Erat autem viro Elimelech consanguineus, homo potens, et magnarum opum, nomine Booz.

Elimelech had a kinsman called Booz, a man of great influence and wealth.

Now her husband Elimelech had a kinsman, a powerful man, and very rich, whose name was Booz.

Dixitque Ruth Moabitis ad socrum suam: Si jubes, vadam in agrum, et colligam spicas quæ fugerint manus metentium, ubicumque clementis in me patrisfamilias reperero gratiam. Cui illa respondit: Vade, filia mea.

And now Ruth, the Moabitess, asked leave of her mother-in-law to go out and glean after the reapers, by some rich man’s favour. Go then, daughter, said she;

And Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother in law: If thou wilt, I will go into the field, and glean the ears of corn that escape the hands of the reapers, wheresoever I shall find grace with a householder that will be favourable to me. And she answered her: Go, my daughter.

Abiit itaque et colligebat spicas post terga metentium. Accidit autem ut ager ille haberet dominum nomine Booz, qui erat de cognatione Elimelech.

and it so chanced that the field in which Ruth went to glean after the reapers belonged to no other than Booz, Elimelech’s kinsman.

She went therefore and gleaned the ears of corn after the reapers. And it happened that the owner of that field was Booz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

Et ecce, ipse veniebat de Bethlehem, dixitque messoribus: Dominus vobiscum. Qui responderunt ei: Benedicat tibi Dominus.

After a while, he himself came out from Bethlehem, and when he had greeted the reapers, The Lord be with you, and they had wished him God’s blessing in return,

And behold, he came out of Bethlehem, and said to the reapers: The Lord be with you. And they answered him: The Lord bless thee.

Dixitque Booz juveni, qui messoribus præerat: Cujus est hæc puella?

he asked the man in charge of them, a servant of his own, whose daughter this maid might be?

And Booz said to the young man that was set over the reapers: Whose maid is this ?

Cui respondit: Hæc est Moabitis, quæ venit cum Noëmi, de regione Moabitide,

It is Ruth, said he, the Moabitess, that came here from Moab with Noemi;

And he answered him: This is the Moabitess who came with Noemi, from the land of Moab,

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 leave to glean after the reapers, and here she has been, ever since morning, without once going home to rest.

And she desired leave to glean the ears of corn that remain, following the steps of the reapers: and she hath been in the field from morning till now, and hath not gone home for one moment.

Et ait Booz ad Ruth: Audi, filia, ne vadas in alterum agrum ad colligendum, nec recedas ab hoc loco: sed jungere puellis meis,

Listen, my daughter, Booz said to Ruth; do not look for any other field to glean in; stay here and keep my maidens company,

And Booz said to Ruth: Hear me, daughter, do not go to glean in any other field, and do not depart from this place: but keep with my maids,

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.

following ever where they reap. My servants have orders not to interfere with thee; if thou art thirsty, go to the buckets yonder and share the water they drink.

And follow where they reap. For I have charged my young men, not to molest thee: and if thou art thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of the waters whereof the servants drink.

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?

At this, Ruth bowed low, face to ground; How have I deserved any favour of thine? she asked. Why wouldst thou take notice of an alien woman such as I am?

She fell on her face and worshipping upon the ground, said to him: Whence cometh this to me, that I should find grace before thy eyes, and that thou shouldst vouchsafe to take notice of me a woman of another country?

Cui ille respondit: Nuntiata 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.

I have had word, he answered, of thy goodness to thy mother-in-law since thy husband’s death; how thou didst leave kindred and country, to dwell among strangers.

And he answered her: All hath been told me, that thou hast done to thy mother in law after the death of thy husband: and how thou hast left thy parents, and the land wherein thou wast born, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore.

Reddat tibi Dominus pro opere tuo, et plenam mercedem recipias a Domino Deo Israël, ad quem venisti, et sub cujus confugisti alas.

May the Lord reward thee for what thou hast done; may the Lord God of Israel, in whose shelter thou hast learned to trust, make thee full return for it!

The Lord render unto thee for thy work, and mayst thou receive a full reward of the Lord the God of Israel, to whom thou art come, and under whose wings thou art fled.

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, This is great kindness in thee, my lord, so to comfort and encourage me, thy poor servant that cannot compare with these handmaids of thine.

And she said: I have found grace in thy eyes, my lord, who hast comforted me and hast spoken to the heart of thy handmaid, who am not like to one of thy maids.

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.

He bade her come back when it was time for a meal, to eat bread there and dip her crust in the vinegar. So there she sat with the reapers, and still at her side the heap of parched corn grew, till she had eaten her fill, and had more to carry away.

And Booz said to her: At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. So she sat at the side of the reapers, and she heaped to herself frumenty, and ate and was filled, and took the leavings.

Atque inde surrexit, ut spicas ex more colligeret. Præcepit autem Booz pueris suis, dicens: Etiamsi vobiscum metere voluerit, ne prohibeatis eam:

By the time she had risen up to go on with her gleaning, Booz had given orders to his servants that they were to put no hindrance in her way, though she were to go reaping in their company;

And she arose from thence, to glean the ears of corn as before. And Booz commanded his servants, saying: If she would even reap with you, hinder her not:

et de vestris quoque manipulis projicite de industria, et remanere permittite, ut absque rubore colligat, et colligentem nemo corripiat.

and of set purpose they were to drop some of the handfuls they gathered, and leave them there for her to glean, never shaming her by a rebuke.

And let fall some of your handfuls of purpose, and leave them, that she may gather them without shame, and let no man rebuke her when she gathereth them.

Collegit ergo in agro usque ad vesperam: et quæ collegerat virga cædens et excutiens, invenit hordei quasi ephi mensuram, id est, tres modios.

So it was that when she had worked till evening, and took her rod to beat out what she had gathered, she found it was a whole ephi, that is a bushel.

She gleaned therefore in the field till evening: and beating out with a rod and threshing what she had gleaned, she found about the measure of an ephi of barley, that is, three bushels:

Quos portans reversa est in civitatem, et ostendit socrui suæ: insuper protulit, et dedit ei de reliquiis cibi sui, quo saturata fuerat.

Such were the earnings she brought back with her to the city, and shewed to her mother-in-law; offering her besides some of the food that was left over when she had finished her meal.

Which she took up and returned into the city, and shewed it to her mother in law: moreover she brought out, and gave her of the remains of her meat, wherewith she had been filled.

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.

Why, said Noemi, where hast thou been gleaning to-day? Where didst thou find so much work to do? Blessed be the man that has so befriended thee! And Ruth told her whose field it was she had worked in, It was a man called Booz, she said.

And her mother in law said to her: Where hast thou gleaned to day, and where hast thou wrought? blessed be he that hath had pity on thee. And she told her with whom she had wrought: and she told the man’s name, that he was called Booz.

Cui respondit Noëmi: Benedictus sit a Domino: quoniam eamdem gratiam, quam præbuerat vivis, servavit et mortuis. Rursumque ait: Propinquus noster est homo.

May the Lord bless him, answered Noemi; here is a man that is generous to his own, living as well as dead. And she told Ruth that Booz was their near kinsman.

And Noemi answered her: Blessed be he of the Lord: because the same kindness which he shewed to the living, he hath kept also to the dead. And again she said: The man is our kinsman.

Et ait Ruth: Hoc quoque, inquit, præcepit mihi, ut tamdiu messoribus ejus jungerer, donec omnes segetes meterentur.

This too, said Ruth, was his bidding, that I should keep close to his men till all the reaping is done.

And Ruth said, He also charged me, that I should keep close to his reapers, till all the corn should be reaped.

Cui dixit socrus: Melius est, filia mea, ut cum puellis ejus exeas ad metendum, ne in alieno agro quispiam resistat tibi.

That is best, daughter, said her mother-in-law, that thou shouldst go out to glean with those maidens of his; in some other field they might say thee nay.

And her mother in law said to her: It is better for thee, my daughter, to go out to reap with his maids, lest in another man’s field some one may resist thee.

Juncta est itaque puellis Booz: et tamdiu cum eis messuit, donec hordea et triticum in horreis conderentur.

And with the maid-servants of Booz she still kept company, till barley and wheat were both carried.

So she kept close to the maids of Booz: and continued to glean with them, till all the barley and the wheat were laid up in the barns.