< Ruth 2 >

1 Erat autem viro Elimelech consanguineus, homo potens, et magnarum opum, nomine Booz.
Now Naomi was related through her husband to a very wealthy man of the family of Elimelech named Boaz.
2 Dixitque Ruth Moabitis ad socrum suam: Si iubes, vadam in agrum, et colligam spicas quæ fugerint manus metentium, ubicumque clementis in me patris familias reperero gratiam. Cui illa respondit: Vade filia mea.
Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me now go into the fields and gather leftover grain behind anyone who will allow me.’ ‘Go, my daughter,’ she replied.
3 Abiit itaque et colligebat spicas post terga metentium. Accidit autem ut ager ille haberet dominum nomine Booz, qui erat de cognatione Elimelech.
So she went to glean in the field after the reapers. As it happened, she was in that part of the field which belonged to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
4 Et ecce, ipse veniebat de Bethlehem, dixitque messoribus: Dominus vobiscum. Qui responderunt ei: Benedicat tibi Dominus.
When Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you,’ they answered him, ‘May the Lord bless you.’
5 Dixitque Booz iuveni, qui messoribus præerat: Cuius est hæc puella?
‘Whose girl is this?’ Boaz asked his servant who had charge of the reapers.
6 Cui respondit: Hæc est Moabitis, quæ venit cum Noemi, de regione Moabitide,
The servant who had charge of the reapers replied, ‘It is the Moabite girl who came back with Naomi from the territory of Moab.
7 et rogavit ut spicas colligeret remanentes, sequens messorum vestigia: et de mane usque nunc stat in agro, et ne ad momentum quidem domum reversa est.
She asked to be allowed to glean and gather sheaves after the reapers. So she came and has continued to work until now and she has not rested a moment in the field.’
8 Et ait Booz ad Ruth: Audi filia, ne vadas in alterum agrum ad colligendum, nec recedas ab hoc loco: sed iungere puellis meis,
Then Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field nor leave this place, but stay here with my girls.
9 et ubi messuerint, sequere. Mandavi enim pueris meis, ut nemo molestus sit tibi: sed etiam si sitieris, vade ad sarcinulas, et bibe aquas, de quibus et pueri bibunt.
Watch where the men are reaping and follow the gleaners. I have told the young men not to trouble you. When you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink of that which the young men have drawn.’
10 Quæ cadens in faciem suam et adorans super terram, dixit ad eum: Unde mihi hoc, ut invenirem gratiam ante oculos tuos, et nosse me dignareris peregrinam mulierem?
Then she bowed low and said to him, ‘Why are you so kind to me, to take interest in me when I am just a foreigner?’
11 Cui ille respondit: Nunciata sunt mihi omnia, quæ feceris socrui tuæ post mortem viri tui: et quod reliqueris parentes tuos, et terram in qua nata es, et veneris ad populum, quem antea nesciebas.
Boaz replied, ‘I have heard what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your native land to come to a people that you did not know before.
12 Reddat tibi Dominus pro opere tuo, et plenam mercedem recipias a Domino Deo Israel, ad quem venisti, et sub cuius confugisti alas.
May the Lord repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’
13 Quæ ait: Inveni gratiam apud oculos tuos domine mi, qui consolatus es me, et locutus es ad cor ancillæ tuæ, quæ non sum similis unius puellarum tuarum.
Then she said, ‘I trust I may please you, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, although I am not really equal to one of your own servants.’
14 Dixitque ad eam Booz: Quando hora vescendi fuerit, veni huc, et comede panem, et intinge buccellam tuam in aceto. Sedit itaque ad messorum latus, et congessit polentam sibi, comeditque et saturata est, et tulit reliquias.
At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Come here and eat some of the food and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied and had some left.
15 Atque inde surrexit, ut spicas ex more colligeret. Præcepit autem Booz pueris suis, dicens: Etiamsi vobiscum metere voluerit, ne prohibeatis eam:
When she rose to glean, Boaz gave this order to his young men: ‘Let her glean even among the sheaves and do not disturb her.
16 et de vestris quoque manipulis proiicite de industria, et remanere permittite, ut absque rubore colligat, et colligentem nemo corripiat.
Also pull out some for her from the bundles and leave for her to glean, and do not find fault with her.’
17 Collegit ergo in agro usque ad vesperam: et quæ collegerat virga cædens et excutiens, invenit hordei quasi ephi mensuram, id est, tres modios.
So she gleaned in the field until evening, then beat out what she had gleaned. It was about a bushel of barley.
18 Quos portans reversa est in civitatem, et ostendit socrui suæ: insuper protulit, et dedit ei de reliquiis cibi sui, quo saturata fuerat.
Then she took it up and went into the town and showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her that which she had left from her meal after she had had enough.
19 Dixitque ei socrus sua: Ubi hodie collegisti, et ubi fecisti opus? sit benedictus qui misertus est tui. Indicavitque ei apud quem fuisset operata: et nomen dixit viri, quod Booz vocaretur.
‘Where did you glean today, and where did you work?’ asked her mother-in-law. ‘A blessing on him who took notice of you!’ So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. ‘The name of the man with whom I worked today,’ she said, ‘is Boaz.’
20 Cui respondit Noemi: Benedictus sit a Domino: quoniam eandem gratiam, quam præbuerat vivis, servavit et mortuis. Rursumque ait: Propinquus noster est homo.
Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May the blessing of the Lord rest on this man who has not ceased to show his loving-kindness to the living and to the dead. The man,’ she added, ‘is a near relation of ours.’
21 Et Ruth, Hoc quoque, inquit, præcepit mihi, ut tamdiu messoribus eius iungerer, donec omnes segetes meterentur.
‘He told me,’ Ruth said, ‘that I must keep near his young men until they have completed all his harvest.’
22 Cui dixit socrus: Melius est, filia mea, ut cum puellis eius exeas ad metendum, ne in alieno agro quispiam resistat tibi.
Naomi said to Ruth, ‘It is best, my daughter, that you should go out with his girls because you might not be as safe in another field.’
23 Iuncta est itaque puellis Booz: et tamdiu cum eis messuit, donec hordea et triticum in horreis conderentur.
So she gleaned with the girls of Boaz until the end of the barley and wheat harvest; but she lived with her mother-in-law.

< Ruth 2 >