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Naomi Instructs Ruth

¹ One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek a place^(a) for you, that it may be well with you?² Now is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been working, a relative of ours? In fact, tonight he is winnowing barley on the threshing floor.³ Therefore wash yourself, put on perfume, and wear your best clothes. Go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.⁴ When he lies down, note the place where he lies. Then go in and uncover his feet, and lie down, and he will explain to you what you should do.”⁵ “I will do everything you say,” Ruth answered.

⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her.⁷ After Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth went in secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.

Ruth Claims Boaz as Kinsman

¹⁴ So she lay down at his feet until morning, but she got up before anyone else could recognize her. Then Boaz said, “Do not let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”¹⁵ And he told her, “Bring the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he shoveled six measures^(a) of barley into her shawl. Then he went^(a) into the city.¹⁶ When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked her, “How did it go, my daughter?” Then Ruth told her all that Boaz had done for her.¹⁷ And she said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, ‘Do not go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”¹⁸ “Wait, my daughter,” said Naomi, “until you find out how things go, for he will not rest unless he has resolved the matter today.”