T4T RUTH Chapter 3

Ruth asked Boaz to marry her so she would have a home and other things she needed

3 One day, Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, I think that I should [RHQ] try to arrange for you to have a husband [MTY] who will ◄take care of/provide for► you. 2 Boaz, the man with whose servant girls you have been gathering grain, is a close relative of our dead husbands. Listen carefully. Tonight he will be at the ground where the barley has been threshed. He will be separating the barley grain from the chaff. 3 Bathe yourself and put on some perfume. Put on your best clothes. Then go down to the ground where they have threshed the grain. But do not let Boaz know that you are there while he is eating supper and drinking. 4 When he has finished eating, notice where he lies down to sleep. Then when he is asleep, take the blanket off his feet and lie close to his feet. When he wakes up, he will tell you what to do.”

5 Ruth replied, “I will do everything that you have told me to do.” 6 So she went down to the ground where they had threshed the barley grain. There she did everything that her mother-in-law had told her to do.

7 When Boaz finished eating supper and drinking wine, he felt happy. Then he went over to the far end of the pile of grain. He lay down and went to sleep. Then Ruth approached him quietly. She took the blanket off his feet and lay down there. 8 In the middle of the night, he suddenly awoke. He sat up and saw that a woman was lying at his feet. 9 He asked her, “Who are you?” She replied, “I am your servant, Ruth. Since you are the one who has a responsibility to take care of someone like me whose dead husband was your close relative, spread the corner of your cloak over my feet to show that you will marry me.”

10 Boaz replied, “Young lady, I hope that Yahweh will ◄bless/be kind to► you! You have acted kindly toward your mother-in-law, and now you are acting even more kindly toward me by wanting to marry me, instead of wanting to marry a young man. You have not looked for either a rich young man or a poor young man, to marry him. 11 Now, young lady, I will do everything you ask. Don’t worry that people in this town might think I am doing wrong by marrying you because you are a woman from Moab. All the people in this town know that you are an honorable woman. 12 But there is one problem. Although it is true that I am a close relative of your mother-in-law’s dead husband, there is another man who is a closer relative than I am, and therefore he should be the one to marry you and take care of you. 13 You stay here for the rest of this night. Tomorrow morning I will tell this man about you. If he says that he will marry you and take care of you, fine, we will let him do that. But if he is not willing to do that, I solemnly promise that as surely as Yahweh lives, I will marry you and take care of you. So lie/sleep here until it is morning.”

14 So she lay at his feet until morning. But she got up and left before it was light enough that people would be able to recognize her, because Boaz said, “I do not want anyone to know that a woman was here.” 15 He also said to her, “Bring to me your cloak and spread it out.” When she did that, he poured into it six measures/24 liters/50 pounds of barley, and put in on her back. Then he (OR, she) went back to the town.

16 When Ruth arrived home, her mother-in-law asked her, “My daughter, how did ◄things go/Boaz act toward you►?” Then Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her and said to her. 17 She also said to Naomi, “He gave me all this barley, saying ‘I do not want you to return to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ” 18 Then Naomi said, “My daughter, just wait until we see what happens. I am sure that Boaz will take care of [LIT] the matter of your marriage today. [LIT]”