1 Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband's side, a mighty man of wealth from the clan of Elimelech; his name was Boaz.
2 Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go out to the field, please, and gather ears of grain behind anyone in whose sight I find favor." Naomi said to her, "Go, my daughter."
3 She went off, came, and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it turned out, the plot of field she happened on belonged to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.
4 And just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, "The LORD be with you," and they said to him, "May the LORD bless you."
5 Boaz asked his young man who was set over the reapers, "To whom does this young woman belong?"
6 The young man set over the reapers answered, "She is a young Moabite woman, the one who came back with Naomi from the fields of Moab.
7 She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.' So she came and has stood here from the morning until now; she has hardly rested in the shelter."
8 Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to glean in some other field, and do not move on from here; stay close by my young women here.
9 Watch which field they are reaping and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to lay a hand on you, have I not? When you get thirsty, go over to the vessels and drink from what the young men draw."
10 She fell on her face and bowed down to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should notice me, when I am a foreigner?"
11 Boaz answered her, "Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died has been told to me in full: how you left your father and mother and the land where you were born and came to a people you had not known before.
12 The LORD repay what you have done, and may a full reward be given you by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge."
13 She said, "Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, since you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not even like one of your servants."
14 When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, "Come over here, eat some of the bread and dip your piece in the vinegar." So she sat down beside the reapers, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and some was left over.
15 When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his young men: "Let her glean even between the sheaves, and do not put her to shame.
16 And pull out some for her from the bundles on purpose and leave it for her to glean, and do not scold her."
17 She gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out what she had gleaned; it came to about an ephah of barley.
18 She lifted it up and went into the town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out what she had saved after eating her fill and gave it to her.
19 Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the one who noticed you be blessed." So she told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with: "The man I worked with today is named Boaz."
20 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not abandoned his kindness to the living and the dead!" And Naomi told her, "That man is close kin to us; he is one of our redeemers."
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, "He also told me, 'Stay close by my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.'"
22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, for you to go out with his young women, so that no one bothers you in another field."
23 So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz to glean until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished, and she lived with her mother-in-law.