Ruth


1:1   In the days when the judges ruled, {[1] Traditionally <judged>} there
was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with
his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab. 
1:2  The man's name was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of
his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem,
Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there. 
1:3   Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died, and she was left with her two
sons. 
1:4  They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After
they had lived there about ten years, 
1:5  both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two
sons and her husband. 
1:6   When she heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people
by providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to
return home from there. 
1:7  With her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been
living and set out on the road that would take them back to the land of
Judah. 
1:8   Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to
your mother's home. May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to
your dead and to me. 
1:9  May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the home of
another husband."  Then she kissed them and they wept aloud 
1:10  and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people." 
1:11   But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come with
me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your husbands? 
1:12  Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have another husband. Even
if I thought there was still hope for me--even if I had a husband tonight
and then gave birth to sons-- 
1:13  would you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for
them? No, my daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the
LORD's hand has gone out against me!" 
1:14   At this they wept again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by,
but Ruth clung to her. 
1:15   "Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people
and her gods. Go back with her." 
1:16   But Ruth replied, "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from
you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people
will be my people and your God my God. 
1:17  Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD
deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you
and me." 
1:18  When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she
stopped urging her. 
1:19   So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they
arrived in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the
women exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?" 
1:20   "Don't call me Naomi, {[20] <Naomi> means <pleasant>; also in verse
21.}" she told them. "Call me Mara, {[20] <Mara> means <bitter.>} because
the Almighty {[20] Hebrew <Shaddai>; also in verse 21} has made my life very
bitter. 
1:21  I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me
Naomi? The LORD has afflicted {[21] Or <has testified against>} me; the
Almighty has brought misfortune upon me." 
1:22   So Naomi returned from Moab accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her
daughter-in-law, arriving in Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. 

2:1   Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of
Elimelech, a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. 
2:2   And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and
pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor."  Naomi
said to her, "Go ahead, my daughter." 
2:3  So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.
As it turned out, she found herself working in a field belonging to Boaz,
who was from the clan of Elimelech. 
2:4   Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, "The
LORD be with you!"  "The LORD bless you!" they called back. 
2:5   Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose young woman is that?"

2:6   The foreman replied, "She is the Moabitess who came back from Moab
with Naomi. 
2:7  She said, `Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the
harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning
till now, except for a short rest in the shelter." 
2:8   So Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean
in another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant
girls. 
2:9  Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after
the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And whenever you are
thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled." 
2:10   At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She exclaimed,
"Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me--a foreigner?" 
2:11   Boaz replied, "I've been told all about what you have done for your
mother-in-law since the death of your husband--how you left your father and
mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know
before. 
2:12  May the LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly
rewarded by the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to
take refuge." 
2:13   "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord," she said. "You
have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to your servant--though I do
not have the standing of one of your servant girls." 
2:14   At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have some bread and
dip it in the wine vinegar."  When she sat down with the harvesters, he
offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left
over. 
2:15  As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, "Even if she
gathers among the sheaves, don't embarrass her. 
2:16  Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them
for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her." 
2:17   So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the
barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. {[17] That is,
probably about 3/5 bushel (about 22 liters)} 
2:18  She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she
had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over
after she had eaten enough. 
2:19   Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did
you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!"  Then Ruth told her
mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. "The name
of the man I worked with today is Boaz," she said. 
2:20   "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. "He has not
stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead." She added, "That
man is our close relative; he is one of our kinsman-redeemers." 
2:21   Then Ruth the Moabitess said, "He even said to me, `Stay with my
workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.'" 
2:22   Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It will be good for you, my
daughter, to go with his girls, because in someone else's field you might be
harmed." 
2:23   So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the
barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her
mother-in-law. 

3:1   One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I
not try to find a home {[1] Hebrew <find rest> (see Ruth 1:9)} for you,
where you will be well provided for? 
3:2  Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours?
Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 
3:3  Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down
to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has
finished eating and drinking. 
3:4  When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and
uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do." 
3:5   "I will do whatever you say," Ruth answered. 
3:6  So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her
mother-in-law told her to do. 
3:7   When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he
went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached
quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. 
3:8  In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned
and discovered a woman lying at his feet. 
3:9   "Who are you?" he asked.  "I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread
the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer." 
3:10   "The LORD bless you, my daughter," he replied. "This kindness is
greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the
younger men, whether rich or poor. 
3:11  And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask.
All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. 
3:12  Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer
nearer than I. 
3:13  Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem,
good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives
I will do it. Lie here until morning." 
3:14   So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could
be recognized; and he said, "Don't let it be known that a woman came to the
threshing floor." 
3:15   He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out."
When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her.
Then he {[15] Most Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts, Vulgate and
Syriac <she>} went back to town. 
3:16   When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "How did it go, my
daughter?"  Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her 
3:17  and added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, `Don't go
back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" 
3:18   Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens.
For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today." 

4:1   Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the
kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over here, my
friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down. 
4:2   Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they
did so. 
4:3  Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from
Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. 
4:4  I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that
you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the
elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you {[4] Many
Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts
<he>} will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it
except you, and I am next in line."  "I will redeem it," he said. 
4:5   Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth
the Moabitess, you acquire {[5] Hebrew; Vulgate and Syriac <Naomi, you
acquire Ruth the Moabitess,>} the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the
name of the dead with his property." 
4:6   At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I
might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it." 
4:7   (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of
property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the
other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.) 
4:8   So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself." And he
removed his sandal. 
4:9   Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "Today you are
witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech,
Kilion and Mahlon. 
4:10  I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife,
in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his
name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records.
Today you are witnesses!" 
4:11   Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses.
May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and
Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in
Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem. 
4:12  Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your
family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah." 
4:13   So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and
the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. 
4:14  The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not
left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!

4:15  He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your
daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has
given him birth." 
4:16   Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him. 
4:17  The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him
Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 
4:18   This, then, is the family line of Perez:  Perez was the father of
Hezron, 
4:19  Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, 
4:20  Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon, {[20] A
few Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also
verse 21 and Septuagint of 1 Chron. 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts <Salma>} 
4:21  Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, 
4:22  Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. 
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