Ruth 3–4

Ruth Finds a Husband

3Some time later Naomi said to Ruth, “I must find a husband for you, so that you will have a home of your own. ²Remember that this man Boaz, whose women you have been working with, is our relative. Now listen. This evening he will be threshing the barley. ³So wash yourself, put on some perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go where he is threshing, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴Be sure to notice where he lies down, and after he falls asleep, go and lift the covers and lie down at his feet. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵Ruth answered, “I will do everything you say.”

⁶So Ruth went to the threshing place and did just what her mother-in-law had told her. ⁷When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he was in a good mood. He went to the pile of barley and lay down to sleep. Ruth slipped over quietly, lifted the covers and lay down at his feet. ⁸During the night he woke up suddenly, turned over, and was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet. ⁹“Who are you?” he asked.

“It’s Ruth, sir,” she answered. “Because you are a close relative, you are responsible for taking care of me. So please marry me.”

¹⁰“The Lord bless you,” he said. “You are showing even greater family loyalty in what you are doing now than in what you did for your mother-in-law. You might have gone looking for a young man, either rich or poor, but you didn’t. ¹¹Now don’t worry, Ruth. I will do everything you ask; as everyone in town knows, you are a fine woman. ^12*It is true that I am a close relative and am responsible for you, but there is a man who is a closer relative than I am. ¹³Stay here the rest of the night, and in the morning we will find out whether or not he will take responsibility for you. If so, well and good; if not, then I swear by the living Lord that I will take the responsibility. Now lie down and stay here till morning.”

¹⁴So she lay there at his feet, but she got up before it was light enough for her to be seen, because Boaz did not want anyone to know that she had been there. ¹⁵Boaz said to her, “Take off your cloak and spread it out here.” She did, and he poured out nearly 20 kilogrammes of barley and helped her to lift it on her shoulder. Then she returned to the town with it. ¹⁶When she arrived home, her mother-in-law asked her, “How did you get on, my daughter?”

Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷She added, “He told me I must not come back to you empty-handed, so he gave me all this barley.”

¹⁸Naomi said to her, “Now be patient, Ruth, until you see how this all turns out. Boaz will not rest today until he settles the matter.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

4Boaz went to the meeting place at the town gate and sat down there. Then Elimelech’s nearest relative, the man whom Boaz had mentioned, came by, and Boaz called to him, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. ²Then Boaz got ten of the leaders of the town and asked them to sit down there too. When they were seated, ³he said to his relative, “Now that Naomi has come back from Moab, she wants to sell the field that belonged to our relative Elimelech, ⁴and I think you ought to know about it. Now then, if you want it, buy it in the presence of these men sitting here. But if you don’t want it, say so, because the right to buy it belongs first to you and then to me.”

The man said, “I will buy it.”

⁵Boaz said, “Very well, but if you buy the field from Naomi, then you are also buying Ruth,^g the Moabite widow, so that the field will stay in the dead man’s family.”

⁶The man answered, “In that case I will give up my right to buy the field, because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it. You buy it; I would rather not.”

^7*Now in those days, to settle a sale or an exchange of property, it was the custom for the seller to take off his sandal and give it to the buyer. In this way the Israelites showed that the matter was settled.

^8*So when the man said to Boaz, “You buy it,” he took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz.^{h 9}Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the others there, “You are all witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon. ^10*In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon’s widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man’s family, and his family line will continue among his people and in his town. You are witnesses to this today.”

^11*The leaders and the others said, “Yes, we are witnesses. May the Lord make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem. ^12*May the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman make your family like the family of Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.”

Boaz and His Descendants

¹³So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The Lord blessed her, and she became pregnant and had a son. ¹⁴The women said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord! He has given you a grandson today to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel! ¹⁵Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age.” ¹⁶Naomi took the child, held him close,ⁱ and took care of him.

¹⁷The women of the neighbourhood named the boy Obed. They told everyone, “A son has been born to Naomi!”

Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

^18–22This is the family line from Perez to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.