And it came to pass, in the days when the Judges administered justice, that there was a famine in the land, - and so a certain man went his way, out of Bethlehem-judah to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife’s name was Naomi and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went to the country of Moab and stayed there.

And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

So her sons married Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) And they continued to live there about ten years.

and then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so the woman [Naomi] was left without her two sons and her husband.

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food.

So she left the place where she was living, her two daughters-in-law with her, and they started on the way back to the land of Judah.

And Naomi said unto her two daughters in law, Go, return each to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead, and with me.

And the LORD grant you that you may find rest, either of you in the house of her husband." And so she kissed them.

And they say to her, 'Surely with thee we go back to thy people.'

And Naomi will say, Turn back, my daughters: wherefore will ye go with me? are yet to me sons in my bowels, and they were to you for husbands?

Turn again, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have an husband. If I should say, I have hope, if I should have an husband also to night, and should also bear sons;

would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”

They began to cry loudly again. So Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth remained with her.

Then Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; turn back and follow your sister-in-law.”

And Ruth will say, Thou shalt not urge upon me to forsake thee, to turn back from after thee: for where thou shalt go, I will go; and where thou shalt lodge, I will lodge: thy people my people, and thy God my God:

Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

When she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, then she left speaking unto her.

So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

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."

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter in law, with her, which returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.

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."

And she goeth and cometh and gathereth in a field after the reapers, and her chance happeneth -- the portion of the field is Boaz's who is of the family of Elimelech.

And lo, Boaz hath come from Beth-Lehem, and saith to the reapers, 'Jehovah is with you;' and they say to him, 'Jehovah doth bless thee.'

And Boaz will say to his young man set over the reapers, To whom this maiden?

The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, "She's the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab.

And she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves: so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, that she tarried a little in the house.

So Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers.

See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”

She bowed with her face to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?”

Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know.

“My lord,” she said, “you have been so kind to me, for you have comforted and encouraged your slave, although I am not like one of your female servants.”

And Boaz said to her {at mealtime}, "Come here and eat from the bread and dip your morsel in the wine vinegar." So she sat beside the gleaners, and he offered to her roasted grain. And she ate and was satisfied, and she had some left over.

And when she got ready to take up the grain, Boaz gave his young men orders, saying, Let her take it even from among the cut grain, and say nothing to her.

And also pull out for her from your bundles and leave [it] so that she may glean--and do not rebuke her."

So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley.

And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother in law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought forth, and gave to her that she had reserved after she was sufficed.

And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

And Naomi will say to her daughter-in-law, Blessed be he to Jehovah, who let not go his mercy with the living and with the dead. Naomi said to her, The man is near to us, he is blood relative.

And Ruth the Moabitess will say, Also that he said to me, With the young men which are to me thou shalt adhere till they finished all the harvest which is to me.

And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "[It is] good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidservants so that you will not {be bothered} in another field."

So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and dwelt with her mother in law.

Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, shouldn’t I find security for you, so that you will be taken care of?

Now Boaz, with whose maids you were [working], is he not our relative? See now, he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor tonight.

So take a bath, and, after rubbing your body with sweet oil, put on your best robe, and go down to the grain-floor; but do not let him see you till he has come to the end of his meal.

When he lies down, notice the place where he’s lying, go in and uncover his feet, and lie down. Then he will explain to you what you should do.”

Ruth answered her, “I will do everything that you say.”

So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had told her.

After Boaz had finished eating and drinking to his heart's content, he went over and lay down next to the pile of threshed grain. Ruth came in quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.

Now in the middle of the night, the man awaking from his sleep in fear, and lifting himself up, saw a woman stretched at his feet.

So he asked, “Who are you?”

“I am Ruth, your slave,” she replied. “Spread your cloak over me, for you are a family redeemer.”

And he will say, Blessed thou to Jehovah, my daughter: thou didst make good thy mercy at the last more than the beginning, so that thou wentest not after the young men, if poor and if rich.

And so then my daughter, do not be afraid. All that you ask I will do for you, for the entire assembly of my people knows that you [are] a worthy woman.

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

Tarry this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform unto thee the part of a kinsman, well; let him do the kinsman's part: but if he will not do the part of a kinsman to thee, then will I do the part of a kinsman to thee, as the LORD liveth: lie down until the morning.

So she lay at his feet until morning and got up before {anyone could recognize each other}. And he said, "It must not be known that {you} came [to] the threshing floor."

He also said, “Give me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” So Ruth held it and he measured out six measures of barley [into it] and placed it on her. And she went into the city.

And she will come to her mother-in-law, and she will say, Who art thou, my daughter? And she will announce to her all that the man did to her.

And she will say, These six of barley he gave to me; for he said, Thou shalt not go empty to thy mother-in-law.

Then she said, Do nothing now, my daughter, till you see what will come of this; for the man will take no rest till he has put this thing through.

Then Boaz went up to the city gate [where business and legal matters were settled] and sat down, and then the close relative (redeemer) of whom Boaz had spoken came by. He said to him, “Come over here, friend, and sit down.” So he came and sat down.

Then Boaz took 10 men of the town’s elders and said, “Sit here.” And they sat down.

And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech's:

And I thought I would apprise thee of it and say, Buy it in the presence of the inhabitants, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem; but if thou wilt not redeem, tell me, that I may know; for there is none to redeem besides thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.

Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased man, to perpetuate the man’s name on his property.”

And the near relation said, I am not able to do the relation's part, for fear of damaging the heritage I have: you may do it in my place, for I am not able to do it myself.

During Israel's earlier history, all things concerning redeeming or changing inheritances were confirmed by a man taking off his sandal and giving it to the other party, thereby creating a public record in Israel.

Therefore the kinsman said unto Boaz, Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe.

And Boaz said unto the elders, and unto all the people, Ye are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, of the hand of Naomi.

And also Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, I have acquired as a wife, to raise up the name of the dead over his inheritance, so that the name of the dead may not be cut off from his relatives and from the gate of his [birth] place. You [are] witnesses today."

And all the people who are in the gate say -- also the elders -- 'Witnesses! Jehovah make the woman who is coming in unto thy house as Rachel and as Leah, both of whom built the house of Israel; and do thou virtuously in Ephrathah, and proclaim the Name in Beth-Lehem;

So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son.

And the women say unto Naomi, 'Blessed is Jehovah who hath not let a redeemer cease to thee to-day, and his name is proclaimed in Israel,

So shall he become a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age, - for, thy daughter-in-law who loveth thee, hath borne him, even, she, who is better to thee than seven sons.

So Naomi took the boy, and laid him in her bosom, and she became his nurse.

And the women, her neighbours, gave him a name, saying, There is born a son to Naomi, - So they called his name Obed, he, was, the father of Jesse, the father of David.