Boaz and Ruth
The
story of
Boaz and Ruth is told in the Book of Ruth (2:1-17)
.
A wealthy man of Bethlehem in Judah, Boaz, followed the Israelite law that
required farmers to leave the edges of their fields unharvested and its
gleanings ungathered so that the poor might reap them. During the barley
harvest, the young widow Ruth came into Boaz’s field to glean. Boaz learned
that Ruth’s deceased husband was his kinsman. Boaz invited her to eat with
him and asked to glean only in his field, instructing his workers to leave
sheaves of barley especially for her to gather. At the urging of her mother-in-law,
Naomi, Ruth later went to Boaz to remind him of his right and obligation
as a relative of her late husband to marry her. They did marry and their
son, Obed, became the grandfather of King David.
See:
Nicolas Poussin Summer.
Ruth and Boaz.
