And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, "It is the Moabitish maiden that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab: and she said, 'Let me glean, I pray you, and gather after the reapers among the sheaves': so she came, and hath continued even from the morning until now, save that she tarried a little in the house."

Then said Boaz to Ruth, "Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither pass from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens. Let thine eyes be on the field that they reap, and go thou after them: have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? and when thou art athirst, go to the vessels, and drink of that which the young men have drawn."

Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in thy sight that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?"

[{41}]

And Boaz answered and said to her, "It hath fully been showed me, all that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband: and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother, and the land of thy nativity, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to take refuge."

Then she said, "Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord; because thou hast comforted me, and because thou hast spoken kindly unto thine handmaid, though I am a stranger."

And at mealtime Boaz said unto her, "Come hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the cup."

And she sat beside the reapers: and they passed her parched grain, and she ate and was satisfied.

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not. And also pull out some for her from, the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and rebuke her not."

So she gleaned in the field until even; and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. And she took it up, and went into the city: and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned.