Some time later Boaz himself arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the workers. "The LORD be with you!" he said. "The LORD bless you!" they answered.

"May the LORD bless Boaz!" Naomi exclaimed. "The LORD always keeps his promises to the living and the dead." And she went on, "That man is a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us."

Love is patient and kind; it is not jealous or conceited or proud;

love is not ill-mannered or selfish or irritable; love does not keep a record of wrongs;

she said to them, "Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the LORD be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died.