At mealtime, Boaz left his shelter and set out in search of Ruth. He had watched her work hard all day long, and knew she would be hungry. He also knew that she would not join the workers unless invited.

He sought her out for a while, and found her by herself, crouched in the corner of an empty barn. Her back was turned to him, and she was murmuring something he couldn't hear clearly. The only word he could decipher was 'Yahweh'.

Ruth focused her mind on Yahweh as she talked to Him. She was extremely glad that Yahweh wasn't like Chemosh who couldn't be spoken to unless he was seen. She didn't have to carry a statue about, Yahweh was with her always, and He had real ears to hear her prayers.

"Ruth," A gentle voice called from behind her.

She jumped, startled and turned around to find Boaz smiling down at her.

"What are you doing here all by yourself? Join us for lunch."

Her stomach let out a loud growl at the mention of 'lunch', making Boaz raise an eyebrow.

He ushered her into the tent and had his workers make room for her next to him.

She was surprised to see that Eeva–the only other gleaner–was also seated in the tent, having lunch with the workers. The respect she already had for Boaz went up a notch. His was the only farm she knew whose owner made provision for even a workers' lunch break, let alone allowed the poor join in.

The table before her held platters of roasted grain, and some bread.

"Here. Have some bread," Boaz set a loaf of bread before her.

Ruth said a quick prayer to thank Yaweh for the food He provided, and for the strength it would provide to enable her continue her work.

She gingerly reached for the loaf and pinched from it. She felt so out of place amongst the workers, and she knew many of them were still staring at her.

Boaz handed her his own goblet of wine. "Dip it in the wine."

She did as she was told and then put the soaked piece of bread into her mouth. It tasted amazing. She pinched from the loaf again and repeated the process.

Boaz passed her some roasted grain once she was done with the bread and wine, and asked her to eat to her heart's content.

Ruth ate till she was sufficed, and kept some of her left over grain for Naomi.

When she got up to go back to work, Boaz ordered his servants: "Let her glean where there's still plenty of grain. Make it easy for her. Better yet, pull some of the good stuff out and leave it for her to glean. And don't speak harshly to her. Remember that she's my cousin's widow. Whatever you do to her, you do to me also."

♣♧♣♧♣

Ruth watched as another harvester pulled out a handful of perfectly fine barley stalks and let it fall.

By law, they were not allowed to pick it back up, so it automatically became hers.

They weren't doing a very good job of keeping their actions or intentions discrete, and Ruth didn't fail to notice that it was the umpteenth time that was happening. She also noted that her work became much easier just after lunch break.

She bent to pick it up, then carefully laid it in the basket Boaz' foreman had given to her.

As they followed the workers, she noticed that old Eeva was having difficulties holding up her basket, bending to pick grain, and keeping up with the workers' pace.

Ruth moved her basket to one hand and used the other to take Eeva's basket.

The old woman gave a gentle smile. "Bless you child,"

Ruth gave her a smile of her own.