She decided to go back to Bethlehem. So the three women prepared for the trip and left. Along the way, Naomi turned to her daughters-in-law and said, “Go back to your homes. May the Lord bless you, as you have been a blessing to me. I pray the Lord will give each of you a good husband and many children.” She then kissed them good-bye.

All three women cried, and both daughters-in-law insisted they wanted to stay with Naomi. She said, “No, you need to go home. I have no more sons to give you. Even if I got pregnant tonight, would you wait for my baby to grow up so you could marry him?  No, it’s better that you go home. Life with me is going to be bitter.” With that, one daughter-in-law kissed Naomi and went home.

The second daughter-in-law was Ruth. She said, “I won’t leave you! Don’t make me go back. I’m going with you. Wherever you live, that’s where I’ll live. Your people will be my people. Your God is now my God. The place where you die is where I’ll die and be buried. Only death will separate you and me.”

Naomi saw she couldn’t argue with Ruth. So they both went back to Bethlehem.

When they got there, the whole town was excited that Naomi had come back home. She said to them, “Don’t call me Naomi any more. That means ‘pleasant,’ and life is no longer pleasant. Call me Mara, which means ‘bitter.’ The Lord has made my life bitter.”

So Naomi and Ruth established their home in Bethlehem. Life was hard because the two women were poor.

Fortunately, it was harvest time. Poor people were allowed to go into the fields and pick up any grain that was dropped during harvest.  So Ruth went to the fields to gather food for the two of them. She went to a field owned by a man named Boaz.

Later in the morning, Boaz came to his field. He saw Ruth and said to the foreman, “Who is that young woman?”

“Oh, she is the Moabite who came here with Naomi. She’s a hard worker.”

Boaz went to Ruth and said, “Don’t go to any other field. Stay here and work alongside my servant girls. Watch them and go wherever they go. The men won’t hurt you. I’ve already told them to stay away from you. In fact, go drink from their water when you’re thirsty.”

Ruth bowed her head and thanked Boaz. She said, “Why are you so kind to a foreigner?”

He said, “We’ve all heard how well you’ve treated Naomi. You left your parents and country to come here and care for her. May the Lord richly bless you! ”

He then went back and told his men to leave extra grain in her path. Also, they were to provide her food when they stopped to eat.

That evening, Ruth went back home with all she had gathered. She even had leftovers from her meal. Naomi was amazed when she saw all of this. Ruth told her about the kindness of Boaz, the owner of the field.

Naomi responded when she heard the name Boaz. She said, “The Lord bless him! Oh Ruth, he’s a close relative of our family. Stay in his field, just as he has said. You’ll be safe there.”

So Ruth continued to work with the servant girls of Boaz. She gathered grain throughout the barley harvest and the wheat harvest.

Continued in the next story