Ruth 2

Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, an important man of great wealth, from the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz.

1And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

NoteThe Hebrew phrase behind "important man of great wealth" (gibbor hayil) covers property, social standing, and personal quality all at once; elsewhere in the Bible it describes a warrior. It marks Boaz as a substantial figure in the town, not simply a rich one. "Family" here means the clan, the extended kin group within a tribe that held land together and was expected to look after its own.

2Ruth the Moabite woman said to Naomi, "Let me go out to the field and gather the leftover heads of grain behind anyone who looks on me kindly." Naomi said to her, "Go, my daughter."

2And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.

NoteGleaning was a legal provision for the poor. Israelite law forbade owners from harvesting the very edges of a field or going back for what the reapers dropped, leaving that grain for widows, orphans, and foreigners to gather by hand. It was hot, slow, low-status work, and in practice depended on the landowner tolerating you, which is why Ruth speaks of finding someone who will look on her kindly. (Where the King James says "corn," it means grain in general, as British English still does; maize was unknown in the ancient Near East.)

3So she went out and came and gathered grain in the field behind the harvesters. As it happened, she came to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech.

3And she went, and came, and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

4Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, "The LORD be with you." They answered him, "The LORD bless you."

4And, behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, The LORD be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless thee.

NotePrinted in small capitals, LORD stands for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four consonants usually transcribed YHWH. Jewish readers said "the Lord" aloud rather than pronouncing it, and English Bibles have kept that substitution ever since. The greeting exchanged here is an ordinary courtesy between an employer and his workers, roughly the weight of "good morning."

5Then Boaz said to the servant who was in charge of the harvesters, "Whose young woman is this?"

5Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?

NoteBoaz is not asking her name. He is asking which household she belongs to (whose daughter, whose wife, whose servant) because an unattached woman working in a field was an anomaly and someone was normally answerable for her.

6The servant in charge of the harvesters answered, "She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

6And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

NoteMoab was a small kingdom on the plateau east of the Dead Sea, close enough to Bethlehem for famine refugees to reach but a long-standing rival of Israel, and Israelite tradition was openly hostile toward Moabites. The foreman identifies Ruth by nationality rather than by name; the label is doing work in the sentence.

7She said, 'Please let me gather the leftover grain among the bundles, behind the harvesters.' So she came, and she has kept at it from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the house."

7And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

NoteThe end of the foreman's report is obscure in the Hebrew, and translations differ sharply: it may say she has rested only briefly, or that she has scarcely sat down at all. The "house" or "shelter" is probably a rough hut or lean-to at the edge of the field where workers took shade.

8Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Are you listening, my daughter? Do not go to gather grain in another field, and do not go away from here. Stay close to my young women workers.

8Then said Boaz unto Ruth, Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens:

Note"My daughter" is a form of address used by an older man to a much younger woman. It signals protective goodwill and a difference in age and standing; it does not mean they are related, and Boaz does not yet mention the kinship at all.

9Keep your eyes on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after them. Have I not ordered the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink what the young men have drawn."

9Let thine eyes be on the field that they do reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn.

NoteThe word translated "touch" covers striking, harassing, and sexual assault. Boaz's order to his men, and Naomi's warning in verse 22, assume that a foreign woman gleaning alone in someone else's field was in genuine physical danger. The jars are water jars; ordinarily the gleaner, not the hired staff, would have to fetch her own.

10Then she fell on her face, bowed to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found such favor with you, that you would take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?"

10Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?

NoteRuth uses the strongest of the several Hebrew words for an outsider: not a resident foreigner with some recognized place in the community, but a stranger with no claim on anyone. Bowing face to the ground was the standard gesture of a person of no standing before a person of high standing.

11Boaz answered her, "I have been told the whole story of everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died: how you left your father and your mother and the land where you were born, and came to a people you did not know before.

11And Boaz answered and said unto her, It hath fully been shewed me, all that thou hast done unto thy mother in law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come unto a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

12May the LORD repay what you have done. May you be given a full reward by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

12The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

NoteThe Hebrew word for "wings" is also the word for the corner or hem of a garment, and spreading the corner of one's garment over a woman was a recognized gesture of taking her under one's protection in marriage. The image here is of a bird sheltering its young; Ruth will turn the same word back on Boaz in the next chapter.

13Then she said, "My lord, may I keep finding favor with you. You have comforted me, and you have spoken kindly to me, your servant, though I am not even like one of your servant women."

13Then she said, Let me find favour in thy sight, my lord; for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I be not like unto one of thine handmaidens.

NoteRuth calls herself by the term for the lowest grade of female household servant, and then says she does not even rank with the women of that grade in his household: she has no place in it at all. The distinction is one of legal and social standing, not of politeness.

14At mealtime 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 harvesters, and he handed her roasted grain. She ate all she wanted, and had some left over.

14And Boaz said unto her, At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers: and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed, and left.

NoteThe "vinegar" is sour wine, or a sour-wine sauce, that field workers dipped bread into; it was part of the ordinary harvest ration rather than a flavoring. "Roasted grain" is fresh grain heads parched over a fire, a staple food at harvest time. Being invited to eat with the hired reapers, rather than scavenging behind them, is a marked step up in Ruth's position.

15When she got up to gather grain again, Boaz gave orders to his young men: "Let her gather grain even among the bundles, and do not shame her.

15And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

NoteThe sheaves are the cut stalks already bound into bundles, and they belonged to the owner; a gleaner who went among them could be accused of theft, which is what "do not shame her" guards against. Boaz is granting Ruth considerably more than the gleaning law required.

16And on purpose let some handfuls fall for her, and leave them there for her to gather. Do not scold her."

16And let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.

NoteBoaz tells his men to stage the accident, to pull stalks out of the bound bundles and drop them where Ruth will find them, so that what she picks up counts as gleaning and she need not take it as charity.

17So she gathered grain in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gathered, and it came to about an ephah of barley.

17So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

NoteBeating out the grain means threshing it with a stick to separate the kernels from the husks and straw, work normally done later on a threshing floor. An ephah is a dry measure of roughly two-thirds of a bushel, about 22 liters, which in barley weighs somewhere between thirty and fifty pounds. This is an extraordinary day's gleaning, perhaps a couple of weeks' food for two women, and far more than a gleaner could normally expect.

18She picked it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had saved after she had eaten all she wanted.

18And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed.

19Her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you." So she told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with, and said, "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz."

19And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man’s name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May he be blessed by the LORD who has not stopped showing kindness to the living and to the dead." And Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours. He is one of our nearest kinsmen."

20And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "kindness" (hesed) means loyal, committed care shown by someone under no obligation to show it; it runs through the whole book. "To the living and to the dead" means Naomi and Ruth on the one hand, and their dead husbands on the other, whose family line and name a kinsman could still preserve. The Hebrew leaves it ambiguous whether the one who has not stopped showing kindness is the LORD or Boaz. "One of our nearest kinsmen" translates a specific legal term, go'el, often rendered kinsman-redeemer: the closest male relative, who had the duty of buying back land the family had lost, ransoming relatives sold into slavery, and acting for the family in matters of blood and inheritance. It is a role with obligations attached, not just a description of how closely two people are related.

21Ruth the Moabite woman said, "He also said to me, 'Stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.'"

21And Ruth the Moabitess said, He said unto me also, Thou shalt keep fast by my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.

NoteRuth reports Boaz as saying "young men," though in verse 8 he said "young women." The Hebrew word can cover a workforce of either sex, and Naomi's reply in the next verse quietly puts the women back in. Whether Ruth is paraphrasing loosely or the text preserves two different memories of what was said is disputed.

22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that no one comes upon you in another field."

22And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.

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

23So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.

NoteBarley ripened first and wheat a few weeks later; together the two harvests ran roughly from April into June. Ruth therefore works in Boaz's fields for something like seven weeks, and the chapter ends with nothing further having come of it.