Ruth
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Source: Sefaria (sefaria.org). Ruth, Writings, source: Sefaria (merged), sefaria.org. License: Public Domain or CC-BY (per Sefaria source data).
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Ruth / רות

1:1	In the days when the chieftainsachieftains I.e., the leaders who arose in the period before the monarchy; in contrast to others “judges.” ruled, there was a famine in the land; and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the country of Moab.
1:2	The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion—Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the country of Moab and remained there.
1:3	Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons.
1:4	They married Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth, and they lived there about ten years.
1:5	Then those two—Mahlon and Chilion—also died; so the woman was left without her two sons and without her husband.
1:6	She started out with her daughters-in-law to return from the country of Moab; for in the country of Moab she had heard that GOD had taken note of the people [of Israel] and given them food.
1:7	Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living; and they set out on the road back to the land of Judah.
1:8	But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Turn back, each of you to her mother’s house. May GOD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me!
1:9	May GOD grant that each of you find security in the house of a husband!” And she kissed them farewell. They broke into weeping
1:10	and said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”
1:11	But Naomi replied, “Turn back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Have I any more sons in my body who might be husbands for you?
1:12	Turn back, my daughters, for I am too old to be married. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I were married tonight and I also bore sons,
1:13	should you wait for them to grow up? Should you on their account debar yourselves from marriage? Oh no, my daughters! My lot is far more bitter than yours, for GOD’s hand has struck out against me.”
1:14	They broke into weeping again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law farewell. But Ruth clung to her.
1:15	So she said, “See, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Go follow your sister-in-law.”
1:16	But Ruth replied, “Do not urge me to leave you, to turn back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go; wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God.
1:17	Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. Thus and more may GOD do to mebThus and more may GOD do to me A formula of imprecation. if anything but death parts me from you.”
1:18	When [Naomi] saw how determined she was to go with her, she ceased to argue with her;
1:19	and the two went on until they reached Bethlehem.When they arrived in Bethlehem, the whole city buzzed with excitement over them. The women said, “Can this be Naomi?”
1:20	“Do not call me Naomi,”cNaomi I.e., “Pleasantness.” she replied. “Call me Mara,dMara I.e., “Bitterness.” for ShaddaieShaddai Usually rendered “the Almighty.” has made my lot very bitter.
1:21	I went away full, and GOD has brought me back empty. How can you call me Naomi, when GOD has dealt harshly withfdealt harshly with In contrast to others “testified against.” me, when Shaddai has brought misfortune upon me!”
1:22	Thus Naomi returned from the country of Moab; she returned with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabite. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
2:1	Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a man of substance, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.
2:2	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;
2:3	and off she went. She came and gleaned in a field, behind the reapers; and, as luck would have it, it was the piece of land belonging to Boaz, who was of Elimelech’s family.
2:4	Presently Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He greeted the reapers, “GOD be with you!” And they responded, “GOD bless you!”
2:5	Boaz said to the servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose girl is that?”
2:6	The servant in charge of the reapers replied, “She is a Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.
2:7	She said, ‘Please 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 hardly rested at all in the hut.”aShe has hardly rested at all in the hut Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
2:8	Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, daughter.bListen to me, daughter Lit. “Have you not heard, daughter?” Don’t go to glean in another field. Don’t go elsewhere, but stay here close to my maidservants.
2:9	Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and follow them. I have ordered the workers not to harass you. And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink some of [the water] that the workers have drawn.”
2:10	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?”
2:11	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.
2:12	May GOD reward your deeds. May you have a full recompense from the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have sought refuge!”
2:13	She answered, “You are most kind, my lord, to comfort me and to speak gently to your maidservant—though I am not so much as one of your maidservants.”
2:14	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 parched grain, and she ate her fill and had some left over.
2:15	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,
2:16	but you must also pull some [stalks] out of the heaps and leave them for her to glean, and not scold her.”
2:17	She gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned—it was about an ephah of barley—
2:18	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,
2:19	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.”
2:20	Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of GOD, who has not failed to show kindness to the living or to the dead! For,” Naomi explained to her daughter-in-law, “the man is related to us; he is one of our redeeming kinsmen.”cone of our redeeming kinsmen Cf. Lev. 25.25 and note, and Deut. 25.5–6. The fact that Boaz is a kinsman of Ruth’s dead husband opens up the possibility of providing an heir for the latter.
2:21	Ruth the Moabite said, “He even told me, ‘Stay close by my workers until all my harvest is finished.’”
2:22	And Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is best, daughter, that you go out with his maidservants, and not be accosted in some other field.”
2:23	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.
3:1	Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “Daughter, I must seek a home for you, where you may be happy.
3:2	Now there is our kinsman Boaz, whose girls you were close to. He will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor tonight.
3:3	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.
3:4	When he lies down, note the place where he lies down, and go over and uncover his feet and lie down.auncover his feet and lie down An act both risqué and risky, making an unmarried woman vulnerable to social disgrace. He will tell you what you are to do.”
3:5	She replied, “I will do everything you tell me.”
3:6	She went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had instructed her.
3:7	Boaz ate and drank, and in a cheerful mood went to lie down beside the grainpile. Then she went over stealthily and uncovered his feet and lay down.
3:8	In the middle of the night, the man gave a start and pulled back—there was a woman lying at his feet!
3:9	“Who are you?” he asked. And she replied, “I am your handmaid Ruth. Spread your robe over your handmaid,bSpread your robe over your handmaid A formal act of espousal; cf. Ezek. 16.8. Or “Spread your wings…,” a figure for protective intervention; cf. 2.12. for you are a redeeming kinsman.”
3:10	He exclaimed, “Be blessed of GOD, daughter! Your latest deed of loyaltycYour latest deed of loyalty Namely, to have sought out a kinsman of her dead husband; see note at 2.20. is greater than the first,dthe first Namely, to have returned with Naomi. in that you have not turned to younger men, whether poor or rich.
3:11	And now, daughter, have no fear. I will do in your behalf whatever you ask, for all the elders of my towneelders of my town Lit. “gate of my people.” know what a fine woman you are.
3:12	But while it is true I am a redeeming kinsman, there is another redeemer closer than I.
3:13	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 redeemer for you, I will do so myself, as GOD lives! Lie down until morning.”
3:14	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.”
3:15	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 shefshe So in many Heb. mss; Tiberian Masoretic mss. read “he.” got back to the town,
3:16	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;
3:17	and she added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying to me, ‘Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
3:18	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.”
4:1	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.
4:2	Then [Boaz] took ten elders of the town and said, “Be seated here”; and they sat down.
4:3	He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, now returned from the country of Moab, must sell the piece of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech.
4:4	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! But if youayou So many Heb. mss., Septuagint, and Targum; Tiberian Masoretic mss. read “he.” 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.
4:5	Boaz continued, “When you acquire the property from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabite, you must also acquirebyou must also acquire So qere; kethib “I acquire.” the wife of the deceased,cand from Ruth the Moabite, you must also acquire the wife of the deceased Emendation yields “you must also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased”; cf. v. 10. so as to perpetuate the name of the deceased upon his estate.”
4:6	The redeemer replied, “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I impair my own estate.dimpair my own estate By expending capital for property that will go to the son legally regarded as Mahlon’s; see Deut. 25.5–6. You take over my right of redemption, for I am unable to exercise it.”
4:7	Now this was formerly done in Israel in cases of redemption or exchange: to validate any transaction, one party would take off a sandal and hand it to the other. Such was the practiceepractice Understanding Heb. teʻudah in the sense of the Arabic ʻādah and Syriac ʻyādā. Cf. Ibn Ezra. in Israel.
4:8	So when the redeemer said to Boaz, “Acquire for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.
4:9	And Boaz said to the elders and to the rest of the people, “You are witnesses today that I am acquiring from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon.
4:10	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 kinsmen and from the gate of his home town. You are witnesses today.”
4:11	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 EphrathahfEphrathah Matriarch of the clan to which the Bethlehemites belonged; cf. 1.2; Mic. 5.1; 1 Chron. 2.50–51. and perpetuate your name in Bethlehem!
4:12	And may your house be like the house of Perez whom Tamar bore to Judah—through the offspring that GOD will give you by this young woman.”
4:13	So Boaz married Ruth; she became his wife, and he cohabited with her. GOD let her conceive, and she bore a son.
4:14	And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be GOD, who has not withheld a redeemer from you today! May his name be perpetuated in Israel!
4:15	He will renew your life and sustain your old age; for he is born of your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons.”
4:16	Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom. She became its foster mother,
4:17	and the women neighbors gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi!” They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, father of David.
4:18	This is the line of Perez: Perez begot Hezron,
4:19	Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Amminadab,
4:20	Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salmon,gSalmon Heb. “Salmah.”
4:21	Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed,
4:22	Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
-- Ruth — (Sefaria merged English versions) (Public Domain or CC-BY (per Sefaria source data))