Ruth and Boaz by Nicolas Poussin circa 1660 Poster

The story of Boaz and Ruth is told in the Book of Ruth. 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.