路得遇见波阿斯
1拿俄米的丈夫以利米勒有个亲戚，名叫波阿斯，是个有名望的财主。 2摩押女子路得对拿俄米说：“让我到田里去，跟在那些愿意恩待我的人后面，捡些麦穗回来。”拿俄米说：“去吧，我的女儿！” 3于是，路得便去了。她恰巧来到以利米勒的亲戚波阿斯的田里，跟在收割的人后面捡麦穗。 4当时，波阿斯刚好从伯利恒来到田间，向那些收割的工人问安说：“愿耶和华与你们同在。”他们回答说：“愿耶和华赐福与你。” 5波阿斯问负责收割的工头说：“那是谁家的女子？” 6工头回答说：“她是摩押女子，跟拿俄米刚从摩押回来。 7她求我让她跟在收割的人后面，捡工人扎捆时遗落的麦穗。她一大早就来到这里，一直捡到现在，除了在凉棚里稍微坐了一会儿之外，几乎没有休息。”
8波阿斯对路得说：“姑娘2:8 “姑娘”希伯来文是“女儿”。，听我说，你不用到别人的田里去拾麦穗了，也不必离开这里，只管留下来跟我的女工在一起。 9你看我的工人在哪一块田里收割，就跟着我的女工去，我已经吩咐工人不可欺负你。要是你渴了，就去水罐那里喝工人打回来的水。” 10路得就俯伏在地叩谢他，说：“我不过是个外族人，你为什么这样恩待我、体恤我？” 11波阿斯说：“自从你丈夫过世之后，你怎样善待婆婆，怎样离开父母和家乡来到素不相识的人当中，我都听说了。 12愿耶和华照你所行的奖赏你！你来投靠在以色列的上帝耶和华的翅膀下，愿祂厚厚地赏赐你。” 13路得说：“我主啊！我真是在你面前蒙恩，虽然我连你的婢女都不如，你还好言安慰我。”
14吃饭的时候，波阿斯对路得说：“来，吃一点饼吧，可以蘸着醋吃。”路得便坐在那些收割工人旁边。波阿斯递给她一些烤好的麦穗。她吃饱了，还有剩余的。 15当她起来又要去捡麦穗的时候，波阿斯就吩咐他的工人说：“你们要任由她捡，就算她在割下的麦子中捡麦穗，你们也不要为难她。 16甚至要从麦捆中抽一些出来让她捡，不要责骂她。”
17于是，路得便在田间继续捡麦穗，到了黄昏，她把捡到的麦穗打了，大约有十三公斤大麦。 18她把捡来的麦子带回城里给婆婆拿俄米看，又把剩下来的食物给婆婆。 19婆婆问她：“你今天在哪里拾麦穗？在哪里做工？愿那善待你的人蒙福！”她就告诉婆婆说：“今天我在一个名叫波阿斯的人那里工作。” 20拿俄米说：“愿耶和华赐福给他，他对活着的和过世的都是那么有情有义。”拿俄米又对路得说：“这人是我们本族的人，是我们的一个近亲。” 21摩押女子路得说：“他还对我说，‘你可以跟在我的工人后面捡麦穗，直到他们把我的庄稼都收完为止。’” 22拿俄米对儿媳路得说：“我的女儿啊，你就跟他的女工一起到田里去，免得去别人的田里被欺负。” 23因此，路得便常跟波阿斯的女工在一起捡麦穗，直到大麦小麦都收割完毕。路得就这样陪伴婆婆过日子。
Ruth Meets Boaz in the Grain Field
1Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.
2And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
5Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
6The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. 7She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. 9Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
10At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
11Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. 12May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
13“May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. 15As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. 16Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
17So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.2:17 That is, probably about 30 pounds or about 13 kilograms 18She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
19Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
20“The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.2:20 The Hebrew word for guardian-redeemer is a legal term for one who has the obligation to redeem a relative in serious difficulty (see Lev. 25:25-55).”
21Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’ ”
22Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
23So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.
