‘ And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and her chance was to light on the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.'
Leaving the town to glean in the fields Ruth found a field where, having made enquiries of those working in the field, she was given permission to glean (Ruth 2:7). She therefore began to follow the reapers as they cut and gathered the barley, picking up any gleanings that were left. The reapers would be both men and women, mainly free men and women who made themselves available at the various harvest times (compare Matthew 20:1 ff.). Ruth was probably not the only gleaner there, and there would no doubt also have been quarrels among the gleaners as they sought for the best gleanings, and she may well have been looked down on even by them. It was not the pleasantest of tasks and offered little reward. But unknown to her she ‘chanced' to have selected a part of the ‘field' which belonged to Boaz, who was kinsman to her deceased father-in-law and her deceased husband. It was not, of course, a fenced field, ownership of parts of a large area of ground being indicated by landmarks, which sometimes unscrupulous owners would move (Deuteronomy 19:14; Deuteronomy 27:17). There can be little doubt that the author did not really see it as having happened by chance. Notice how YHWH is emphasised in the next verse. (We can, however, compare ‘by chance' with Luke 10:31).