I die, and there will I be buried.” Then Noemi, seeing that Ruth was steadfast, would not urge her any more to return to her friends.
So they journeyed on together, and came to Bethlehem, where the report was quickly spread, and the women said: “This is that Noemi.”
It was the beginning of the barley-harvest, and Ruth asked Noemi: “If thou wilt, I will go into the fields and glean the ears[1] of corn that escape the hands of the reapers.” And Noemi said: “Go, my daughter.” Now it so happened that the field in which
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Fig. 40. So-called field of Booz near Bethlehem.
Ruth went to glean belonged to a kinsman of Elimelech, named Booz, who was very rich. And behold, Booz came out to see the reapers, and said: “The Lord be with you.” They answered: “The Lord bless thee.”
And having observed Ruth gleaning in the barley-field (Fig. 40), he asked the overseer: “Whose maid is this?” The
- ↑ Glean the ears. It was her own impulse to go and glean ears of corn for her mother-in-law, as was the custom among the poor; but she first modestly asked Noemi’s consent.
