1 AND Elimelech her husband had a cosin, a mightie man, and of great riches, named Booz.
2 And Ruth the Moabite said to her mother in law: If thou command, I wil goe into the field, and gather the eares of corne, that shal escape the handes of the reapers, where soeuer I shal find the grace of the father of the house fauorable towardes me. To whom she answered: Goe my daughter.
3 She went therfore and gathered the eares of corne after the backes of the reapers. And it chanced that the owner of the same field was Booz, who was of the kinred of Elimelech.
4 And behold, he came out of Bethlehem, and said to the reapers: Our Lord be with you. Who answered him: Our Lord blesse thee.
5 And Booz siad to the young man, that was ouerseer of the reapers: Whose maide is this?
6 To whom he answered: This is that Moabite, which came with Noemi, from the countrie of Moab,
7 and she desired that she might gather the eares of corne that remayne, folowing the steppes of the reapers: and from morning vntil now she stayeth in the field, and not so much as for a very moment hath she returned home.
8 And Booz siad to Ruth: Heare me daugher, goe not into another field to gather, neither depart thou from this place: but ioyne thy selfe to my maides,
9 and where they haue reaped, folow. For I haue commanded my seruantes, that no man solest thee: but if thou shalt thrist also, goe to the fardels, and drinke the waters, wherof the seruantes also doe drinke.
10 Who falling on her face and adoring vpon the ground, said to him: Whence cometh this to me, that I should find grace before thine eies, and that thou wouldest voutsafe to know me a strange woman?
11 To whom he answered: Al thinges haue beene told me, which thou hast done to thy mother in law after the death of thy husband: and that thou hast leift thy parentes, and the land wherein thou wast borne, and art come to a people, which before thou knewest not.
12 Our Lord render vnto thee for thy worke, and God grant thou mayest receiue a ful reward of our Lord teh God of Israel, to whom thou art come, & vnder whose winges thou art fled.
13 Who said: I haue found grace in thine eies my lord, which hast comforted me, and hast spoken to the hart of thy handmaide, which am not like to one of thy maides.
14 And Booz said to her: When the houre shal come to eate, come hither, and eate bread, and dippe thy morsel in the vinagre. She therfore sate att the side of the reapers, and she heaped to her selfe polent, and did eate and was filled, and tooke the leauinges.
15 And from thence she arose, to gleane the eares of corne after her maner. And Booz commanded his seruantes, saying: Yea and if she wil reape with you, forbid her not:
16 and of your owne handfuls also cast forth of purpose, and let them remaine, that she may gather them without bashefulnes, and gathering let no man controwle her.
17 She gleaned therfore in the field vntil euening: & that which she had gathered beating with a rodde &threshing she found of barley aas it were the measure fo an ephi, that is, three bushels.
18 Which carying she returned into the citie, and shewed to her mother in law: moreouer she brought forth , and gaue her of the remaynes of her meate, wherwith she had beene filled.
19 And her mother in law said to her: Where hast thou gathered to day, and where hast thou wrought? blessed be he that hath had mercie on thee. And she told her with whom she had wrought: and she told the mans name, that he was called Booz.
20 To whom Noemi answered: Be he blessed of our Lord: bewcause the same grace, which he ha shewed to the liuing, he hath kept also to the dead. And agayne she said: The man is our nigh cosin.
21 And Ruth, This also, quoth she, he commanded me, that so long I should ioyne myself to the reapers, til al the corne were reaped.
22 To whom her mother in law said: It is better my daughter, that thou goe forth with his maides to reape, lest in an other mans field some may resist thee.
23 She therfore ioyned her self to the maides of Booz: and so long reaped with them, til the barley and the wheate were layd vp in the barnes.