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19 Naomi asked Ruth, ‘Where did you work today, to pick up all this barley? I want God to bless the man who was so kind to you.’ So Ruth told Naomi about the man whose field she had worked in. She said, ‘The man that I worked with today is called Boaz.’

20 Naomi said to Ruth, ‘He has been kind to us! He has thought about our husbands who have died and he has helped us who are still alive. I pray that the Lord will bless him in return. That man is our relative. He is one of our family-redeemers.’[a]

21 Then Ruth said, ‘Boaz even said to me, “Stay with my workers until they have finished the work in my fields.” ’

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Footnotes

  1. 2:20 A family-redeemer was the nearest male relative. If there were poor people in the family, he should take care of them. If his brother died, he had to marry his brother's wife. Someone in the family might have to sell themselves as a servant or as a slave. So the family-redeemer would buy them back. A poor person in the family might have to sell their land. So the family-redeemer would buy the land back so that the family would not lose its land. See Leviticus 25:25-55; Deuteronomy 25:5-10.

19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!(A)

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!(B)” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law.(C) “He has not stopped showing his kindness(D) to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative;(E) he is one of our guardian-redeemers.[a](F)

21 Then Ruth the Moabite(G) said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”

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Footnotes

  1. Ruth 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).