Work > Painting Archive

Ruth and Boaz 2000

 Oil on Canvas 148x194cm

The Book of Ruth describes how following the death of her husband, Ruth, a Moabite woman, tells her Israelite mother-in-law that ‘where you go I will go ..your people will be my people and your God will be my God,€™ and returns with her to Bethlehem. Arriving at the beginning of the barley harvest, she is following the reapers, picking up what they leave, when she is noticed by Boaz, the owner of the field. Boaz encourages her to continue, and in the middle of the field prays that she will receive a rich reward ‘from the Lord God of Israel under whose wings you have come to trust’. This is the moment that the painting depicts. Though neither yet know it, they will soon marry. Their son will be the grandfather of David and the ancestor of Jesus.