Night and morning

3 One day, Naomi said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, should I not seek to secure a home for you where you will be happy and prosperous? 2 Is not Boaz, with whose girls you have been, a relative of ours? 3 Tonight he is going to winnow barley on the threshing-floor. So bathe and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing-floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 Then when he lies down, mark the place where he lies. Go in, uncover his feet, lie down, and then he will tell you what to do.’

5 ‘I will do as you say.’ Ruth said to her.

6 So she went down to the threshing-floor and did just as her mother-in-law told her. 7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in a happy mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth came quietly and uncovered his feet and lay down. 8 At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and there was a woman lying at his feet! 9 ‘Who are you?’ he said. ‘I am Ruth your servant,’ she answered, ‘Spread your cloak over your servant, for you are a near relative.’ 10 He said, ‘May you be blest by the Lord, my daughter. You have shown me greater favour now than at first, for you have not followed young men, whether poor or rich. 11 My daughter, have no fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for the whole town knows that you are a virtuous woman. 12 Now it is true that I am a near relative, but there is another man nearer than I. 13 Stay here tonight, and then in the morning, if he will perform for you the duty of a kinsman, well, let him do it. But if he will not perform for you the duty of a kinsman, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it for you. Lie down until morning.’

14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but rose before anyone could recognise her, for Boaz said, ‘No one must know that a woman came to the threshing-floor.’ 15 He also said, ‘Bring the cloak which you have on and hold it.’ So she held it while he poured into it six measures of barley and laid it on her shoulders. Then he went into the city.

16 When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, ‘Is it you, my daughter?’ Then Ruth told Naomi all that the man had done for her. 17 ‘He gave me these six measures of barley,’ she said, ‘for he said I should not go to my mother-in-law empty-handed.’

18 ‘Wait quietly, my daughter.’ Naomi said, ‘Until you know how the affair will turn out, for the man will not rest unless he settles it all today.’

4 Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down. Just then the near kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came along. Boaz said, ‘Hello, So-and-so (calling him by name), come here and sit down.’ So he stopped and sat down. 2 Boaz also took ten of the town elders and said, ‘Sit down here.’ So they sat down.

3 Then he said to the near relative, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is offering for sale the piece of land which belonged to our relative Elimelech, 4 and I thought that I would lay the matter before you, suggesting that you buy it in the presence of these men who sit here and of the elders of my people. If you will buy it and so keep it in the possession of the family, do so; but if not; then tell me, so that I may know; for no one but you has the right to buy it, and I am next to you.’

‘I will buy it,’ he said.

5 Then Boaz said, ‘On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you must also marry Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to preserve the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance.’

6 ‘I cannot buy it for myself without spoiling my own inheritance,’ the near relative said. ‘You take my right of buying it as a relative, because I cannot do so.’

7 Now this used to be the custom in Israel: to make valid anything relating to a matter of redemption or exchange, a man drew off his sandal and gave it to the other man; and this was the way contracts were attested in Israel. 8 So when the near relative said to Boaz, ‘Buy it for yourself,’ Boaz drew off the man’s sandal.

9 Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, ‘You are witnesses at this time that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s from Naomi. 10 Moreover I have secured Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his relatives and from the household where he lived. You are witnesses this day.’

11 Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you do well in Ephrata, and become famous in Bethlehem. 12 From the children whom the Lord will give you by this young woman may your household become like the household of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’

13 So Boaz married Ruth, and she became his wife; and the Lord gave to her a son. 14 Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord who has not left you at this time without a near relative, and may his name be famous in Israel. 15 This child will restore your vigor and nourish you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is worth more to you than seven sons, has borne a son to Boaz!’

16 So Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him as if he was her own. 17 The women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son is born to Naomi!’ They named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.