Page:PracticalCommentaryOnHolyScripture.djvu/247

 I die, and  there  will  I be  buried.”  Then  Noemi,  seeing  that Ruth was  steadfast,  would  not  urge  her  any  more  to  return  to her  friends.

So they  journeyed  on  together,  and  came  to  Bethlehem,  where the report  was  quickly  spread,  and  the  women  said: “This  is that  Noemi.”



It was  the  beginning  of  the  barley-harvest,  and  Ruth  asked Noemi: “If  thou  wilt,  I will  go  into  the  fields  and  glean  the  ears of com  that  escape  the  hands  of  the  reapers.”  And  Noemi  said: “Go, my  daughter.”  Now  it  so  happened  that  the  field  in  which Ruth went  to  glean  belonged  to  a kinsman  of  Elimelech,  named Booz, who  was  very  rich. And behold,  Booz  came  out  to  see  the reapers, and  said:  “The  Lord  be  with  you.”  They  answered: “The Lord  bless  thee.”

And having  observed  Ruth  gleaning  in  the  barley-field (Fig. 40),  he  asked  the  overseer:  “Whose  maid  is  this?”  The