READING RUTH · 4 OF 9
In Boaz’s field
Ruth goes out to gather food. The narrator gives us information she has not mentioned, and an encounter unfolds through questions, instructions and a blessing. Read what each person knows and does.
In this lesson
The reader meets Boaz first
Naomi and her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth have arrived in Bethlehem at barley harvest. Both have lost their husbands. In Return at harvest, we learned that our Torah requires leaving particular harvest gifts for the poor. To glean is to gather produce left during harvesting. Reapers cut the standing crop; a gleaner follows them.
1. Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from Elimelech’s family, whose name was Boaz.
אֵלְכָה נָּא הַשָּׂדֶה וַאֲלַקֳּטָה בַשִּׁבֳּלִים
אַחַר אֲשֶׁר אֶמְצָא חֵן בְּעֵינָיו2. Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose eyes I find favor.” She said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
וַיִּקֶר מִקְרֶהָ
חֶלְקַת הַשָּׂדֶה לְבֹעַז3. She went, came to the field and gleaned behind the reapers. She happened upon the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Elimelech was Naomi’s husband. A relative, or kinsman, belongs to the extended family. Verse 1 establishes Boaz’s family connection and standing before he enters the scene. It does not yet tell Ruth that information in dialogue.
1. Who tells us that Boaz belongs to Elimelech’s family: Ruth, Naomi or the narrator?
The narrator tells the reader in verses 1 and 3. Ruth’s request does not name Boaz, and Naomi’s spoken answer is “Go, my daughter.” Do not automatically give a character all the information the narrator has given us.
Hen, חֵן, means favor. Ruth is seeking a field where she will be received favorably. The Torah’s harvest provisions and the way people treat a vulnerable gleaner are both important. A legal provision does not erase the human encounter.
2. What does Ruth initiate, and what does “she happened upon” add?
Ruth proposes going out to glean and then acts. The narrator identifies the field she reaches as Boaz’s, without describing a plan by Ruth to choose that relative. Her initiative and the encounter’s unfolding circumstances both matter; neither should erase the other.
A question and a report
Hashem, “the Name,” is our customary way of referring to God. Boaz and the reapers greet one another with blessings. Then he asks the young man who supervises the reapers about Ruth.
4. Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, “Hashem be with you,” and they answered him, “May Hashem bless you.”
5. Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?”
6. The young man in charge of the reapers answered, “She is a Moabite young woman who returned with Naomi from the countryside of Moab.
7. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ She came and has remained from morning until now, with only a little rest in the shelter.”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Boaz’s question asks about her connection; the supervisor answers with her origin and her connection to Naomi. Sheaves are bundles of cut stalks. The supervisor also reports her request and her time in the field. Keep his account distinct from the narrator’s earlier description.
Verse 7’s closing Hebrew phrase is unusually compact and has different readings. This rendering follows Ibn Ezra, Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, who explains a short time sitting and understands “house” as a shelter. It does not supply an exact schedule of work or rest.
3. Which two kinds of information does the supervisor give Boaz?
He identifies Ruth through Moab and Naomi, then reports her request to glean and her presence in the field that morning. He is not simply giving her name or announcing that she is one of Boaz’s hired workers. The narrative presents her as a gleaner.
A worked method: who knows what?
A learner says, “Naomi sends Ruth to their wealthy relative, and Boaz immediately recognizes her.” Separate three sources of information.
- The narrator’s information: Boaz is connected to Elimelech’s family (1, 3).
- The women’s quoted exchange: Ruth proposes gleaning where she finds favor; Naomi tells her to go (2).
- The field’s dialogue: Boaz asks about the young woman; the supervisor identifies her through Moab and Naomi (5–6).
The stronger account is: “The reader knows Boaz’s family connection before the encounter. Ruth goes out to glean and reaches his field. When Boaz arrives, he asks about her.” This preserves the unfolding discovery instead of making everyone know the same thing from the start.
4. Does verse 1 prove that Naomi directed Ruth to Boaz’s field?
No. It introduces Boaz to the reader. Naomi’s instruction in verse 2 does not name him or his field. The distinction is between what the text tells us and what it records Naomi telling Ruth.
Care becomes specific
8. Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field, and do not leave this one. Stay close here to my young women.
הֲלוֹא צִוִּיתִי אֶת הַנְּעָרִים
לְבִלְתִּי נָגְעֵךְ9. Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and follow the women. I have commanded the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men draw.”
מַדּוּעַ מָצָאתִי חֵן בְּעֵינֶיךָ לְהַכִּירֵנִי
וְאָנֹכִי נָכְרִיָּה10. She fell on her face and bowed to the ground. She said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?”
English rendering by Messianic Yeshiva
Boaz identifies whom she should stay near, tells the young men not to touch her, and provides access to water they have drawn. The text does not leave care at the level of a kind greeting. His instructions address her actual situation in this field.
5. What would a summary saying only “Boaz blessed Ruth” miss here?
It would miss the practical instructions about the field and the women, the command to the men not to touch her, and access to water. Protection from mistreatment is part of the scene. Ruth is not asked to prove faithfulness by accepting danger.
Ruth calls herself a nokhriyah, a foreign woman. Her Moabite origin remains visible as she enters a new community. Our sages’ reading of her commitment to Israel and Torah in the previous conversation is not undone by this description of origin and unfamiliarity. Here her question concerns Boaz’s attention to her.
6. What repeated expression connects Ruth’s plan in verse 2 with her question in verse 10?
Finding favor “in the eyes” of someone. She first seeks a place where she will find favor; now she asks why Boaz has shown it to her. The repetition turns a general hope into a direct conversation with the person who has noticed her.
Return tomorrow
Retell the encounter in four sentences: Ruth’s initiative; what the reader knows about Boaz; his practical instructions; and his stated reason for blessing her. Attach a verse to each. Then recall the repeated expression about favor.
9. Check your recall.
Ruth proposes gleaning and goes out (2–3). The narrator introduces Boaz’s connection to Elimelech before their meeting (1, 3). Boaz directs her to his women, commands the men not to touch her, and offers access to water (8–9). He recalls her care for Naomi and her move to a new people, then blesses her under Hashem’s wings (11–12).
Finding favor links Ruth’s initial plan, her question to Boaz and her response (2, 10, 13). A sound account keeps the narrator’s knowledge, each speaker’s words and the actual actions distinct.
Return to the sources
- Ruth 2:1–13: the complete field encounter studied here.
- Ibn Ezra on Ruth 2:7: the short rest and shelter reading.
- The Torah’s harvest gifts: why gleaning is not simply an owner’s optional favor.
- Ruth’s whole pledge: the earlier conversation behind Boaz’s blessing.