1 Now it came to pass in the days
when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from
Beth-lehem of
2 And the name of the man was
Elimeleck, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons Malion
and Calion, Ephrathites from Beth-lehem of
3 And Elimeleck the husband of Naomi died; and she was left with her two sons.
4 And they took them wives of the Moabite women; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth; and they dwelt there about ten years.
5 And Malion and Calion, her two sons, died; and the woman was bereft of her husband and her two sons.
6 ¶Then she started with her
daughters-in-law to return from the
8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Return, go back to your own country and to the house of your kinsmen; may the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with me and with both of my sons who now are dead.
9 The Lord grant you favor so that you may find rest in the house of your parents. Then she kissed them; and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, No, we will return with you to your land and to your people.
11 But Naomi said to them, Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Will I bear sons again that they may be your husbands?
12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope. and even if I should have a husband. and should also bear sons;
13 Would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you stay for them from having husbands? No, my daughters; for I am greatly grieved for your sakes, and it grieves me more than it does you, because the hand of the LORD is gone forth against me. 14 And they lifted up their voices again and wept; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, and turned back and went away; but Ruth clung to her.
15 And her mother-in-law said to her, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her kinsmen; return also after your sister-in-law.
16 And Ruth said to her, Far be it from me to return from following after you, and to leave you; for where you go, I will go; and where you dwell, I will dwell; your people shall be my people, and your God my
God:
17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried; may the LORD do so to me, and more also, if even death can separate me from you.
18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, then she ceased from urging her to go back.
19 ¶50 they went together until
they came to Beth-lehem of
20 And she said to them, Do not call me Naomi, but call me Bitter of Soul; for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.
21 For I went forth from here full, and the LORD has brought me back empty; why then call me Naomi, seeing the LORD has humbled me, and has sorely afflicted me?
22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth
the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, for she was wholeheartedly
willing to return with her, and they came from the
CHAPTER 2
AND Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a well-known man of wealth, of the family of Elimeleck, whose name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to
her mother-in-law Naomi, Let me now go to the field and glean ears of wheat after the reapers in whose sight I may find favor. And her mother-in-law said to her, Go, my daughter.
3 So Ruth went to glean ears of wheat after the reapers; and it hap’. pened that she came upon a portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimeleck.
4 ¶And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said to the reapers, Peace be with you. And they answered him, The LORD bless you.
5 Then Boaz said to the young man who was in charge of the reapers, Whose damsel is this?
6 And the young man answered and
said to him, it is the Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the
7 And she said, Let me glean the ears of wheat after the reapers; so she has been gleaning from the morning until the time of rest.
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, My daughter, have you not heard the saying, Do not glean in a field which is not yours? Now therefore stay here, and spend the night wit-h my maidens. 9 Look at the field where they are reaping, and follow them; behold, I have charged the young men that no man shall harm you; and when you get thirsty, go and drink from the ves· sels which the young men have drawn. 10 Then she fell on her face to the ground, and made obeisance to him, and said, Is it because I have found grace in your eyes, that you should recognize me, seeing that I am a stranger?
11 And Boaz said to her, I have been fully informed of all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband; and how you have left your father and mother and your family, and come to a people that you did not know be· fore.
12 May the Loiu God of
13 Then she said to him, BecauM I have found favor in your sight, m~
lord, and you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your handmaid, let me become like one of your maid-servants.
14 And Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come near and eat of the bread; and he set her beside the reapers, and gave her barley-meal, and dipped bread in milk; then he gave her parched wheat, and she did eat and was satisfied, and she had some left over,
15 And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not harm her;
16 And they let her glean between the sheaves, and they did not harm her.
17 So she gleaned in the field until I evening, and beat out what she had
gleaned; and it was about an ephah of barley.
18 ¶And she took it up and went into the city; and she showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned; and she gave her of the food which was left over after she had eaten and was satisfied.
19 And her mother-in-law said to her, Where did you glean today? Blessed be the place in which you were and the man in whose eyes you have found favor. And she told her mother-in-law where she had been, and said, The man’s name in whose field I gleaned today is Boaz.
20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed is the LORD, because he has not caused his kindness to cease from the living nor from the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man is near of kin to us, he is one of our nearest kinsmen.
21 And Ruth said to her mother-in-law, He said to me also, You shall keep close by my servants until all the harvest is finished.
22 And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, Happy are you, my daughter, for you have kept close to his maidens, and no man harmed you in the field, whose owner you did not know!
I 23 So she kept close by the maid-servants of Boaz to glean until the
end of the barley harvest and of the wheat harvest; and Ruth dwelt with her mother-in-law.
THEN Naomi said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?
2 And, behold, Boaz is our kinsman, with whose maidens you were; and behold, he is going to winnow barley tonight in the threshing floor.
3 Wash yourself therefore, and anoint yourself, and put on your best garments, and go down to the threshing floor; but do not show yourself to him until he has finished eating and drinking.
4 And it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall remember the place where he lies, and you shall draw near and lie down near his feet; and he will tell you what you shall do.
5 And she said to her, All that you say to me I will do.
6 ¶So she went down to the threshing floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law had told her. 7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went and lay at the side of the threshing floor; and while he was in deep sleep in the threshing floor, she came secretly and lifted the end of his robe and lay down near his feet.
8 ¶And it came to pass at
9 And he said to her, Who are you? And she answered, I am Ruth, your handmaid; cover therefore your maidservant with the end of your robe, for you are a near kinsman.
10 And Boaz said to her, Blessed be you of the LORD, my daughter; for you have shown more kindness in the latter days than at the beginning of your life in that you have not gone after young men, whether rich or poor.
11 And now, my daughter, fear not; for I will do for you all that you ask of me; for all the family of our
peopie know that you are a virtuous woman.
12 And now it is true that I am a near kinsman; however, there is another kinsman nearer than I.
13 Now, tarry this night and lodge here till dawn, and it shall be in the morning, if he will perform to you the part of a kinsman, well, let him do it; but if he is unwilling to do the part of a kinsman to you, then, as the LORD lives, if he does not do the part of a next of kin to you, I will do the part of a kinsman to you; then he said to her, Lie down until the morning.
14 ¶50 she lay at his feet until dawn; and she rose up early in the morning while it was dark, before one could recognize another. And she said to him, Let it not be known that I came down to you to the threshing floor.
15 And Boaz said to her, Spread your mantle; and she spread it, and he measured six measures of barley, lifted it up, and laid it on her back; and she went into the city.
16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said to her, Who are you, my daughter? And she answered, I am Ruth, and she told her all that Boaz had done for her;
17 And how he had given her six measures of barley, and had said to her, Go not empty-handed to your mother-in-law.
18 Then her mother-in-law said to her, Sit still, my daughter, until you know the outcome; for the man will not rest until he brinwi the case to judgment today.
CHAPTER 4
THEN Boaz went up to the city gate and sat down there; and behold, the near kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken was passing by; and Boaz said to him, Come, sit down here. And the man said to him, What do you wish? And he sat down by him.
2 And Boaz selected ten men of the elders of the city, and seated them by him.
3 And he said to the near kinsman, Naomi is selling to me the parcel of land which belonged to our brother Elimeleck
4 And f thought to let you know, and say to you, Buy it in the presence of those who are seated, for I am ready to speak and to purchase it in the presence of the elders of my people who are seated. And now, if you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know that you will not redeem it; then I will redeem it. And he said, I will redeem it.
5 Then Boaz said, On the day you buy the field from Naomi and from Ruth, the Moabitess, the widow of the dead, you must buy it with the intention of raising the name of the dead upon his inheritance.
6 ¶And the near kinsman said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I damage my own inheritance; you can redeem it yourself; because of my lack of confidence in this transaction I cannot redeem it.
7 Now this was the custom in former
time in
8 Therefore the near kinsman said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself. And he took off his shoe.
9 ¶And Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that belonged to Elimeleck, and all that belonged to Malion and Calion, from the hand of Naomi.
10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Malion, have I taken to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off and his remembrance may not be forgotten among his brethren and his family; you are witnesses this day.
11 And all the people and the elders that were at the city gate, answered, saying, We are witnesses. And they blessed him, and said to him, May the LORD make this woman who is in your presence like Rachel and like Leah, for both of them built up the house of Israel; and may you do worthily in Ephratah, and call its name Beth-lehem.
12 And let your house be like the
house of Pharez, whom Tamar bore to
13 ¶So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14 And the women said to Naomi,
Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day
without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in
15 And he shall be to you a comforter of your soul and a nourisher to your city; for your daughter-in-law,
who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.
16 And Naomi took the child, and laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him.
17 And the women who were her neighbors said, A son has been born to Naomi; and they called his name Obed; he is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 ¶Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron,
19 And Hezron begat
20 And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Shelab,
21 And Shelah begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed,
22 And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat King David.