Study Desk

These sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. Naomi and her sons had lived in Moab about ten years

The women cried together out loud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi good-bye, but Ruth held on to her tightly.

Naomi said to Ruth, "Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and her own gods. Go back with her."

But Ruth said, "Don't beg me to leave you or to stop following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

When Naomi saw that Ruth had firmly made up her mind to go with her, she stopped arguing with her.

So Naomi and Ruth went on until they came to the town of Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, all the people became very excited. The women of the town said, "Is this really Naomi?"

So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, the Moabite, returned from Moab and arrived at Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

One day Ruth, the Moabite, said to Naomi, "I am going to the fields. Maybe someone will be kind enough to let me gather the grain he leaves behind." Naomi said, "Go, my daughter."

So Ruth went to the fields and gathered the grain that the workers cutting the grain had left behind. It just so happened that the field belonged to Boaz, from Elimelech's family.

Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Don't go to gather grain for yourself in another field. Don't even leave this field at all, but continue following closely behind my women workers.

Then Ruth bowed low with her face to the ground and said to him, "I am not an Israelite. Why have you been so kind to notice me?"

Then Ruth said, "I hope I can continue to please you, sir. You have said kind and encouraging words to me, your servant, though I am not one of your servants."

At 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.

When 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.

So 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.

Ruth 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.

Naomi 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."

Naomi 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, one who should take care of us."

Then Ruth, the Moabite, said, "Boaz also told me, ‘Keep close to my workers until they have finished my whole harvest.'"

But 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."