Ruth 3 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
The period of the judges, roughly 1200 to 1050 BC, at the close of the harvest season
Location
The threshing floor outside Bethlehem, a flat open area where grain was separated from chaff
Audience
Israelites reading in a later era, in a culture where family land and family line were tightly bound together
Situation
Naomi coaches Ruth to wash, dress well, and go at night to the threshing floor where Boaz is sleeping beside his grain. Ruth uncovers his feet, lies down, and asks him to spread his cloak over her as a family redeemer, and Boaz agrees while noting a nearer relative has first claim.
Key Background
Owners slept beside the threshed grain at harvest time to guard it from theft, so Boaz being there overnight is ordinary farming practice rather than anything unusual. Spreading a garment over a woman was a recognised gesture of claiming her in marriage and taking her under protection, so Ruth's request is a formal proposal in the language of the culture. The family redeemer was a relative legally expected to buy back land sold in hardship and to preserve a dead man's name and property, which makes marriage here a matter of law and inheritance as much as affection.
One day Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, "My daughter, shouldn't I find you a where be of?"
"Now listen — isn't Boaz, whose women workers you've been with, our relative? Tonight he'll be barley on the
"Wash up, put on perfume, get dressed in your best clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. But don't let him know you're there until he's finished eating and drinking."
"When he lies down, pay attention to where he settles. Then go over, and lie down. He'll tell you what to do from there."
Ruth said to her, "I'll do everything you've told me."
So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had told her to do.
After Boaz had eaten and drunk and was he went to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Then Ruth came in quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
In the middle of the night, something startled him. He rolled over — and there was a woman lying at his feet!
"Who are you?" he asked. She answered, "I'm Ruth, servant. the of me, because you are a
He said, "May Yahweh show you favor, my daughter. This act of is even greater than what you showed before — you haven't gone after the younger men, whether rich or poor."
"Now don't worry, my daughter. I'll do everything you ask. Everyone in town knows you're a of
"Now, it's true that I am a family redeemer. But there's another redeemer who's more closely related than I am."
"Stay here tonight. In the morning, if he wants to redeem you, good — let him do it. But if he doesn't want to, then as as I will. Now lie down until morning."
She lay at his feet until morning, then got up before anyone could recognize each other. Boaz said, "No one should know that a woman came to the threshing floor."
He also said, "Hold out the shawl you're wearing." When she did, he measured out of and placed it on her. Then he headed into town.
When Ruth got home, her mother-in-law asked, "How did it go, my daughter?" Ruth told her everything the man had done for her.
She said, "He gave me these six measures of barley. He told me, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law
Naomi said, "Sit tight, my daughter, until you find out how this plays out. That man won't rest until he settles this today."