Ruth 2:17-3:6

New International Version

¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed^(A) the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^{[a](B) 18} She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over^(C) after she had eaten enough.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!^(D)”

Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

²⁰ “The Lord bless him!^(E)” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.^(F) “He has not stopped showing his kindness^(G) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative;^(H) he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b](I)”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite^(J) said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley^(K) and wheat harvests^(L) were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor

3 One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi^(M) said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home^[c](N) for you, where you will be well provided for. ² Now Boaz, with whose women you have worked, is a relative^(O) of ours. Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.^{(P) 3} Wash,^(Q) put on perfume,^(R) and get dressed in your best clothes.^(S) Then go down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.^{(T) 4} When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ “I will do whatever you say,”^(U) Ruth answered. ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor^(V) and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.