Verse 2 picks up the story where Ruth 1:22 left off. Ruth, the Moabite—once again a reminder of her foreign and generally despised status—makes her request to Naomi to go to the fields and glean ears of grain. Although the law (Lev 19:9–10; 23:22; Deut 24:19–21) provided a legal right to glean specifically to the poor, the resident alien, the widow, and the orphan, it is clear from other passages that these people were not always granted permission to glean.7 Hence, the simplest understanding of Ruth’s words in the last clause of verse 2 “behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor” is that “she
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