Ruth 1 – 2

Ruth and Naomi Come to Bethlehem

Ruth 1

¹ During the days of the judges, ^[1] a famine occurred in the land. So a man left Bethlehem in Judah to stay awhile ^[2] in the territory ^[3] of Moab—he, his wife, and his two sons. ² The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were from the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the territory of Moab and remained there.

³ But Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, so she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They then married Moabite wives. The name of the first was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth. They lived there for about ten years. ⁵ But Naomi’s sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.

⁶ Then Naomi set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the territory of Moab, because while she was in the territory of Moab, she had heard that the Lord had graciously visited ^[4] his people by providing them with food. ⁷ So she left the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law left with her. They set out on the road to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Both of you return to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you kindness ^[5] as you have shown kindness to the dead and to me. ⁹ May the Lord grant that each of you finds security ^[6] in the house of a husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept loudly.

¹⁰ But they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ Then Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Am I going to give birth to any more sons ^[7] who could become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters. Go! For I am too old to be married to another husband. Suppose I say, ‘I have hope, and I will be married to another husband tonight, and I will even give birth to sons.’ ¹³ Would you wait for them until they grow up? On the basis of that hope would you give up the chance to marry another husband? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has reached out against me.”

¹⁴ They once again wept loudly. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth would not let her go.

¹⁵ Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Go back! Follow your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to abandon you or to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you make your home, I will make my home. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely and double it ^[8] if anything but death ^[9] separates me from you.”

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

¹⁹ Then the two of them traveled until they arrived at Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town became excited over them. The women said, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰ But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, ^[10] because the Almighty has made me very bitter. ²¹ I went away full, but the Lord brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi? For the Lord has testified against me, ^[11] and the Almighty has treated me badly.”

²² So Naomi returned with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the territory of Moab. When they entered Bethlehem, it was the beginning of the barley harvest. ^[12]

Ruth Meets Boaz

Ruth 2

¹ Now Naomi had a relative ^[13] of her husband, a wealthy, generous ^[14] man from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “I am going to go out to the fields, so that I can glean ^[15] ears of grain wherever I may find favor in the eyes of the owner.” Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.”

³ So Ruth went out and gleaned in the grain fields after the reapers. It happened that she was in the field that belonged to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek. ⁴ At just that time, Boaz happened to come out from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “The Lord bless you!”

⁵ Then Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the territory of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me follow the reapers and glean and gather stalks into sheaves.’ So she came and has been working from early morning till now—except for a short rest in the shelter.” ^[16]

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. ^[17] Do not go off to glean in some other field. In fact, do not leave this one at all! Just stick close to my young women here. ^{[18] 9} Keep your eyes on the field where the men are reaping so that you can follow my women. I have commanded the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, you may go to the jars and drink from whatever the young men draw out.”

¹⁰ Then Ruth bowed down with her face to the ground. She said to Boaz, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, so that you acknowledge me even though I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied to her, “I have been fully informed about all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband and how you left behind your father and mother and the homeland of your relatives, and you came to a people whom you did not know previously. ¹² May the Lord reward your work, and may you be paid in full by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge!”

¹³ Then Ruth said, “I have found such favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and you have spoken to the heart of your servant girl—although I cannot be compared to one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some of the food, and dip your piece of bread into the sour wine.” ^[19] So she sat down beside the reapers, and Boaz heaped up a serving of roasted grain for her. She ate until she was full and had some left over.

¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz ordered his workers, “She may glean even among our sheaves. You are not to humiliate her in any way. ¹⁶ In fact, you can even pull out some stalks from the piles for her, and you can drop them on purpose so that she can glean them, and do not rebuke her at all.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed what she had gleaned. It amounted to almost a bushel ^[20] of barley.

¹⁸ When she picked it up and went into town, her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Ruth also took what she had left over from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

¹⁹ Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May the man who took notice of you be blessed!”

So she told her mother-in-law in whose field she had worked: “The name of the man in whose field I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, whose faithfulness ^[21] has not forsaken ^[22] the living and the dead!”

Naomi also said to her, “This man is related to us. He is even one of our family’s redeemers.” ^[23]

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stick close to my workers until they have finished all of the harvest on the land that belongs to me.’”

²² Then Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you can go out with his young women, so that you will not be molested by men in some other field.”

²³ So Ruth stuck close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the completion of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.