“No, no,” said Naomi.  “You are young, and I am old.  Go back and be happy among your own people.”

Then Orpah kissed Naomi, and went back to her people; but Ruth would not leave her.  She said: 

“Do not ask me to leave you, for I never will.  Where you go, I will go; where you live, I will live; your people shall be my people; and your God shall be my God.  Where you die, I will die, and be buried.  Nothing but death itself shall part you and me.”

When Naomi saw that Ruth was firm in her purpose, she ceased trying to persuade her; so the two women went on together.  They walked around the Dead Sea, and crossed the river Jordan, and climbed the mountains of Judah, and came to Bethlehem.

Naomi had been absent from Bethlehem for ten years, but her friends were all glad to see her again.  They said: 

“Is this Naomi, whom we knew years ago?”

Now the name Naomi means “pleasant.”  And Naomi said: 

“Call me not Naomi; call me Mara, for the Lord has made my life bitter.  I went out full, with my husband and two sons; now I come home empty, without them.  Do not call me ‘Pleasant,’ call me ‘Bitter.’”

The name “Mara,” by which Naomi wished to be called means “bitter.”  But
Naomi learned later that “Pleasant” was the right name after all.

There was living in Bethlehem at that time a very rich man named Boaz.  He owned large fields that were abundant in their harvests; and he was related to the family of Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, who had died.

It was the custom in Israel when they reaped the grain not to gather all the stalks, but to leave some for the poor people, who followed after the reapers with their sickles, and gathered what was left.  When Naomi and Ruth came to Bethlehem, it was the time of the barley harvest; and Ruth went out into the fields to glean the grain which the reapers had left.  It so happened that she was gleaning in the field that belonged to Boaz, this rich man.

Boaz came out from the town to see his men reaping, and he said to them, “The Lord be with you”; and they answered him, “The Lord bless you.”

And Boaz said to his master of the reapers:  “Who is this young woman that I see gleaning in the field?”

The man answered:  “It is the young woman from the land of Moab, who came with Naomi.  She asked leave to glean after the reapers, and has been here gathering grain since yesterday.”

Then Boaz said to Ruth:  “Listen to me, my daughter.  Do not go to any other field, but stay here with my young women.  No one shall harm you; and when you are thirsty, go and drink at our vessels of water.”

[Illustration:  Ruth went out into the fields to glean the grain]

Then Ruth bowed to Boaz, and thanked him for his kindness, all the more kind because she was a stranger in Israel.  Boaz said:  “I have heard how true you have been to your mother-in-law Naomi, in leaving your own land and coming with her to this land.  May the Lord, under whose wings you have come, give you a reward!”