Ruth and Naomi

THREE

When the harvest was nearly over, Naomi said, “You must make a move if you want to be with Boaz. You must set up a home of your own so that we might continue to be together. Perhaps Boaz could even bring you a son, a love child that we might raise together as our own. I have a plan.”

“Tonight, Boaz will be winnowing all the harvested barley. Let me bathe you now and I will anoint you all over with fragrant oils. I will dress and prepare you for him. Go to where he is working but do not announce your presence until he has finished eating and drinking. Wait until he goes to sleep. Then sneak into his room and lie down naked at his feet. He will know what to do.”

Ruth replied, “I will do everything exactly as you say.”

When Boaz had eaten and drunk his fill, his heart was merry, and he went to lie down among the heaps of barley. Ruth came softly to him, she took off her clothes and she lay naked by his feet. At midnight Boaz woke and was started to find a naked woman in his bed.

“Who are you?” he said, rubbing his eyes. She answered: “I am Ruth, spread your blankets out for me, you are nearly family.”

Boaz could not believe his luck. He said: “You are certainly blessed by God because you were not tempted by all those young men in the fields. Fear not, I will service you in all the ways you need. All the city knows that you are a virtuous woman.

“Yes, I am nearly your family, but not by blood. Sleep with me tonight, and if I do not perform to your liking you may go on your way, but if I perform and you are satisfied, then I will do as is right and fulfill my role, and make you into family for good.”

Ruth lay with him until morning and she rose up early before anyone could recognize her. She kissed him and caressed his naked body by her side, which had given her so much pleasure in the night. He said: “Go now, before it becomes known that you were here, and also, bring the veil that you were wearing, and I shall fill it with barley.” Boaz laid the veil filled with barley upon her, and he went into the city.

When she returned home, Naomi smiled and said “Who are you? I barely recognize you.” Ruth blushed and told Naomi all that Boaz had done for her, and how he pleasured her. Ruth said, “He even gave me this barley, wrapped in my veil, because he did not want me to return home empty handed.”
Naomi said, “Now you need to sit still, and see how he responds. Once he has had a taste of you, he will not rest until he has finished the matter and made you his, for I know better than anyone how sweet you taste.”

FOUR

Boaz went up to the gates of the city and waited until the city woke up. He gathered ten men of the elders of the city, including the closest members of Naomi’s family, and he said to them, “I heard that Naomi is selling some land, which was our brother Elimelech’s. If you want to redeem it, redeem it; but if you will, then tell me, because there is nobody to redeem it besides you, and if you won’t I will. One of Naomi’s relatives said, “I will redeem it.”

Then Boaz said, scheming, “When you acquire the field from Naomi, you must also acquire it from Ruth the Moabite, the wife of her deceased son, to raise the memory of the dead upon his inheritance.” Naomi’s kinsman said: “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, because that might harm my own inheritance. You may take the right of redemption for yourself. I cannot redeem it.”

“Buy it for yourself,” he said, and drew off his shoe and gave it to him, as that was the custom of the country.

And Boaz said to the elders that he had gathered, and to everyone who congregated there “You are my witnesses today, that I have purchased all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Kilyon’s and Machlon’s, from the hand of Naomi.”

And I have something else to say. “I am taking Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Machlon, as my wife, to raise the memory of her husband upon his inheritance, so that the name of the dead will not be cut off from among his brethren, and you are my witnesses to all of this on this day.”
And all of the elders and the people who had gathered replied, “We are witnesses to this. May God bless you and may the woman that you are bringing into your home be like Rachel and like Leah, who built the house of Israel. May you be prosperous in Efrata and famous in Bethlehem. And we bless you that your house should be like that of Peretz, who Tamar bore to Judah, and that God will give you seed with this young woman.”

So Boaz took Ruth, as his wife, and he spent many days and nights pleasuring her, and Ruth was happy, as was Naomi, and Ruth conceived and she bore a son.

And all the women of the city said to Naomi, “Blessed be God, who has not left you, but provided you today with an heir and a child. May he be famous in Israel, may he restore you to life and nourish you in your old age, because he was born to your daughter-in-law, who loves you, and who has been better to you than seven sons, for she has born him.” Naomi took the child, with Ruth by her side, and she laid him on her bosom, and she felt the stirrings of something she never dreamed possible, her breasts filled with milk. With tears in her eyes Naomi kissed Ruth, and Ruth put the baby on to Naomi’s breasts and she became his nursemaid.

And all the neighbors surrounded them as they named him Oved. Who was born of the love and toil of both man and woman. Oved became the father of Jesse, the father of King David.