But along the way, Naomi told her two daughters-in-law, "Each of you go back home. Return to your mother's house. May the LORD show his gracious love to you, as you have shown me and our loved ones who have died.

May the LORD grant each of you security in your new husbands' households." Then she kissed them good-bye, and they cried loudly.

But Naomi responded, "Go back, my daughters. Why go with me? Are there still sons to be born to me as future husbands for you?

So go on back, my daughters! Be on your way! I'm too old to remarry. If I were to say that I'm hoping for a husband tonight and then also bore sons this very night,

would you wait for them until they were grown? Would you refrain from marriage for them? No, my daughters! I'm more deeply grieved than you, because the LORD is working against me!"

But Ruth answered, "Stop urging me to abandon you and to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I'll go. Wherever you live, I'll live. Your people will be my people, and your God, my God.

Where you die, I'll die and be buried. May the LORD do this to me and more if anything except death comes between you and me."

But Naomi replied, "Don't call me "Naomi'! Call me "Mara'! That's because the Almighty has dealt bitterly with me.

I left here full, but the LORD brought me back empty. So why call me "Naomi'? After all, the LORD is against me, and the Almighty has broken me."

Ruth the Moabite told Naomi, "Please allow me to go out to the fields and glean grain behind anyone who shows me kindness." So Naomi replied, "Go ahead, my daughter."

Now when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he told the harvesters, "The LORD be with you." "May the LORD bless you!" they replied.

She asked us, "Please allow me to glean what's left of the grain behind the harvesters.' So she came out and has continued working from dawn until now, except for a short time in a shelter."

Boaz then addressed Ruth: "Listen, my daughter! Don't glean in any other field. Don't even leave this one, and be sure to stay close to my women servants.

Keep your eyes on the field where they are harvesting, and follow them. I've ordered my young men not to bother you, haven't I? And when you are thirsty, drink from the water vessels that the young men have filled."

At this she fell prostrate, bowing low to the ground, and asked him, "Why is it that you're showing me kindness by noticing me, since I'm a foreigner?"

Boaz answered her, "It has been clearly disclosed to me all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband how you abandoned your father, your mother, and your own land, and came to a people you did not previously know.

May the LORD repay you for your work, and may a full reward be given you from the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge."

She responded, "May I continue to find favor in your sight, sir, since you've been comforting me and you have spoken graciously to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants."

Her mother-in-law noticed how much Ruth had gleaned and had brought back from what was left over from her lunch. So her mother-in-law quizzed her, "Where did you glean today? Where, precisely, did you work? May the one who took notice of you be blessed." So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz."

Naomi replied, "May the one who hasn't abandoned his gracious love to the living or to the dead be blessed by the LORD." Naomi added, "This man is closely related to us, our related redeemer, as a matter of fact!"

Then Ruth the Moabite woman added, "He also told me "Stay close to my young men until they have completed my entire harvest.'"

Naomi responded to her daughter-in-law Ruth, "It is prudent, my daughter, for you to go out with his women servants, so someone won't attack you in another field."

Ruth's mother-in-law Naomi, told her, "My daughter, should I not make inquiries about your financial security, so you'll be better off in life?

He asked her, "Who are you?" She answered, "I'm only Ruth, your servant. Spread the edge of your garment over your servant, because you are my related redeemer."

He replied, "May you be blessed by the LORD, my daughter. You've added to the gracious love you've already demonstrated by not pursuing younger men, whether rich or poor.

Don't be afraid, my daughter. I'll do for you everything that you have asked, since all of my people in town are aware that you're a virtuous woman.

It's true that I'm your related redeemer, but there is another related redeemer even closer than I.

When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked her, "How did it go, my daughter?"

Then she related everything that the man had done for her. Ruth also said, "He gave me these six units of barley and told me, "Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.'"

Naomi replied, "Be patient, my daughter, until you learn how this works out, because the man won't rest until he finishes everything today."

Meanwhile, Boaz approached the city gate and sat down there. Just then, the very same related redeemer whom Boaz had mentioned came by, so Boaz called out to him, "Come over and sit down here, my friend!" So the man came over and sat down.

So I thought to myself I ought to tell you that you must make a public purchase of this before the town residents and the elders of my people. So if you intend to act as the related redeemer, then do so. But if not, let me know, because except for you and I after you there is no one to fulfill the duties of a related redeemer." The man responded, "I will act as related redeemer."

Boaz continued, "On the very day you buy the field from Naomi, you're also "buying" Ruth the Moabite woman, the wife of her dead husband, so the family name may be continued as an inheritance."

At this, the nearer related redeemer replied, "Then I am unable to act as related redeemer, because that would complicate my own inheritance. You act instead as the related redeemer, because I cannot do so."

Then all of the assembled people, including the elders who were there, said, "We are witnesses! May the LORD make this woman who enters your house like Rachel and Leah, who together established the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah, and may you excel in Bethlehem!

Moreover, may your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore for Judah, from the offspring that the LORD gives you from this young woman."

Then the women of Bethlehem told Naomi, "May the LORD be blessed, who has not left you today without a related redeemer. May his name become famous throughout Israel!