Ruth 3

¹ Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, ‘My daughter, is it not my duty to see you happily settled?

² And is not Boaz, with whose servants you were, our kinsman? Now tonight he is winnowing the barley at the threshing-floor.

³ Come, wash and anoint and dress yourself. Then go down to the threshing-floor. Do not make yourself known to him before he has finished eating and drinking.

⁴ But when he settles down to sleep, take careful note of the place where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie there yourself. He will tell you what to do.’

⁵ And Ruth said to her, ‘I will do all you say’.

⁶ So she went down to the threshing-floor and did all that her mother-in-law had told her.

⁷ When Boaz had eaten and drunk, he was in a happy mood and went to lie down by the heap of barley. Then she came quietly and turned back the covering at his feet and lay there.

⁸ In the middle of the night the man started up and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman.

⁹ ‘Who are you?’ he said; and she replied, ‘I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have right of redemption over me.'[*a]

¹⁰ ‘May Yahweh bless you, my daughter,’ said Boaz ‘for this last act of kindness of yours is greater than the first, since you have not gone after young men, poor or rich.

¹¹ Have no fear then, my daughter, I will do whatever you ask, for the people of Bethlehem all know your worth.

¹² But, though it is true I have right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself.

¹³ Stay here for tonight, and in the morning if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yahweh lives, I will redeem you. Lie here till morning.’

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet till morning. Boaz rose before the hour when one man can recognise another, ‘For’ said he ‘it must not be known that this woman came to the threshing-floor’.

¹⁵ Then he said is to her, ‘Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out’. She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then gave it to her to carry. And she went into the town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came back, her mother-in-law asked her, ‘How did things go with you, my daughter?’ Then she told her all that the man had done for her.

¹⁷ ‘He gave me these six measures of barley,’ she added ‘and he said to me, “You must not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed”.’

¹⁸ Naomi replied, ‘Wait, my daughter, and see how things will go, for he will not rest until it is settled, and settled today’.