Ruth

Chapter 1

¹ During the time that judges were ruling Israel, there was a time when the crops failed to produce food in that country. So a certain man, along with his wife and his two sons, left there and went to live for a while in the country of Moab. He was from the town of Bethlehem in the region of Judah in the country of Israel. ² His name was Elimelek, and the name of his wife was Naomi. The names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilyon. They were part of the clan of Ephrath that lived in Bethlehem, in Judah. So they came to Moab and stayed there. ³ Then Elimelek, the husband of Naomi, died, leaving her and her two sons. ⁴ The two sons married women from Moab. The name of one woman was Orpah, and the name of the other woman was Ruth. Naomi and her family lived there in Moab for about ten years. ⁵ Then the two sons Mahlon and Kilyon also died, leaving Naomi without any children or a husband.

⁶ Someone in Moab had told Naomi that Yahweh had helped his people so that food was plentiful in Israel again. So she put her affairs in order and started the journey to leave the country of Moab and return to Bethlehem with her two daughters-in-law. ⁷ Both of her daughters-in-law accompanied Naomi when she left the place where she had been living. All together, they started traveling on the road to return to the region of Judah. ⁸ As they were going, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to the house of your mother. I hope that Yahweh will be as kind to you as you have been to your dead husbands and to me. ⁹ I hope that Yahweh will allow each of you to have another husband with whom you will have a secure home.” Then she kissed each of them, and all of them cried aloud and loudly expressed their grief. ¹⁰ Then Orpah and Ruth said to Naomi, “We would rather return with you to your people group.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Return to your homes, my daughters! There is nothing for you to gain by coming with me. Most likely, I will not become pregnant again, or have any more sons who could become your husbands. ¹² Go back, my daughters, because I am too old to have a husband. Even if I could tell you that I had hope for myself, and if I married a husband tonight, and even if I did bear sons, ¹³ surely you would not wait for them to grow up so you could marry them! That is not a good enough reason for either of you to refrain from marrying a different husband. Yahweh has acted to me in such a way that has made my situation much worse than yours. No, my daughters! You must not choose my life for yourselves.”

¹⁴ Then all of them cried aloud and loudly expressed their grief again. After that, Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye and left to return to her home. But Ruth refused to leave Naomi. ¹⁵ Naomi said to her, “Look, your sister-in-law has turned back and is returning to her people group and to her gods. Go back with your sister-in-law!” ¹⁶ But Ruth answered, “Do not ask me to leave you or to turn around and stop following you! I promise you that I will go to whatever place you go, and I will sleep in whatever place you sleep. Your people group is now my group, and I worship the same God that you worship. ¹⁷ I will die in whatever place you die, and they will bury me there. I am making a solemn promise before Yahweh to do all of that, and to do this as well: I will not leave you until one of us has died.” ¹⁸ Then Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her and would not change her mind. So Naomi stopped arguing with Ruth about it.

¹⁹ So the two women continued walking until they came to the town of Bethlehem. As soon as the two women entered Bethlehem, the people in town became very excited when they saw Naomi and Ruth. The women of the town exclaimed, “Naomi has been gone for so long that it is hard to believe that this woman we now see is truly the same person!” ²⁰ Naomi said to them, “Do not call me Naomi (which means, "a pleasant person"). Instead, call me Mara (which means, "a bitter person"), because God Almighty has caused me to feel very bitter and sad about my life. ²¹ This is the situation concerning me: I had everything I could want when I left Bethlehem, but Yahweh has brought me back to Bethlehem without anything. There is no reason for anyone to call me Naomi. But this is the situation concerning Yahweh: the Almighty God has opposed me and treated me badly.”

²² So that is how Naomi returned home. Ruth, the woman from the country of Moab, her daughter-in-law, was with her when she came back from the country of Moab. Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem at about the time when the people of Bethlehem were starting to harvest their barley.

Chapter 2

¹ There was a man who was from the same clan as Elimelek, and he was a relative of Naomi by her dead husband. His name was Boaz, and the people of Bethlehem greatly respected him. ² Ruth, the woman from the country of Moab, said to Naomi one day, “If you please, I want to go out to the farmland outside Bethlehem and pick up any grain that the harvesters happen to drop and leave behind. I will go behind any harvester who allows me to do that.” Naomi answered her: “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth went outside the town and came to a field where she followed the harvesters and started picking up grain that they left behind. By chance, that part of the farmland around Bethlehem where Ruth was working happened to belong to Boaz, who was from the same clan as Elimelek.

⁴ [Pay attention now, reader.] Sometime later that day, Boaz came from Bethlehem to the field. As he was walking, he greeted the harvesters, “May Yahweh be with you!” And they greeted him, “May Yahweh bless you!”

⁵ Boaz saw Ruth as he kept walking. When he came to the foreman who was in charge of the harvesters, Boaz asked him, “Does that young woman belong to anybody?” ⁶ The foreman who was in charge of the reapers answered, saying, “That is a Moabite woman, the same one who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab." ⁷ She said to me, ‘Please let me pick up any grain that the harvesters might drop and leave behind, and please let me keep it for myself to eat.’ She has been working on her feet since early this morning until now. Right this moment she is resting in the shelter, but she has been resting only a short time.” ⁸ Then Boaz went over to Ruth and said, “Listen to me, my dear. You do not need to go to any other field to pick up grain. In fact, you can stay here and work at any time, but stay close by my servant girls. ⁹ Watch the ground where the men are harvesting, and follow along behind them. I have given the young men strict instructions not to harm you. So whenever you are thirsty, you are free to go to the water jars and drink from the water that the young men draw.”

¹⁰ When she heard that, she knelt down in front of him with her face touching the ground. She asked him, “Why are you being so kind to me? I am a foreigner, and I did not expect you to even notice me. ¹¹ Boaz answered her, saying, “People have told me all about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. You left your father, your mother, and the country in which you were born. Not only that, but you have now come to live here among people you never knew before. ¹² I pray that Yahweh will fully repay you for what you have done. May you receive a complete reward from Yahweh, the God of Israel. He is the one whom you are trusting to take care of you, as a mother bird takes care of her little ones.”

¹³ She replied, “It is very kind of you, sir, to comfort me and to speak so kindly to me. You have treated me like one of your servants, even though I am not one of them.”

¹⁴ When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, “Come over here, and eat from our bread. Whatever you take, you are free to dip it in the vinegar as well.” So she sat down alongside the harvesters, and Boaz held out the sack of roasted grain for her to take some. She ate all that she wanted, and she even had some left over! ¹⁵ After Ruth had left to go back to work, Boaz commanded his workers, saying, “Let her pick up grain anywhere in the field that she wants, even between the bundles of grain that have been cut. And do not humiliate her! ¹⁶ Not only that, but you must also pull out some stalks of grain from the bundles and drop them for her. Then leave them behind for her to pick up, and do not scold her for doing that.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gathered grain in the field until the sun went down. Then she threshed the barley that she had gathered, to separate the kernels from the stalks, and the barley kernels filled a large basket. ¹⁸ She carried it back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. Then she took out her leftover grain from the midday meal, and gave it to Naomi. ¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you gather all this grain today? In whose field did you work? Someone took notice of you; may God bless whoever it was!” Then Ruth told her mother-in-law the person with whom she had worked, saying: "Boaz is the name of the man who owns the field where I worked today." ²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May Yahweh bless him! Yahweh has not stopped acting kindly, both to us who are alive and to our dead husbands.” Then Naomi told Ruth, “That man is our close relative; he is one of the people who is responsible for taking care of us and who has a right to buy back our family property.”

²¹ Then Ruth, the woman from Moab, said, “Not only that, but he also said to me, ‘You can stay close by the young men who work for me for as long as it takes for them to finish harvesting all the farmland that belongs to me.’”

²² Then Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “This is a good situation, my daughter. If you go out and work alongside his servant girls, then no one will harm you, which might happen in a different field.

²³ So Ruth stayed close by the young women who worked for Boaz, and gathered stalks of grain until the workers had finished harvesting all the barley and all the wheat. During that time she continued to live with Naomi, her mother-in-law.

Chapter 3

¹ One day, Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, I want to arrange for you to have a secure home with a good husband. ² You were working with the servant girls of Boaz. Remember that he is a close relative of ours. Now listen carefully. Tonight he will be at the place where they thresh the barley. He and his workers will be separating the grain from the chaff. ³ Bathe yourself and put on some perfume. Put on your full outer covering. Then go down to the place where they thresh the grain. But do not let him know that you are there until he has finished eating food and drinking wine. ⁴ Pay attention to where he lies down to sleep. Then go over to him, uncover his feet, and lie close to them. When he wakes up, he will tell you what to do.”

⁵ Ruth replied, “I will do everything that you have told me to do.” ⁶ So she went down to the place where they thresh the grain. There she did everything that her mother-in-law had told her to do.

⁷ After Boaz finished eating food and drinking wine, he was feeling good. He went over to the edge of the grain pile, lay down there, and went to sleep. Then Ruth stealthily approached him. She took the covering off his feet and lay down by them. ⁸ In the middle of the night, he woke up suddenly. He bent forward, and realized that a woman was lying at his feet! ⁹ He asked her, “Who are you?” She replied, “I am your servant, Ruth. Since you are my dead husband’s relative who is responsible for taking care of his family, please make me secure by marrying me.”

¹⁰ Boaz replied, “I pray that Yahweh will bless you, my dear! You have been very loyal to your mother-in-law previously, but you are acting even more loyal to your family now by not chasing after a young man to marry, whether a rich one or a poor one. ¹¹ Now, my dear, do not be afraid. I will do everything that you ask, because all the people in this town know that you are an honorable woman. ¹² However, while it is true that I am a close relative of Naomi’s dead husband, there is another man who is a closer relative than I am. He is the one primarily responsible to take care of you and Naomi. ¹³ You stay here for the rest of the night. Tomorrow morning I will talk to this man about you. If he says that he will marry you, then that is good. He will take care of you. But if he is not willing to marry you, I solemnly promise that as surely as Yahweh lives, I will marry you and take care of you myself. So stay here until it is morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until early morning. Then she got up to leave before it was light enough that people would be able to recognize her, because Boaz said, “It would be best if no one knew that a woman came here.” ¹⁵ Then he said to her, “Bring the shawl that you are wearing and grip it tightly.” When she did that, he poured a generous amount of barley into it and put it on her back. Then he went into town.

¹⁶ Ruth arrived home to her mother-in-law who said, “Is that you, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷ She also said to Naomi, “He gave me all this barley, saying, ‘I do not want you to return to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” ¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “My daughter, just wait here until we see what happens. That man will certainly settle the matter today.”

Chapter 4

¹ Meanwhile, Boaz went up to the town gate where official business was conducted and sat down there. Before long, the relative who was closer in the family to Elimelech came along. This was the man that Boaz had mentioned to Ruth. Boaz called out to him and invited him to come and sit down. So the man came over and sat down. ² Boaz then approached ten of the older, well-respected men from the town and said to them, “Please sit here so you can witness our business.” So they sat down. ³ Then Boaz said to the relative who was responsible to take care of Naomi, “Naomi, who recently returned from Moab, is selling the field that belonged to our relative Elimelek. ⁴ I thought that I should tell you so that you can take possession of it here in front of these respected men who have agreed to be our witnesses. If you plan to fulfil your obligation to buy the field so that it stays in the family, then do so. But if you do not plan to buy it, then let me know, because you are first in line to buy it back for the family, and I am next after you.” The man replied, “I will buy it myself!” ⁵ Then Boaz told him, “When you acquire the land from Naomi, you will also need to marry Ruth, our relative’s widow from Moab, in order that she may have a son to inherit the property and carry on the name of her dead husband.” ⁶ Then the nearer relative said, “In that case, I cannot buy it myself. Doing that would diminish the amount of property that my own sons would inherit. You may be responsible for her in my place. I cannot do it.”

⁷ (At that time, it was the custom in Israel that when two people agreed to redeem or exchange anything between them, one man would take off one of his sandals and give it to the other man. That was the way they showed that they had agreed to transfer property in Israel.) ⁸ So the relative said to Boaz, “You buy the field yourself!” And he took off one of his sandals and gave it to Boaz.

⁹ Then Boaz said to the respected men and to all the other people who were there, “Today you have all witnessed that I have bought from Naomi all the property that belonged to Elimelek, Mahlon, and Kilion. ¹⁰ I am also taking Ruth, Mahlon’s widow from Moab, to be my wife. This is in order that she may give birth to a son who will be considered the son of Mahlon, who has died. This son will inherit the property and continue the family line of Elimelech among his relatives and among the leaders of his hometown. You all have witnessed these things today.”

¹¹ All the respected men and the others who were sitting at the town gate agreed and said, “Yes, we have seen this today and can speak of it tomorrow. May Yahweh allow this woman, who will be coming into your home, to be like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children. From those two women all of our people, Israel, have descended. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrathah and famous for doing good things here in Bethlehem. ¹² May your family be like the family of your ancestor Perez, son of Judah and Tamar, because of the many descendants that Yahweh will give to you and this young woman.”

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth home to be his wife and had sexual relations with her. Yahweh enabled her to become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, “We praise Yahweh for giving you this male heir today who will take care of you and preserve your family line. May he become famous for doing good things throughout Israel! ¹⁵ Your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given birth to him. She has been better to you than if you had seven sons. He will make you feel young again, and he will take care of you when you become old.”

¹⁶ Then Naomi took the baby and put him on her lap, and became a second mother for him. ¹⁷ The women who were living nearby said, “It is as though Naomi now has a son!” And they named him Obed. Later, Obed became the father of Jesse, who later became the father of David. ¹⁸ Here is a list of the descendants of Perez: Perez’s son was Hezron. ¹⁹ Hezron’s son was Ram. Ram’s son was Amminadab. ²⁰ Amminadab’s son was Nahshon. Nahshon’s son was Salmon. ²¹ Salmon’s son was Boaz. Boaz’s son was Obed. ²² Obed’s son was Jesse. Jesse’s son was David, who became king.