I met a man today. His mother came to my family and asked that I be given in marriage. His name is Chilion. He is from Judah. My parents have often told me of the Jews, the people who worship Yahweh. I always thought that they were cold and rigid people, but Chilion is very nice. He talked to me about my family and my chores and was very kind. His brother Mahlon just married Orpah from down the path. She has always been a friend of mine; so I know I will like living with her. Mahlon seems very nice too. Orpah says he treats her well and that is a good sign as to how Chilion will treat me. His mother Naomi is also very nice. She is a widow. Mother says Naomi’s husband died of terrible chest pains. But he was old, so I know my husband should also live a long time, like his father.
Being married to a Jew and living with his family is not so bad. The men don’t seem all that different from Moab men. They don’t really pray much or make sacrifices like I’ve heard people say the Jews do. I asked Chilion if there was anything he wouldn’t eat or any special way I needed to prepare his food for him. He said no. Naomi is the only one who seems particularly religious. She prays every morning and evening, before every meal and lots of other times in between. Sometimes I hear her talking to someone, but there isn’t anyone near her when I look. I asked Chilion about it. He just shrugged his shoulders and said Naomi is an old woman who talks to herself. So I listened to her one day. I thought maybe she was talking to Elimelech, her dead husband, but now I think she was talking to her God. These Jews are strange people. Naomi acts like God is always listening to them and cares how they feel. Wile it would be nice if God, any god, were like that, it seems unlikely. Yet Naomi seems so peaceful all the time. Even though she is a widow and wears mourning clothes, she is not idle. She works hard and patiently. My mother became lazy and whiny when my father died. That was a year ago. Naomi never complains about anything. She is always smiling. I wish I could be that happy.
Chilion died today. Mahlon died two days ago. The plague struck without warning on both of them. They had been healthy and strong before and then their bowels began to bleed and their stomachs churned and rejected all food, even water. Naomi, Orpah and I suffered nothing. We did our best to make the men comfortable and ease their pain. But it was a painful death. Naomi prayed over them constantly, pleading with her God not to take them. I guess Yahweh wasn’t listening.
Word came today that not only is the famine in Judah over, but that crops are flourishing and the store houses are bursting with the abundance. Naomi has said that she will go home. I guess Orpah and I will go with her. There seems little alternative. Food is becoming scarce here. If Naomi has kin that can protect her and care for her, maybe they will protect and care for Orpah and me as well. Maybe we can even find new husbands there! There are too many widows here in Moab.
We told Naomi of our plans to go with her. She kissed us and told us to go back to our families, to find new husbands here. She told us that we had been very kind and she blessed us in the name of Yahweh. Orpah began to weep and begged Naomi to take us with her. I was so moved by Naomi’s blessing that I just stood silently with tears running down my face, unable to speak. Naomi got angry with Orpah. She yelled that there was nothing for us in Judah. She would have no more sons and that the Lord was against her now anyway. Orpah kissed her quickly and left. But something inside me would not let me leave.
Naomi has always been good to me. Never has she spoken harshly to me or harassed me. She had loved her sons dearly, but was not jealous of their wives. Her faithfulness to her family was rivaled only by her faithfulness to her God. Now after having lost her husband and her sons, she said she had lost her God as well. I knew I could not repay her kindness to me by deserting her in her time of greatest sorrow. I told Naomi I would stay. Naomi lifted Orpah as an example and told me to follow Orpah. I knew Naomi only spoke out of hurt and desolation so I remained steadfast in my insistence. I would not leave her. Besides, I wanted to see this Judah that had a merciful and loving God, unlike any other God I had ever known. I wanted to see if the others there were like Naomi. I told her that I would go with her and adopt her ways and that nothing would separate us, not even death. Naomi looked at me for a moment in disbelief. Then she smiled sadly and sighed and said no more and I knew I had won.
On the journey to Judah, Naomi became increasingly bitter. It was as if the aches and pains of the trip were lodging in her brain and in her feet. I said little, but let her ramble. I thought it would be good for her to talk it out with her God. But she didn’t seem to be talking to him anymore, just yelling at him. When we got to Bethlehem Naomi announced to the women sitting in the square that God had dealt harshly with her and to call her Mara instead of Naomi. She stopped praying and lost all interest in her God after that.
We lived in a small shelter on the outskirts of town. Naomi began to act like my mother, weeping and complaining all the time. The first few days women from town brought us grain, but they soon stopped and I knew I had to do something or Naomi and I would go hungry. Naomi didn’t seem to care. It was as if she wanted to die. She cared little for her appearance and no longer did she bustle around the house cheerfully cleaning, her voice uplifted to God.
Then I saw that some young widows were following the reapers in a nearby field, gleaning what little grain that was left behind. In this way they had enough to eat. I told Naomi I was going and for a second she seemed to perk up. I’m not sure why. I gleaned all morning in the hot sun. It’s hard work. If you want to have enough to eat for just one day you must be very vigilant and rarely stop for a break. By midmorning I was tired and thirsty. I had covered two fields besides the one I was on. The first one had yielded little and on the second, some of the men had spoken harshly to me, including one man who made some very scary and suggestive comments to me. The third field however, was much different. The men there were very polite when I asked permission to glean and while I worked none of them bothered me. As I worked I noticed a well dressed man with a kind face come and talk to the men who had given me permission to glean. He was smiling and seemed to radiate the same joy and love that Naomi had before her sons died. After a while he came over and stood in front of me.
I had already learned that Moabite were not highly favored in these parts. Best I can tell, Jews and Moabites are in some way related, but there was some kind of bad break long ago. The men in the last field had made some comments about “incestuous pagans.” I wasn’t sure what this man was going to do for all his kind face and gentle demeanor and so I looked at his feet and waited quietly. He told me that he owned the field. I knew then that his name was Boaz; for I had heard his workers speak fondly of him as they worked. He invited me to glean only in his field and to drink from his well. He promised me that none of his men would touch me or speak harshly to me. I was so surprised. I asked him why he would do this for a “foreigner” like me. He smiled again and told me that everyone had heard of my care and devotion to Naomi. Then he blessed me as Naomi had done.
I thanked him profusely and went back to work. I was very surprised when as the sun reached its zenith, Boaz again stood before me. He invited me to eat lunch with him and his men. He let me dip my bread in his wine. He gave me so much parched grain that I could not eat it all. He didn’t even mind when I asked if I could take my leftovers home to Naomi. Even though I had considered Chilion good and kind, Boaz’s kindness made Chilion seem hard and cruel in comparison. As I continued to glean I noticed that the reapers were dropping an awful lot. I was almost afraid to take as much as they dropped, there was so much. Then I saw one of the workers pull out a handful of grain as he worked and drop it on the ground in front of me. He saw me watching him and he smiled and winked and then did it again. Suddenly I knew Boaz had asked him to put out extra for me. By the end of the day I was able to take a whole ephod of barley home to Naomi. Not to mention the left over parched wheat. There was enough of that so that Naomi and I wouldn’t have to use the barley I had worked so hard for today until at least tomorrow.
As I told Naomi about my day she began to get very excited. When I finished she danced around a bit and then fell to her knees and prayed. When she got up her face was once again the joyful one I remembered. She told me that Yahweh had not forsaken us. She said that Boaz was kin and urged me to glean only in his field. It was wonderful to see Naomi happy again. Even if Boaz was an ogre, I would not have gleaned anywhere else just to keep Naomi happy.
I gleaned in his field all season. His men were always kind, and everyday I ate with the men and Boaz. Naomi and I rarely had to eat what I had gleaned as Boaz continued to give us the leftover parched wheat from lunch each day. Because of this Naomi and I had quite a store by the end of the season. Enough to see us through the winter and then some. We had been truly blessed, as Naomi would say. Besides all that I enjoyed eating with Boaz each day at lunch. He spoke kindly to me and asked after Naomi. When the season was over I missed him greatly.
Then Naomi came to me. She told me that as my only kin now, she felt she should find me a new husband. I was skeptical, but I agreed. She explained to me that Boaz was kin and instructed me to go to the threshing room floor that night. So I spent the day cleaning myself and anointing myself and put on my freshest, cleanest, best clothes. Then I went to the threshing room floor and hid until the men had eaten and fallen asleep. I found Boaz snoring softly in the corner. I carefully uncovered his feet so that he would be awakened by the drafts in the night and lay beyond his feet where it would be clear that my intentions were honorable. I must have fallen asleep because I was startled to hear his hushed voice asking who was there.
I told him who I was and asked his kindness as he was a kinsman. He blessed me again and praised me for not chasing after young men and acting immorally. He told me how everyone had seen that even though I was from Moab, I was a woman of worth. He said he wanted to marry me but that there was a closer kinsman than he. Boaz promised to check into the matter and get back to me. Then he gave me another six measures of barley. I left early in the morning before anyone could see that I had been there and told Naomi everything that had happened.
She told me I would know by tonight whom I would marry. Then she knelt and invited me to kneel with her. She taught me how to pray and introduced me to her God, Yahweh. It was strange. Even though I had never spoken to him before I felt somehow that I knew him. I felt that he had been involved in my life long before this moment. Naomi and I prayed all day on our knees, forgoing lunch and devoting ourselves to our prayer and our God. Then at sunset Boaz came to tell me that we would be married.
We let Naomi name our son, Obed, and she became his nurse. Sometimes is hard to tell who the dear child’s real mother is. Everyday I thank God for this woman who became my mother, the kinsman who became my father and the precious child, our son. God has given me this beautiful life and I will never forsake him.
