Immerse: Kingdoms Full Volume - Flipbook - Page 97
2:10–3:2
R u th
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not to treat you roughly. And when you are thirsty, help yourself to the
water they have drawn from the well.”
Ruth fell at his feet and thanked him warmly. “What have I done to
deserve such kindness?” she asked. “I am only a foreigner.”
“Yes, I know,” Boaz replied. “But I also know about everything you have
done for your m
other-in-law since the death of your husband. I have heard
how you left your father and mother and your own land to live here among
complete strangers. May the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings
you have come to take refuge, reward you fully for what you have done.”
“I hope I continue to please you, sir,” she replied. “You have comforted
me by speaking so kindly to me, even though I am not one of your workers.”
At mealtime Boaz called to her, “Come over here, and help yourself to
some food. You can dip your bread in the sour wine.” So she sat with his
harvesters, and Boaz gave her some roasted grain to eat. She ate all she
wanted and still had some left over.
When Ruth went back to work again, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let
her gather grain right among the sheaves without stopping her. And pull
out some heads of barley from the bundles and drop them on purpose for
her. Let her pick them up, and don’t give her a hard time!”
So Ruth gathered barley there all day, and when she beat out the grain
that evening, it filled an entire basket. She carried it back into town and
showed it to her mother-in-law. Ruth also gave her the roasted grain that
was left over from her meal.
“Where did you gather all this grain today?” Naomi asked. “Where did
you work? May the Lord bless the one who helped you!”
So Ruth told her m
other-in-law about the man in whose field she had
worked. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”
“May the Lord bless him!” Naom
i told her daughter-in-law. “He is
showing his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband. That man is
one of our closest relatives, one of our family redeemers.”
Then Ruth said, “What’s more, Boaz even told me to come back and stay
with his harvesters until the entire harvest is completed.”
“Good!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he said, my daughter. Stay with his
young women right through the whole harvest. You might be harassed in
other fields, but you’ll be safe with him.”
So Ruth worked alongside the women in Boaz’s fields and gathered
grain with them until the end of the barley harvest. Then she continued
working with them through the wheat harvest in early summer. And all the
while she lived with her mother-in-law.
One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My daughter, it’s time that I found a permanent home for you, so that you will be provided for. Boaz is a close