Barley Fields of Bethlehem

The terraced barley fields on the limestone slopes outside Bethlehem where the Moabite widow Ruth comes to glean behind the harvesters of Boaz, a kinsman of her late father-in-law (Ruth 2). The barley harvest in the hill country runs from late April into May; the gleaning right protected the poor under the Mosaic law (Leviticus 19:9-10) and shaped the encounter that leads from Ruth's gleaning to her marriage and so to the line of David.