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Ruth 1 |
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In
the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a
man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went
to live for a while in the country of Moab. {2} The man's name
was Elimelech, his wife's name Naomi, and the names of his two sons were
Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem, Judah. And they
went to Moab and lived there. {3} Now Elimelech, Naomi's husband,
died, and she was left with her two sons. {4} They married
Moabite women, one named Orpah and the other Ruth. After they had lived
there about ten years, {5} both Mahlon and Kilion also died, and
Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband. {6} When she
heard in Moab that the LORD had come to the aid of his people by
providing food for them, Naomi and her daughters-in-law prepared to
return home from there. {7} With her two daughters-in-law she
left the place where she had been living and set out on the road that
would take them back to the land of Judah. {8} Then Naomi said to
her two daughters-in-law, "Go back, each of you, to your mother's home.
May the LORD show kindness to you, as you have shown to your dead and to
me. {9} May the LORD grant that each of you will find rest in the
home of another husband." Then she kissed them and they wept aloud
{10} and said to her, "We will go back with you to your people."
{11} But Naomi said, "Return home, my daughters. Why would you come
with me? Am I going to have any more sons, who could become your
husbands? {12} Return home, my daughters; I am too old to have
another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me--even if
I had a husband tonight and then gave birth to sons-- {13} would
you wait until they grew up? Would you remain unmarried for them? No, my
daughters. It is more bitter for me than for you, because the Lord's
hand has gone out against me!" {14} At this they wept again. Then
Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-by, but Ruth clung to her. {15}
"Look," said Naomi, "your sister-in-law is going back to her people
and her gods. Go back with her." {16} But Ruth replied, "Don't
urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go,
and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your
God my God. {17} Where you die I will die, and there I will be
buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything
but death separates you and me." {18} When Naomi realised that
Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her. {19}
So the two women went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived
in Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women
exclaimed, "Can this be Naomi?" {20} "Don't call me Naomi, " she
told them. "Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very
bitter. {21} I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back
empty. Why call me Naomi? The LORD has afflicted me; the Almighty has
brought misfortune upon me." {22} So Naomi returned from Moab
accompanied by Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, arriving in
Bethlehem as the barley harvest was beginning. |
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Ruth 2 |
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Now
Naomi had a relative on her husband's side, from the clan of Elimelech,
a man of standing, whose name was Boaz. {2} And Ruth the
Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields and pick up the
leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor." Naomi said to
her, "Go ahead, my daughter." {3} So she went out and began to
glean in the fields behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she found
herself working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of
Elimelech. {4} Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted
the harvesters, "The LORD be with you!" "The LORD bless you!" they
called back. {5} Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, "Whose
young woman is that?" {6} The foreman replied, "She is the
Moabitess who came back from Moab with Naomi. {7} She said,
'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the
harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from
morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter." {8} So
Boaz said to Ruth, "My daughter, listen to me. Don't go and glean in
another field and don't go away from here. Stay here with my servant
girls. {9} Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and
follow along after the girls. I have told the men not to touch you. And
whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men
have filled." {10} At this, she bowed down with her face to the
ground. She exclaimed, "Why have I found such favor in your eyes that
you notice me--a foreigner?" {11} Boaz replied, "I've been told
all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of
your husband--how you left your father and mother and your homeland and
came to live with a people you did not know before. {12} May the
LORD repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the
LORD, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take
refuge." {13} "May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my
lord," she said. "You have given me comfort and have spoken kindly to
your servant--though I do not have the standing of one of your servant
girls." {14} At mealtime Boaz said to her, "Come over here. Have
some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar." When she sat down with the
harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted
and had some left over. {15} As she got up to glean, Boaz gave
orders to his men, "Even if she gathers among the sheaves, don't
embarrass her. {16} Rather, pull out some stalks for her from the
bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don't rebuke her."
{17} So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed
the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah. {18}
She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she
had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over
after she had eaten enough. {19} Her mother-in-law asked her,
"Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who
took notice of you!" Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at
whose place she had been working. "The name of the man I worked with
today is Boaz," she said. {20} "The LORD bless him!" Naomi said
to her daughter-in-law. "He has not stopped showing his kindness to the
living and the dead." She added, "That man is our close relative; he is
one of our kinsman-redeemers." {21} Then Ruth the Moabitess said,
"He even said to me, 'Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting
all my grain.'" {22} Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It
will be good for you, my daughter, to go with his girls, because in
someone else's field you might be harmed." {23} So Ruth stayed
close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat
harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law. |
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Ruth
3 |
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One
day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try
to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for? {2}
Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours?
Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. {3}
Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to
the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has
finished eating and drinking. {4} When he lies down, note the
place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He
will tell you what to do." {5} "I will do whatever you say," Ruth
answered. {6} So she went down to the threshing floor and did
everything her mother-in-law told her to do. {7} When Boaz had
finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to
lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly,
uncovered his feet and lay down. {8} In the middle of the night
something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying
at his feet. {9} "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant
Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you
are a kinsman-redeemer." {10} "The LORD bless you, my daughter,"
he replied. "This kindness is greater than that which you showed
earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
{11} And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all
you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble
character. {12} Although it is true that I am near of kin, there
is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I. {13} Stay here for the
night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem.
But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie
here until morning." {14} So she lay at his feet until morning,
but got up before anyone could be recognised; and he said, "Don't let it
be known that a woman came to the threshing floor." {15} He also
said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did
so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he
went back to town. {16} When Ruth came to her mother-in-law,
Naomi asked, "How did it go, my daughter?" Then she told her everything
Boaz had done for her {17} and added, "He gave me these six
measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law
empty-handed.'" {18} Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until
you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is
settled today." |
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Ruth
4 |
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Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the
kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over
here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down. {2}
Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they
did so. {3} Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has
come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our
brother Elimelech. {4} I thought I should bring the matter to
your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these
seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will
redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no
one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line." "I will
redeem it," he said. {5} Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the
land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's
widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property."
{6} At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it
because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot
do it." {7} (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption
and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal
and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions
in Israel.) {8} So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it
yourself." And he removed his sandal. {9} Then Boaz announced to
the elders and all the people, "Today you are witnesses that I have
bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon.
{10} I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my
wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so
that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town
records. Today you are witnesses!" {11} Then the elders and all
those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman
who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up
the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in
Bethlehem. {12} Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this
young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to
Judah." {13} So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he
went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to
a son. {14} The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who
this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become
famous throughout Israel! {15} He will renew your life and
sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and
who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth." {16}
Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.
{17} The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named
him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. {18}
This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron,
{19} Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab, {20}
Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,
{21} Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed, {22}
Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David. |
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