Ruth and Naomi

TWO

It was the beginning of the barley harvest, a time when the sun is just starting to shine its scorching rays. Ruth and Naomi had settled in; they continued to share a bed each night. At first, Naomi made the excuse that it was to comfort Ruth, so she shouldn’t feel alone, but soon Naomi realized that she needed it as much as Ruth did. Under the cover of darkness, when the rest of the city was fast asleep, Ruth and Naomi brought one another comfort, in a way no man had ever done before.

But soon Naomi’s family began to pressure her. There was an eligible bachelor, a man of wealth named Boaz. Naomi told Ruth about it one night, whispering it into her ear as she softly caressed her. Ruth cried and refused, but Naomi explained that it was expected, that, indeed, it might be the only way the two of them could continue to see one another. If Ruth was set up in a household of wealth, with a husband who worked in the fields and was gone for most of each day, they could still be together. The community did not look kindly on a woman of childbearing age living alone with an old widow. That night they made love as though it was the last time.

The next morning Ruth awoke. She got dressed, opened all the windows, and said loud enough for all the neighbors to hear: “I will go now to the field and glean sheaves of barley, and see in whose sight I shall find favor.” Naomi kissed her tenderly, on the forehead, and said: “Go, my love,” and as Ruth turned to go Naomi wiped away a tear.

When Ruth reached the part of the field owned by Boaz, she made herself bold, picking the barley off the ground in a sultry way, tossing her hair and showing off her figure. And sure enough, Boaz soon said to his servant “Who is this beautiful maiden?” The servant responded “It is just that Moabite girl, the one who came back with Naomi. She asked me this morning, ‘Can I glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves?’ I saw no harm in it, she has been out here all day.

Then said Boaz to Ruth: “Listen to me, do not go glean in any other field, stay close to me. I will forbid all young men from touching you. And when you are thirsty, you may come to my vessel and drink.” Ruth smiled, thinking to herself that it was not the young men that Boaz needed to worry about.

Ruth bowed before him and said, “To what do I owe this generosity? Why have you taken notice of me? I am a stranger.” Boaz answered, “I know all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband.” Ruth blushed. “You left your father and your mother, the land of your birth, and you came to live among us. God shall reward you for taking refuge with our people.”
Ruth demurely replied, “You have comforted and spoken gently to me, even though I am nothing like the other young women here in this field. How may I repay you?”

Boaz said, “When it is mealtime, come here and eat of my bread, and dip your bread in my vinegar.” Ruth blushed again, finding herself strangely aroused, and feeling both ashamed and excited by the way she felt. Ruth sat beside the reapers and Boaz fed her from his parched barley, and she ate and was satisfied. When she got up to go back to work in the field, Boaz told his workers, “Let her glean wherever she likes, and even allow some of your sheaves to fall on purpose so that she might gather them. ” Ruth felt all the eyes of the men and women of the field upon her, but she continued to gather until evening.

When night fell she took all she had gathered and brought it to the city to show Naomi. She fed Naomi from all that she had gathered. Naomi said, “Tell me everything. God has blessed you and taken notice of you.” Ruth told Naomi everything, except for how she felt when Boaz fed her from his own hands.
Naomi said “God has blessed us. Boaz is nearly family.”

Ruth said, “He also told me to stay close to him and all his young men in the fields until the harvest is over.” Naomi said to Ruth, “It is good, my love, that you spend time with all the other maidens, and stay close to his young men. That way Boaz will not see you in any other field and anyone you meet will respect you.”

So Ruth kept close to Boaz and his young men, who appraised her with their eyes, but would not touch, for they had been forbidden to do so by Boaz. And Ruth harvested alongside all the maidens of the field, who were also beautiful and kind, and Ruth lusted after them, and every night she came home and collapsed into the loving arms of her mother-in-law where she found pleasure like she had never known.

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