Act 3 — SCENE II

Place: In the barley fields of Boaz.

Time: The harvest season.

Characters: Boaz, Ruth, Head Reaper, Reapers, Gleaners.

[The reapers come in with their sickles, followed by the gleaners.]

Head Reaper: Truly we have a wonderful harvest this year!

First Reaper: Yea, we will have food enough for ourselves and for all the poor in our city of Bethlehem.

Head Reaper: It is the great God that hath given us this bounty.

[All sing harvest song as they reap. While they are singing Ruth comes in and begins to pick up the grain.]

Second Reaper [looking toward the entrance to the field]: The master is coming, the great Boaz!

[All reapers look in that direction as they stand, resting their sickles on the ground. Boaz enters.]

Boaz: The Lord be with you!

Reapers: The Lord bless thee!

[All go to work again, singing as before. Boaz walks among them; he sees Ruth and watches her.]

Boaz [to the Head Reaper]: My good man, I would speak a word with thee; come hither.

Head Reaper: Speak, O master!

Boaz: Whose damsel is this that gathereth grain after the reapers?

Head Reaper: My master, she is Ruth, the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi, thy kinswoman. She hath been gleaning here since early morning.

Boaz: Go, bid the reapers not to harm her, and bid them let fall purposely some of the handfuls of grain for her.

[The Head Reaper bows low and goes back among the reapers.]

Boaz [to Ruth]: Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, but stay here by my reapers. Let thine eyes be on the reapers, and do thou glean that which they leave behind. When thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink that which the young men have drawn.

Ruth [bows to the ground]: Why have I found such favor in thine eyes, seeing that I am a stranger in the land?

Boaz: It has been told me of thy great kindness to thy mother-in-law, Naomi; how thou didst leave thine own people to come with her and be among strangers; and how thou didst leave thy gods to take the God of the children of Israel. The Lord will bless thee for this.

Ruth: I thank thee, O great Boaz, for thou hast comforted me and thou hast spoken friendly words unto me.

Boaz: Come hither at meal times and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar with my reapers.

[The reapers have departed. Boaz goes off.]

Ruth: The Lord God is truly good unto me!