Ruth

Ruth
1. Elimelech Takes His Family To Moab
2. Naomi Decides To Return To Bethlehem
3. Ruth Goes Out To Glean In The Field
4. Boaz Invites Ruth To Eat With His Workers
5. Naomi Explains What A Near Kinsman Is
6. Boaz Meets With The Elders
7. Boaz Marries Ruth

1. Elimelech Takes His Family To Moab - Back to Page Index
Ruth 1:1-5
In the days when the judges governed the land, there was a famine. A man of Bethlehem in Judah decided to sojourn in the land of Moab with his wife and two sons. His name was Elimelech and his wife's name was Naomi. His sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were of the tribe of Ephraim. After a time Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons. They each took a Moabite wife. One was named Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years. Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died and Naomi was bereft of her two sons as well as her husband.

2. Naomi Decides To Return To Bethlehem - Back to Page Index
Ruth 1:6-22
She arose with her two daughters-in-law and headed for her home, for she had heard that the LORD had visited His people and given them food. She departed from the place where she had lived in Moab, and her daughters-in-law accompanied her as she traveled to the land of Judah. Naomi said to them, "Each of you should return to her mother's house. May the LORD deal kindly with you just as you have dealt with the dead and with me. May the LORD grant you rest, each in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them and they lifted up their voices and wept. But they said, "We want to return with you to your people." But Naomi pressed them, saying, "Return, my daughters. Why come with me? I have no sons in my womb that can become husbands to you. Return, my daughters! I am too old to have a husband. Even if I did have one and were to bear sons, would you wait until they were grown? Shouldn't you marry as soon as possible? All of this is harder for me than it is for you. I have lost my husband my sons." And they lifted up their voices and wept again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law and went back, but Ruth clung to Naomi.

Then Naomi said to Ruth, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Go back with her." But Ruth said, "Do not ask me to leave you, for wherever you go, I will go. And where you lodge, I will lodge. Your people shall be my people and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus may the LORD do to me, and worse, if anything but death separates us." When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said no more. So when they arrived at Bethlehem, the whole town was astir, saying, "Can this be Naomi?" She replied, "Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me. I went out full and the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi, since the LORD has afflicted me?" When Naomi and Ruth came from Moab to Bethlehem, it was the time of the barley harvest.

3. Ruth Goes Out To Glean In The Field - Back to Page Index
Ruth 2:1-13
Naomi's husband, had a wealthy kinsman by the name of Boaz. Ruth asked permission of her mother-in-law to see if someone would let her glean in their field, since it was the time of the barley harvest. Naomi said to her, "Go my daughter."

Ruth happened to come to a field that belonged to Boaz and it was there that she gleaned after the reapers. Boaz had come out from Bethlehem and said to his reapers, "May the LORD be with you." And they replied, "May the LORD bless you." Then Boaz said to his servant in charge of the reapers, "Whose young woman is this?" The servant in charge said, "She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from Moab. She asked permission to glean after the reapers among the sheaves. She has worked since she came this morning and has been resting only a little while." Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not glean in anyone else's field. Stay here with my maids. Keep your eye on the field where they work and follow them. I have commanded the servants to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink what the servants have drawn." Then Ruth fell on her face, and bowed to the ground, saying, "Why have I found favor in your sight? I am a foreigner." Boaz replied, "I have heard of all you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and have come to live among a people you did not know. May the LORD God of Israel reward your work and give you full wages, since you have come to seek refuge under His wings." Then she said to him, "I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to me even though I am less than one of your maid servants."

4. Boaz Invites Ruth To Eat With His Workers - Back to Page Index
Ruth 2:14-23
At meal time Boaz said to her, "Come and eat some of this bread and dip it in the vinegar." So she sat beside the reapers. He served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied, and had some left over. When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his servants to let her glean among the sheaves, and no one was to give her any difficulty. He said, "You shall purposely pull out some grain from the bundles for her. And do not rebuke her." So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. After beating it out, she had about an ephah of barley, or more than half a bushel. She took it into the city and showed her mother-in-law. She also gave Naomi what she had left over from her dinner.

Her mother-in-law said, "Where did you glean? May he who took notice of you be blessed." So she told Naomi that she had worked in Boaz's field. Naomi said to her, "May he be blessed of the LORD who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living and the dead. This man is one of our closest relatives." Then Ruth added, "He told me to stay close to his servants until the harvest is finished." Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, for you to go out with his maids, that you may be safe."

So Ruth stayed close to the maids of Boaz and gleaned until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.

5. Naomi Explains What A Near Kinsman Is - Back to Page Index
Ruth 3:1-18
Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to Ruth, "I want to help you find security and a future. Boaz with whose maids you gathered grain is our kinsman. Tonight he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor. Wash and anoint yourself. Put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing floor. Do not make yourself known to him before he has finished eating and drinking. Take note of where he lies down. Go and uncover his feet and lie down there. Then he will tell you what to do." Ruth replied, "I will do everything just as you have said." So she went down to the threshing floor and did as her mother-in-law had told her to do.

When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Ruth came quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down. During the night he was startled to find someone at his feet. Bending forward he saw a woman lying there. He said, "Who are you?" And she answered, "I am Ruth your maid. Spread your covering over your maid, for you are a close relative." Then he said, "May you be blessed of the LORD, my daughter. Your last kindness is better than the first by not going after young men, either poor or rich. Do not fear, I will do what you have asked, for all my people know that you are a virtuous woman. It is true that I am a close relative, but there is someone who is a closer relative than I." Stay here for the night and in the morning, if he will redeem you, fine. But if he does not wish to redeem you, then as surely as the LORD lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until morning.

So she lay at his feet until morning and got up before anyone could recognize anyone else. He said, "No one is to know she came to the threshing floor." He asked her to hold out her cloak while he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then she went to the city.

When Ruth came to Naomi, her mother-in-law, she asked, "How did it go my daughter?" And Ruth told her all that the man had done for her. She added, "He gave me these six measures of barley and said, 'Do not go to your mother-in-law empty handed.'" Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, and see how the matter turns out. He will not rest until he settles the matter today."

6. Boaz Meets With The Elders - Back to Page Index
Ruth 4:1-12
Boaz went and sat at the city gate. The close relative that he had spoken of to Ruth was passing by. Boaz said to him, "Stop for a minute and sit down here." So he sat down. Boaz called ten elders of the city and asked them to sit down with him. Then he addressed the closest relative, saying, "As you know, Naomi has come back from the land of Moab. She has to sell the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech. I am informing you so that you can buy it if you will redeem it. If you will not redeem it, then I will. Tell me what you will do. You and I are the only ones who may redeem it and you are a closer relative that I am." The man said, "I will redeem it." Then Boaz said, "When you buy the field from Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of the deceased, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property." The closest relative said, "I cannot redeem it for myself without jeopardizing my own inheritance. You may have my right of redemption, for I cannot redeem it."

"In former times it was the custom in Israel when the exchange of land or some other matter was confirmed, for a man to remove his sandal and give it to the other person. This was the way of attesting to the exchange." So the closest relative said to Boaz, "Buy it for yourself." And he removed his sandal. Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, "You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, to Chilion and Mahlon. And I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon. She will be my wife in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not be cut off from among his family. You are witnesses." All the people in the court, and the elders, said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel. May you do worthily in Ephratah and be famous in Bethlehem. May your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring which the LORD will give this young woman."

7. Boaz Marries Ruth - Back to Page Index
Ruth 4:13-22
So Boaz took Ruth as his wife and the LORD enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. The women said to Naomi, "Blessed is the LORD who has not left you without a redeemer. May this man's name become famous in Israel. May he be a restorer of life to you and sustain you in old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, is better to you then seven sons, and has given birth to this child." Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and became his nurse. The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, "A son has been born to Naomi!" So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, who is the father of David. Now these are generations of Perez:
To Perez was born Hezron,
To Hezron was born Ram,
to Ram was born Amminadab,
To Amminadab was born Nahshon,
to Nahshon was born Salmon,
To Salmon was born Boaz,
and to Boaz was born Obed,
And to Obed was born Jesse,
and to Jesse was born David.

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