Drafted by Grok 4.7 on 8 October 2026. First draft. Not independently reviewed. Hebrew. The continuous copy is the Leningrad Codex, through the Open Scriptures diplomatic text. Dead Sea fragments of Ruth were not used to replace any line, because they do not supply a continuous earlier text for this draft.
1Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of real standing and means, from Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz.
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- Text
Leningrad writes myd‘ and the Masoretic reading is moda‘. Both point to a man known to the family, a kinsman. The English sense is the same either way.
- Translation
Gibbor hayil is a man of strength, wealth, and capability. Here he is a landholder, so the line says standing and means. It does not call him a warrior. Hayil is the same word used later of Ruth. See the glossary.
2Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go out to the field and pick up grain behind someone who will look kindly on me.” Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.”
3She went. She gleaned in the field behind the harvesters. As it happened, the part of the field she came to belonged to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s clan.
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- Translation
The Hebrew says her chance chanced on that part of the field. The wording is a small play on “chance.” The English “as it happened” keeps the narrator’s surface claim. It does not add a comment the sentence does not make.
4Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem. He said to the harvesters, “Yahweh be with you.” They answered him, “Yahweh bless you.”
5Boaz said to his young man, the one set over the harvesters, “Whose girl is that?”
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- Translation
Lemi is “to whom,” asking which household she belongs to, not only what her name is.
6The young man set over the harvesters answered, “She is a Moabite girl, the one who came back with Naomi from the countryside of Moab.
7She said, ‘Please let me glean, and let me gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came, and she has been on her feet from morning until now. She has sat in the shelter only a little.”
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- Text
The last words, zeh shivtah habbayit me‘at, are hard Hebrew. “She has sat in the shelter only a little” is one way through them. It is not a certain reading. This draft does not invent a cleaner sentence than the consonants support.
8Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go glean in another field. Don’t leave this one either. Stay close here with my young women.
9Keep your eyes on the field they are harvesting, and follow the young women. I have told the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink what the young men draw.”
10She dropped face-down and bowed to the ground. She said to him, “Why have I found favor with you, that you would notice me, when I am a foreign woman?”
11Boaz answered her, “People have told me the whole of what you did for your mother-in-law after your husband died: you left your father and your mother and the land where you were born, and you came to a people you did not know before.
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- Translation
Temol shilshom is “yesterday and the day before,” an idiom for “before now.” “Before” is printed. The live alternative is to keep the two days in the English, and it is not printed.
12May Yahweh pay you for what you did. May your wages be paid in full by Yahweh, the God of Israel. You came to shelter under his wings.”
13She said, “I hope I keep finding favor with you, my lord. You have comforted me, and you have spoken to the heart of your servant, though I am not the equal of one of your servant women.”
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- Translation
Dibber al-lev is “spoke on the heart,” speech that reassures. “Spoken to the heart” keeps the Hebrew picture.
14At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some of the bread, and dip your piece in the sour wine.” She sat beside the harvesters. He held out roasted grain to her. She ate until she was full, and she had some left.
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- Translation
Hometz is a sour liquid, vinegar or sour wine, used for dipping bread. “Sour wine” is printed. “Vinegar” is the live alternative.
15When she got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “She may glean even among the sheaves. Don’t shame her.
16And pull some stalks out of the bundles for her on purpose. Leave them, and let her pick them up. Don’t scold her.”
17She gleaned in the field until evening, then beat out what she had gathered. It came to about an ephah of barley.
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- Translation
An ephah is a dry measure. Modern estimates often put it around twenty liters, and the exact size is not certain. No modern weight is printed in the line.
18She picked it up and went into town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gathered. Ruth brought out what she had left after she had eaten her fill, and gave it to her.
19Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the man who noticed you be blessed.” Ruth told her mother-in-law about the man she had worked with. She said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”
20Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he by Yahweh, who has not abandoned his loyalty, either to the living or to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative of ours. He is one of our redeemers.”
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- Translation
The loyalty in this sentence is read as Yahweh’s. The grammar can also attach it to Boaz: he has not abandoned loyalty to the living or the dead. That alternative is not printed. “Redeemer” is goel. See the glossary. Here it is a relative who can take up the dead man’s household and land.
21Ruth the Moabite said, “He also told me, ‘Stay close to my young men until they finish the whole harvest that is mine.’”
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- Text
Boaz told her to stay with his young women (verse 8). Ruth tells Naomi he said young men. Both words are in the Hebrew. The English does not smooth them into one.
22Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go out with his young women. In someone else’s field, they might lay hands on you.”
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- Translation
Paga here is not a friendly meeting. In context it is men interfering with her. “Lay hands on you” is the sense printed.
23So Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s young women and gleaned until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.