in-law and arrived in Bethlehem as the barley harvest began.

Ruth Gleans In the field of Boaz

2 | ¹Naomi had a well-to-do relative, Boaz, from the clan of her husband Elimelech. ²And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to pick up the left-over grain in the field whose owner will allow me that favor.” Naomi said, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³So she went to glean in the fields behind the harvesters. It happened that the field she entered belonged to Boaz of the clan of Elimelech.

⁴When Boaz came from Bethlehem, he greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.” They returned the greeting, “The Lord bless you.”

⁵Noticing Ruth, Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “To whom does that young woman belong?”

⁶The foreman replied, “She is the Moabite who returned with Naomi from the country of Moab. ⁷She came this morning and asked leave to glean behind the harvesters. Since then, she has been working without a moment’s rest.”

⁸Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go away from here to glean in anyone else’s field. Stay here with my women servants. ⁹See where the harvesters are and follow behind. I have ordered the men not to molest you. They have filled some jars with water. Go there and drink when you are thirsty.” ¹⁰Bowing down with her face to the ground, she exclaimed, “Why have I, a foreigner, found such favor in your eyes?”

¹¹Boaz answered, “I have been told everything about you—what you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death, how you have gone with her, leaving your father and mother and homeland to live with a people you knew nothing about before you came here. ¹²May the Lord reward you for this! May you receive full recompense from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!”

¹³Ruth said, “May I prove worthy of your favor, my lord. You have consoled your servant with your kind words, though I am not the equal of your maidservants.”

¹⁴Boaz called her at mealtime, “Come over, have some bread, and dip it in the wine.” As she sat among the reapers, he handed her some roasted grain. She ate her fill and had some leftovers.

¹⁵When she rose to glean, Boaz instructed his men, “Let her glean even among the sheaves and do not scold her. ¹⁶Pull some stalks from the bundles; leave them scattered for her to glean.” ¹⁷She worked until evening, and when she threshed what she had gleaned, it amounted to about an ephah. ¹⁸Ruth carried back to town the threshed barley, which she showed to her mother-in-law. She also gave her what she had left over from lunch.

¹⁹Naomi asked her daughter-in-law, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the man who took notice of you be blessed.” Ruth told her mother-in-law about the owner of the field where she had worked. “His name is Boaz,” she said. ²⁰Naomi exclaimed, “May the Lord bless him! God, indeed, is merciful both to the living and the dead. This man is a close relative with a right of redemption over us.”

²¹Ruth continued, “He even told me to stay with his servants until they finish harvesting the grain.” ²²Naomi said, “It will be better for you, my daughter, to go out with his maidservants than to work in some other field where harm might come to you.”

²³Ruth stayed close to Boaz's maidservants, gleaning until the end of the wheat and barley harvests. She also continued living with her mother-in-law.

She Went and Lay Down at His Feet

3 | •  ¹Later, Naomi talked to Ruth:

 “My daughter, is it not my duty to see you settled in a home where you will be well provided for? ²And is not Boaz, who has treated you kindly with his maidservants, a close relative of ours? Tonight, on the threshing floor, he will be winnowing Barley. ³So bathe and perfume yourself, put on your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. But don’t make yourself known to him till he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴Take note of the place where he lies down to sleep. Then go, uncover his feet, and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵Ruth answered, “I will do as you say.” ⁶She went down to the threshing floor and did as her mother-in-law told her.

⁷Feeling happy after eating and drinking, Boaz went to lie down at the end of the pile of grain. Ruth then approached quietly, turned back the covering of his feet, and lay there. ⁸At midnight, the man awoke when he turned over and felt someone lying at his feet. He got up and was startled to find a woman there. ⁹“Who are you?” he asked.

The answer came, “I am Ruth, your servant. Spread the corner of your cloak over me, for you are a relative with the right to redemption over me.” ¹⁰Boaz said, “May the Lord bless you, my daughter! Your kindness now is even greater than what you have shown, for you have not gone after young men, rich or poor. ¹¹Have no fear, my daughter; I will do all that you ask for you since all my townspeople know that you are a worthy woman. ¹²It is true that I am a close relative, but there is another still closer. ¹³Stay here for the night. In the morning, if he wants to claim you—good! But if not—as surely as the Lord lives—I will claim you myself. Lie here till morning.”

¹⁴She lay at his feet till morning and got up before anyone could be recognized. Boaz said, “It must not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵Then, turning to Ruth, Boaz said, “Hold out the mantle you are wearing.” She did so, and he poured six measures of barley into it. He helped her lift the bundle, then went back to town.

¹⁶Ruth returned home to her mother-in-law, who asked, “How did you fare, my daughter?” She told her everything ¹⁷and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley because, as he said, he did not want me to go back to my mother-in-law empty-handed.”

¹⁸Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, till you learn what happens, for he will not rest until it is settled today.”

The Levirate Law

4 | ¹Meanwhile, Boaz went to the town gate and waited for the closer relative about whom he had spoken to Ruth. When he saw him coming, he called him by name and said, “Come here and sit down.” And so he did.

²Boaz picked out ten from the city elders and asked them to sit with them, which they did. ³Then he said to the other man who also had a right of redemption, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. ⁴I thought of bringing this matter to you before our elders here because as the closer kin, you have more right to lay claim to it. But if you have no wish to redeem it, let me know because I am next to you in line.”

The man replied, “I am willing to put in my claim. I will redeem it.” ⁵Boaz continued, “If you buy the land from Naomi, you will also have to take the Moabite Ruth, widow of the late heir, and her sons will inherit the name and the land of the dead.”

⁶The man said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my estate. Redeem it yourself.”

⁷It used to be the custom in Israel that for a contract of redemption or exchange to become binding, one party had to take off his sandal and give it to the other. This act legalized transactions.

⁸So the man took off his sandal and said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.”

⁹Boaz turned to the elders and all those present. “This day, you are witnesses that I buy from Naomi all the holdings of Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon. ¹⁰I also take Mahlon’s widow, Ruth the Moabite, as my wife to raise a family for her late husband so that the name of the dead will be restored to his inheritance and be present among his brothers when they gather at the gate of his town. Do you witness this today?”

¹¹The elders and all those at the gate answered, “We witness. May the Lord make the woman coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who built up the house of Israel together. May you prosper in Ephrata and be of good standing in Bethlehem. ¹²And through the offspring the Lord will give you by this woman, may your house become like that of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah.”

Obed was the father of Jesse, who was David’s father

¹³So Ruth was taken by Boaz and became his wife. The Lord made her conceive and give birth to a son. ¹⁴The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord who has given you an heir today. May he become famous in Israel! ¹⁵He will be your comfort and stay in your old age, for he is born of a daughter-in-law who loves you and is worth more than seven sons.”

¹⁶Naomi took the child as her own and became his nurse. ¹⁷The neighborhood women gave him his name, saying, “A son has been born for Naomi.” They named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, who was David’s father.

¹⁸This, then, is Perez’s family line:

Perez was the father of Hezron, ¹⁹Hezron of Ram, Ram of Amminadab,

²⁰Amminadab of Nahshon, Nahshon of Salma,

²¹Salma of Boaz, Boaz of Obed,

²²Obed of Jesse, and Jesse, the father of David.