Ruth 2 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband's side — a man of standing from Elimelek's family — named Boaz.

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Let me go out to the fields and pick up leftover grain behind anyone who'll let me." Naomi said, "Go ahead, my daughter."

So she went out and started picking up grain in the fields behind the harvesters. And as it turned out, she ended up in a section of field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelek's family.

Just then, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted his workers: "Yahweh be with you!" They answered, "May Yahweh show you favor!"

Boaz asked the foreman in charge of his harvesters, "Who does that young woman belong to?"

The foreman answered, "She's the Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from Moab."

"She asked, 'Please let me pick up grain and gather among the bundles behind the harvesters.' She's been on her feet working since early this morning, with barely a break."

Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Don't go pick up grain in anyone else's field. Don't leave this one. Stay right here with my women workers."

"Keep your eyes on whichever field they're harvesting and follow along behind them. I've told the men not to bother you. When you're thirsty, go drink from the water jars the men have filled."

Ruth dropped to the ground and bowed down, face to the earth. She said to him, "Why are you being so kind to me? Why even notice me? I'm a foreigner."

Boaz answered her, "I've heard the full story — everything you've done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. How you left your father, your mother, and the land where you were born, and came to live with a people you didn't know before."

"May Yahweh pay you back in full for what you've done. May you receive a rich reward from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you've come to take shelter."

She said, "You've been so kind to me, sir. You've comforted me and spoken warmly to me, even though I'm not even one of your servant girls."

At mealtime, Boaz told her, "Come over here. Have some bread, and dip it in the wine vinegar." She sat down with the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate until she was full — and still had some left over.

When she got up to go back to work, Boaz quietly told his men, "Let her pick up grain even among the bundles. Don't give her a hard time about it."

"In fact, pull some stalks out of the bundles on purpose and leave them for her to pick up. And don't say a word to her about it."

So Ruth picked up grain in the field until evening. When she threshed out what she'd gathered, it came to about an ephah of barley.

She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she'd gathered. Then Ruth brought out the food she'd saved from lunch and gave it to her.

Her mother-in-law asked her, "Where did you pick up grain today? Where did you work? Whoever took notice of you — may he be shown favor!" Then Ruth told her about the man whose field she'd worked in. "The man I worked with today," she said, "his name is Boaz."

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "May Yahweh show him favor — he hasn't stopped showing his loyal love to the living and the dead!" Then Naomi told her, "That man is a close relative of ours. He's one of our family redeemers."

Ruth the Moabite added, "He even told me, 'Stay close to my workers until they've finished all my harvesting.'"

Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, "It's good for you to go out with his women workers, my daughter. In someone else's field, you might be harassed."

So Ruth stayed close to Boaz's women workers, picking up grain until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.