Chapter 2

¹ And Noemin had a friend an acquaintance of her husband, and the man was a mighty man of the kindred of Elimelech, and his name was Booz. ² And Ruth the Moabitess said to Noemin, Let me go now to the field, and I will glean among the ears behind the man ¹with whomsoever I shall find favour: and she said to her, Go, daughter. ³ And she went; and came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers; and she happened by chance to come on a portion of the land of Booz, of the kindred of Elimelech.

⁴ And, behold, Booz came from Bethleem, and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you: and they said to him, The Lord bless thee. ⁵ And Booz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, Whose is this damsel? ⁶ And his servant who was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel who returned with Noemin out of the land of Moab. ⁷ And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather among the ²sheaves after the reapers: and she came and stood from morning till evening, and rested not even a little in the field.

⁸ And Booz said to Ruth, Hast thou not heard, my daughter? go not to glean in another field; and depart not thou hence, join thyself here with my damsels. ⁹ Let thine eyes be on the field where my men shall reap, and thou shalt go after them: behold, I have charged the young men not to touch thee: and when you shalt thirst, then thou shalt go to the vessels, and drink of that which the young men shall have drawn. ¹⁰ And she fell upon her face, and did reverence to the ground, and said to him, How is it that I have found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take notice of me, whereas I am a stranger?

¹¹ And Booz answered and said to her, It

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has fully been told me how thou hast dealt with thy mother-in-law after the death of thy husband; and how thou didst leave thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy birth, and camest to a people whom thou knewest not ³before. ¹² The Lord recompense thy work; may a full reward be given thee of the Lord God of Israel, to whom thou hast come to trust under his wings. ¹³ And she said, Let me find grace in thy sight, my lord, because thou hast comforted me, and because thou hast spoken ⁴kindly to thy handmaid, and behold, I shall be as one of thy servants.

¹⁴ And Booz said to her, Now it is time to eat; come hither, and thou shalt eat of the bread, and thou shalt dip thy morsel in the vinegar: and Ruth sat by the side of the reapers: and Booz ⁵handed her meal, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left.

¹⁵ And she rose up to glean; and Booz charged his young men, saying, Let her even glean among the sheaves, and ⁶reproach her not. ¹⁶ And do ye by all means carry it for her, and ye shall surely let fall for her some of that which is heaped up; and let her eat, and glean, and rebuke her not. ¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field till evening, and beat out that she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barely.

¹⁸ And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and Ruth brought forth and gave to her the food which she had left from what she had been satisfied with. ¹⁹ And her mother-in-law said to her, Where hast thou gleaned to-day, and where hast thou wrought? blessed be he that took notice of thee. And Ruth told her mother-in-law where she had wrought, and said, The name of the man with whom I wrought to-day is Booz. ²⁰ And Noemin said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed is he of the Lord, because he has not failed in his mercy with the living and with the dead: and Noemin said to her, The man is near akin to us, he is one of our relations. ²¹ And Ruth said to her mother-in-law, Yea, he said also to me, Keep close to my damsels, until the men shall have finished all my reaping.

²² And Noemin said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, It is well, daughter, that thou wentest out with his damsels; thus they shall not meet thee in another field. ²³ And Ruth joined herself to the damsels of Booz to glean until they had finished the barley-harvest and the wheat-harvest.