When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole city buzzed with excitement over them. The women said, "Can this be Naomi?"

"Do not call me Naomi," she replied. "Call me Mara, for God has made my lot very bitter. I went away full, and God has brought me back empty. How can you call me Naomi, when God has dealt harshly with me, and brought such misfortune upon me.!"

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

Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband's side, a man of substance, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "I would like to go to the fields and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone who may show me kindness."

"Yes, daughter, go," she replied; and off she went.

She came and gleaned in the field, behind the reapers; and, as luck would have it, it was the piece of land belonging to Boaz.

Presently Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He greeted the reapers, "God be with you!" and they responded, "God bless you!" Boaz said to the servant who was in charge of the reapers, "Who is that girl?" The servant in charge replied, "She is a Moabite girl who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ëPlease let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.' She has been on her feet ever since she came this morning. She has rested but little in the hut."

Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen to me, daughter. Don't go to glean in another field. Don't go elsewhere, but stay here close to my girls. Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and follow them. I have ordered the men not to molest you. And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink some of the water that the men have drawn."

She prostrated herself with her face to the ground, and said to him, "Why are you so kind as to single me out, when I am a foreigner?"

Boaz said in reply, "I have been told of all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and came to a people you had not known before. May God reward your deeds. May you have a full recompense from the God of Israel, under whose wings you have sought refuge!"

She answered, "You are most kind, sir, to comfort me and to speak gently to your maidservant - though I am not so much as one of your maidservants."

At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here and partake of the meal, and dip your morsel in the vinegar." So she sat down beside the reapers. He handed her roasted grain, and she ate her fill and had some left over.

When she got up again to glean, Boaz gave orders to his workers, "You are not only to let her glean among the sheaves, without interference, but you must also pull some stalks out of the heaps and leave them for her to glean, and not scold her."

She gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned - it was about an ephah of barley - and carried it back with her to the town. When her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and when she also took out and gave her what she had left over after eating her fill, her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be he who took such generous notice of you!"

So she told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with, saying, "The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz."

Naomi said to her daugher-in-law, "Blessed be the one who has not failed in his kindness to the living or to the dead! For," Naomi explained, "the man is related to us; he is one of our redeeming kinsmen."

Ruth the Moabite said, "He even told me, ëStay close by my workers until all my harvest is finished.'" And Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, "It is best, daughter, that you go out with his girls, and not be annoyed in some other field." So she stayed close to the maidservants of Boaz, and gleaned until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. Then she stayed at home with her mother-in-law.

Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, "Daughter, I must seek a home for you, where you may be happy. Now there is our kinsman, Boaz, whose girls you were close to. He will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor tonight. So bathe, anoint yourself, dress up, and go down to the threshing floor. But do not disclose yourself to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. When he lies down, note the place where he lies down, and go over and uncover his "feet" and lie down. He will tell you what you are to do."

Ruth replied, "I will do everything you tell me."

She went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. Boaz ate and drank, and in a cheerful mood went to lie down beside the grain pile. Then she went over stealthily and uncovered his "feet" and lay down. In the middle of the night, the man gave a start and pulled back - there was a woman lying at his feet!

"Who are you?" he asked. And she replied, "I am your handmaid, Ruth. Spread your robe over your handmaid, for you are a redeeming kinsman."

He exclaimed, "Be blessed of God, daughter! Your latest deed of loyalty is greater than the first, in that you have not turned to younger men, whether poor or rich. And now, daughter, have no fear. I will do in your behalf whatever you ask, for all the elders of my town know what a fine woman you are. But while it is true I am a redeeming kinsman, there is another redeemer closer than I. Stay for the night. Then in the morning, if he will act as a redeemer, good! Let him redeem. But if he does not want to act as a redeemer for you, I will do so myself, as God lives! Lie down until morning."

So she lay at his feet until dawn. She rose before one person could distinguish another, for he thought, "Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor." and he said, "Hold out the shawl you are wearing." She held it while he measured out six measures of barley, and he put it on her back.

When she got back to town, she came to her mother-in-law, who asked, "How is it with you, daughter?" She told her all that the man had done for her; and she added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying to me, ëDo not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'" And Naomi said, "Stay here, daughter, till you learn how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest, but will settle the matter today."

Meanwhile, Boaz had gone to the gate and sat down there. And now the redeemer whom Boaz had mentioned passed by. He called, "Come over and sit down here, So-and-so!" and he came over and sat down. Then Boaz took ten elders of the town and said, "Be seated here;" and they say down.

He said to the redeemer, "Naomi, now returned from the country of Moab, must sell the piece of land which belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. I thought I should disclose the matter to you and say: Acquire it in the presence of those seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you are willing to redeem it, redeem it! But if you will not redeem, tell me, that I may know. For there is no one to redeem but you, and I come after you."

"I am willing to redeem it," he replied.

Boaz continued, "When you acquire the property from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite you must also acquire the wife of the deceased, so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate."

The redeemer replied, "Then I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own estate. You take over my right of redemption, for I am unable to exercise it."

Now here's what was formerly done in Israel in cases of redemption or exchange: to validate any transaction, one person would take off their sandal and hand it to the other. Such was the practice in Israel. So when the redeemer said to Boaz, "Acquire for yourself," he drew off his sandal. And Boaz said to the elders and to the rest of the people, "You are witness today that I am acquiring from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife, so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate, that the name of the deceased may not disappear from among his kinfolk and from the gates of this town. You are witnesses today."

All the people at the gate and the elders answered, "We are. May God make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the House of Israel! Prosper in Ephrathah and perpetuate your name in Bathlehem! And may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah - through the offspring which God will give you by this young woman."

So Boaz married Ruth; she became his wife. When they came together, God let her conceive and she bore a son. And the women said to Naomi, "Blessed be God, who has not withheld a redeemer from you today! May God's name be renowned in Israel! This child shall be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is more to you than seven sons, has borne him."

Then Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom. She became its foster mother. The women of the neighborhood gave him a name saying, "A son has been born to Naomi!" They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.