1Naomi had a relative on her husband's side. He was a very rich man, from the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.
2Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Let me go out to the fields. I will pick up the leftover grain behind anyone who is kind to me." Naomi said to her, "Go, my daughter."
3So she went out and picked up grain in the field behind the harvest workers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the family of Elimelech.
4Look, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvest workers, "The LORD be with you." They answered him, "The LORD bless you."
5Then Boaz said to the servant in charge of the harvest workers, "Whose young woman is this?"
6The servant in charge of the harvest workers answered, "She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab."
7"She said, 'Please let me pick up the grain that is left, and gather it behind the harvest workers among the sheaves.' So she came, and she has kept at it from the morning until now. She has only rested a little in the house."
8Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to pick up grain in another field. Do not leave this place, but stay close to my servant girls."
9"Watch the field where the men are cutting the grain, and follow the girls. I have told the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink what the young men have drawn."
10Then she fell on her face and bowed to the ground. She said to him, "Why have I found grace in your eyes? Why do you take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?"
11Boaz answered her, "I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. You left your father and your mother and the land where you were born, and you came to a people you did not know before."
12"May the LORD pay you back for what you have done. May you be given a full reward by the LORD God of Israel. You have come to take shelter under his wings."
13Then she said, "Let me find favour in your eyes, my lord. You have comforted me, and you have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not even like one of your servant girls."
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come here, and eat some of the bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar." So she sat beside the harvest workers. He handed her roasted grain, and she ate until she had enough, and had some left over.
15When she got up to pick up more grain, Boaz gave orders to his young men. He said, "Let her gather even among the sheaves, and do not shame her."
16"Also pull out some stalks from the bundles on purpose for her. Leave them there for her to pick up, and do not tell her off."
17So she gathered grain in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gathered, and it was about an ephah of barley.
18She picked it up and went into the town, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered. Ruth also brought out what she had kept after she had eaten enough, and gave it to her.
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 Ruth told her mother-in-law whose field she had worked in. She said, "The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz."
20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May the LORD bless him. He has not stopped being kind to the living and to the dead." And Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative of ours. He is one of those who have the right to redeem us."
21Ruth the Moabite said, "He also said to me, 'Stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.'"
22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his servant girls. In another field people might harm you."
23So she stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz and gathered grain until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.