Morning of the barley harvest below Bethlehem: terraced fields of ripe gold barley, a line of tiny reapers bending with sickles, sheaves standing in rows, a shelter of branches at the field's edge, the town small on its ridge above a clear pale sky.

The Book of

Ruth 2

A foreign widow goes out to glean, and she happens on just the right field.

23 verses≈ 5 min3 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1EmptyFamine, death and a loyal daughter
2A field of favorRuth gleans in Boaz's fieldChapter 2
3Under his wingA night at the threshing floor
4RedeemedA son, and David's line

Boaz Meets Ruth

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent man of noble character from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

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Ruth

And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.”

Naomi

“Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.

So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

Boaz

Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.”

The harvesters

“The LORD bless you,” they replied.

Boaz

And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

The foreman

The foreman answered, “She is the Moabitess who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. She has said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the harvesters.’ So she came out and has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the shelter.”

Reflect

Ordinary faithfulness

Ruth asked, went out, and worked. The foreman said she “has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the shelter.” She did not know whose field it was, or that anyone was watching. What ordinary work is in front of you today? Write down how you could do it faithfully, as for the LORD, whoever notices.

Boaz

Ruth

At this, she fell on her face, bowing low to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, even though I am a foreigner?”

Boaz

Boaz replied, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you did not know before.

Ruth 2:12

“My lord,” she said, “may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

Question

Quick question

Boaz had heard how Ruth left her own land and came to a people she did not know.

Under whose wings did Boaz say Ruth had taken refuge?

At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.

When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her. Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”

So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley.

Dusk at the door of a small stone house in Bethlehem: Naomi holds a lit clay oil lamp in the doorway while Ruth, on the step, sets down a heavy cloth bundle of barley and holds out a small bundle of saved roasted grain.

She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

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Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Naomi

Then her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the man who noticed you.”

So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked.

Ruth

“The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the LORD, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

Ruth

Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished gathering all my harvest.’”

Naomi

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his young women, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”

So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

What a redeemer does

Whiteboard

Naomi’s news, “He is one of our kinsman-redeemers,” meant hope. In Israel the nearest relative had the right and the duty to step in when family lost what they could not get back: land sold in hard times, a relative sold as a servant, a life taken. Boaz will do it for Naomi and Ruth, and go further than the law asked. And he points ahead to the greater Redeemer, Christ, who paid the price for His people.

Pray

Nothing by chance

Ruth “happened to come” to Boaz’s field, and Naomi found that the LORD “has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Thank God that nothing in your life is chance to Him. Then pray: Lord, give me a heart like Boaz’s, that gives more than the rule requires and guards the dignity of those I help. Show me who is gleaning on the edges near me, and let me be Your kindness to them. Amen.

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Ruth 2

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A verse to carry with you

May the LORD repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.

Ruth 2:12

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