CHAPTER 3
1 And after that Ruth had turned to her mother-in-law, she heard of her, My daughter, I shall seek rest to thee, and I shall purvey that it be well to thee.
2 This Boaz, to whose damsels thou were joined in the field, is our kinsman, and in this night he winnoweth the cornfloor or threshing floor of barley.
3 Therefore be thou washed, and anointed, and be thou clothed with more honest or best clothes, and go thou down into the cornfloor; the man see not thee, till he have ended to eat and to drink.
4 Forsooth when he goeth to sleep, mark thou the place in which he sleepeth; and thou shalt come, and uncover the cloth, with which he is covered, from the part of the feet, and thou shalt cast thee down, and thou shalt lie there. Forsooth he shall say to thee, what thou shalt do.
5 And Ruth answered, Whatever thing thou commandest to me, I shall do.
6 And she went down into the cornfloor, and did all things which her mother-in-law commanded to her.
7 And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and was made more glad, and had gone to sleep beside the mound of sheaves, Ruth came, and hid herself; and when the cloth was uncovered from his feet, she casted down herself.
8 And lo! now at midnight, the man dreaded, and was troubled; and he saw a woman lying at his feet;
9 and he said to her, Who art thou? She answered, I am Ruth, thine handmaid; stretch forth thy cloth on thy servantess, for thou art nigh of kin.
10 And he said, Daughter, thou art blessed of the Lord, and thou hast overcome the former mercy with the latter; for thou followedest not young men, poor either rich.
11 Therefore, do not thou dread, but whatever thing thou shalt say to me, I shall do to thee; for all the people that dwelleth within the gates of my city know, that thou art a woman of virtue.
12 And I forsake not, that I am of nigh kin, but another man is nearer kin than I;
13 rest thou here this night, and when the morrowtide is made, if the man will hold thee to wife by right of nigh kin, the thing is well done; and if he will not, I shall take thee without any doubt, the Lord liveth; sleep thou till the morrowtide.
14 Therefore she slept at his feet till to the going away of [the] night, and then she rose, before that men should know each other. And Boaz said to her, Be thou ware lest any man know, that thou camest hither.
15 And again he said, Stretch forth thy mantle with which thou art covered, and hold thou with ever either hand. And while she stretched forth and held, he meted [or measured] six measures of barley, and putted [or put up] on her; and she bare, and entered into the city,
16 and came to her mother-in-law. Which said to Ruth, What hast thou done, daughter? And Ruth told to her all things, which the man had done to her.
17 And Ruth said, Lo! he gave to me six measures of barley; and he said, I will or desire not that thou turn again void to thy mother-in-law.
18 And Naomi said, Abide, daughter, till we see what issue the thing shall have; for the man shall not cease, no but he [ful] fill those things which he spake.