Under the Shadow of His Wings

Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a man of substance, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “I would like to go to the fields and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone who may show me kindness.” “Yes, daughter, go,” she replied; and off she went. She came and gleaned in a field, behind the reapers; and, as luck would have it, it was the piece of land belonging to Boaz, who was of Elimelech’s family. Presently Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He greeted the reapers, “GOD be with you!” And they responded, “GOD bless you!” Boaz said to the servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose girl is that?” The servant in charge of the reapers replied, “She is a Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.’ She has been on her feet ever since she came this morning. She has hardly rested at all in the hut.” Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field. Don’t go elsewhere, but stay here close to my maidservants. Keep your eyes on the field they are reaping, and follow them. I have ordered the workers not to harass you. And when you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink some of [the water] that the workers have drawn.” She prostrated herself with her face to the ground, and said to him, “Why are you so kind as to single me out, when I am a foreigner?” Boaz said in reply, “I have been told of all that you did for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth and came to a people you had not known before. May GOD reward your deeds. May you have a full recompense from the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have sought refuge!” She answered, “You are most kind, my lord, to comfort me and to speak gently to your maidservant—though I am not so much as one of your maidservants.” At mealtime, Boaz said to her, “Come over here and partake of the meal, and dip your morsel in the vinegar.” So she sat down beside the reapers. He handed her parched grain, and she ate her fill and had some left over. When she got up again to glean, Boaz gave orders to his workers, “You are not only to let her glean among the sheaves, without interference, but you must also pull some [stalks] out of the heaps and leave them for her to glean, and not scold her.” She gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned—it was about an ephah of barley— and carried it back with her to the town. When her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and when she also took out and gave her what she had left over after eating her fill, her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be he who took such generous notice of you!” So she told her mother-in-law whom she had worked with, saying, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of GOD, who has not failed to show kindness to the living or to the dead! For,” Naomi explained to her daughter-in-law, “the man is related to us; he is one of our redeeming kinsmen.” Ruth the Moabite said, “He even told me, ‘Stay close by my workers until all my harvest is finished.’” And Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is best, daughter, that you go out with his maidservants, and not be accosted in some other field.” So she stayed close to the maidservants of Boaz, and gleaned until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. Then she stayed at home with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 2:12 — 'May you have a full recompense from the ETERNAL, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have sought refuge!' Boaz's blessing identifies the true source of Ruth's security: not his field, but the covenant God she has embraced.