and he also told her of a vision he had had concerning her
descendants. For the sake of the good she had done to her
mother-in-law, kings and prophets would spring from her womb.
(54)

Boaz showed kindness not only to Ruth and Naomi, but also to
their dead. He took upon himself the decent burial of the remains
of Elimelech and his two sons. (55) All this begot in Naomi the
thought that Boaz harbored the intention of marrying Ruth. She
sought to coax the secret, if such there was, from Ruth. (56) When
she found that nothing could be elicited from her daughter-in-law,
she made Ruth her partner in a plan to force Boaz into a decisive
step. Ruth adhered to Naomi's directions in every particular,
except that she did not wash and anoint herself and put on fine
raiment, until after she had reached her destination. She feared to
attract the attention of the lustful, if she walked along the road
decked out in unusual finery. (57)

The moral conditions in those days were very reprehensible.
Though Boaz was high-born and a man of substance, yet he slept
on the threshing-floor, so that his presence might act as a check
upon profligacy. In the midst of his sleep, Boaz was startled to find
some one next to him. At first he thought it was a demon. Ruth
calmed his disquietude (58) with these words: "Thou art the head
of the court, thy ancestors were princes, thou art thyself an
honorable man, and a kinsman of my dead husband. As for me,
who am in the flower of my years, since I left the home of my
parents where homage is rendered unto idols, I have been
constantly menaced by the dissolute young men around. (59) So I
have come hither that thou, who art the redeemer, mayest spread