Ruth 2:14–23

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz told Ruth, “Come here. Eat some of our bread and dip it in our sauce.”

So Ruth sat down beside the workers. Boaz handed her some roasted grain, and she ate until she was full; she even had some food left over. ¹⁵When Ruth rose and went back to work, Boaz commanded his workers, “Let her gather even around the piles of cut grain. Don’t tell her to go away. ¹⁶In fact, drop some full heads of grain for her from what you have in your hands, and let her gather them. Don’t tell her to stop.”

¹⁷So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. Then she separated the grain from the chaff, and there was about one-half bushel of barley. ¹⁸Ruth carried the grain into town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also took out the food that was left over from lunch and gave it to Naomi.

¹⁹Naomi asked her, “Where did you gather all this grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be whoever noticed you!”

Ruth told her mother-in-law whose field she had worked in. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

²⁰Naomi told her daughter-in-law, “The Lord bless him! He continues to be kind to us—both the living and the dead!” Then Naomi told Ruth, “Boaz is one of our close relatives, ⁿ one who should take care of us.”

²¹Then Ruth, the Moabite, said, “Boaz also told me, ‘Keep close to my workers until they have finished my whole harvest.’ ”

²²But Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is better for you to continue working with his women workers. If you work in another field, someone might hurt you.” ²³So Ruth continued working closely with the workers of Boaz, gathering grain until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. And she continued to live with Naomi, her mother-in-law.