Ruth 2-4

Ruth 2

Ruth Meets Boaz

¹ Naomi had a relative of her husband’s, a prominent man of great wealth, from the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. ² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Let me now go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I find favor.”

She said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ She went and gleaned in the field after the reapers, and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

⁴ Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be with you.”
They answered him, “May the Lord bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, “Whose young lady is this?”

⁶ The servant who was set over the reapers answered, “It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab.

⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’  So she came and has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a little in the house.”

Boaz Shows Favor to Ruth

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to glean in another field and don’t go from here, but stay here close to my maidens. ⁹ Let your eyes be on the field that they reap and go after them. Haven’t I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from that which the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered her, “I have been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your father, your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn’t know before. ¹² May the Lord repay your work, and a full reward be given to you from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ Then she said, “Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your servants.”

¹⁴ At meal time Boaz said to her, “Come here and eat some bread and dip your morsel in the vinegar.”
She sat beside the reapers, and they passed her parched grain. She ate, was satisfied, and left some of it. ¹⁵ When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean among the sheaves and don’t reproach her. ¹⁶ Also pull out some for her from the bundles and leave it. Let her glean and don’t rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening, and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about 30 pounds of barley. ¹⁸ She took it up and went into the city. Then her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and she brought it out and gave to her what she had left after she had enough.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you.”

She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The man’s name with whom I worked today is Boaz.” ²⁰ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not forsaken his kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen.”

²¹ Ruth the Moabitess said, “Yes, he said to me, ‘You shall stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field.” ²³ So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest, and she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth 3

Noami Instructs Ruth

¹ Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you? ² Now isn’t Boaz, whose maidens you were with, our relative? He will be winnowing barley tonight on the threshing floor. ³ Therefore bathe, anoint yourself, get dressed, and go down to the threshing floor; but don’t make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall note the place where he is lying. Then you shall go in, uncover his feet, and lay down. Then he will tell you what to do.”

⁵ She said to her, “All that you say, I will do.” ⁶ She went down to the threshing floor and did everything that her mother-in-law told her. ⁷ When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the pile of grain. Ruth came softly, uncovered his feet, and laid down.

Ruth Claims Boaz as Kinsman

⁸ At midnight, the man was startled and turned, and saw that a woman lay at his feet. ⁹ He said, “Who are you?”

She answered, “I am Ruth your servant. Therefore spread the corner of your garment over your servant, for you are a close relative.”

¹⁰ He said, “You are blessed by the Lord, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, because you didn’t follow young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ Now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do to you all that you say, for the entire city of my people know that you are a worthy woman.

¹² Now it is true that I am a close relative. However, there is a kinsman nearer than I. ¹³ Stay this night, and in the morning, if he will perform for you the duties of a kinsman, good. Let him redeem you. But if he will not do the duty of a kinsman for you, as the Lord lives, I will redeem you. Lie down until the morning.”

¹⁴ She lay at his feet until the morning, then she rose up before anyone could discern one person from another. For he said, “Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ He said, “Bring the mantle that is on you and hold it.” She held it, and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her. Then he went into the city.

¹⁶ When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, “How did it go, my daughter?”
She told her all that the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said, ‘Don’t go empty to your mother-in-law.’ ”

¹⁸ Then she said, “Wait, my daughter, until you know what will happen, for the man will not rest until he has settled this today.”

Ruth 4

Boaz Redeems Ruth

¹ Now Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. The near kinsman of whom Boaz spoke came by. Boaz said to him, “Come over here, friend, and sit down.” He came over and sat down. ² Boaz took ten elders of the city and said, “Sit down here,” and they sat down. ³ He said to the near kinsman, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is selling the parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s. ⁴ I thought I should tell you, saying, ‘Buy it before those who sit here, and before the elders of my people.’ If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know. For there is no one to redeem it besides you, and I am after you.”

He said, “I will redeem it.”

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance.”

⁶ The near kinsman said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I endanger my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

⁷ Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm everything, a man took off his sandal and gave it to his neighbor, and this was the way of formalizing transactions in Israel. ⁸ So the near kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” then he took off his sandal.

⁹ Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi. ¹⁰ Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses today.”

¹¹ All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel, and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem. ¹² Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the offspring which the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife, and he went in to her, and the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you today without a near kinsman. Let his name be famous in Israel.

The Line of David

¹⁵ He shall be to you a restorer of life and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.” ¹⁶ Naomi took the child, laid him in her bosom, and became nurse to him. ¹⁷ The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸ Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron, ¹⁹ and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab, ²⁰ and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon, ²¹ and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed, ²² and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

John 4:43-54

Jesus Heals the Official’s Son

⁴³ After two days, Jesus left from there* and went into Galilee. ⁴⁴ Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. ⁴⁵ So when he came into Galilee, the Galileans received him, having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast, for they also went to the feast. ⁴⁶ Jesus went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. ⁴⁸ Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will in no way believe.”

⁴⁹ The nobleman said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go your way. Your son lives.” The man believed what Jesus said to him, and he went his way. ⁵¹ As he was now going down, his servants met him and reported, saying “Your child lives!” ⁵² So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said therefore to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” ⁵³ So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” He believed, as did his whole house. ⁵⁴ This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judea into Galilee.

^{* There: Jesus started from Judea and went through Samaria}

Psalm 105:16-36

¹⁶ He called for a famine on the land.
He destroyed the food supplies.
¹⁷ He sent a man before them.
Joseph was sold as a slave.
¹⁸ They bruised his feet with shackles.
His neck was locked in irons,
¹⁹ until the time that his word happened,
and the Lord’s word proved him true.

²⁰ The king sent and freed him,
the ruler of peoples, and let him go free.
²¹ He made him lord of his house,
and ruler of all of his possessions,
²² to discipline his princes at his pleasure,
and to teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Israel also came into Egypt.
Jacob lived in the land of Ham.
²⁴ He increased his people greatly,
and made them stronger than their adversaries.
²⁵ He turned their heart to hate his people,
to conspire against his servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses, his servant,
and Aaron, whom he had chosen.
²⁷ They performed miracles among them,
and wonders in the land of Ham.
²⁸ He sent darkness, and made it dark.
They did not rebel against his words.
²⁹ He turned their waters into blood,
and killed their fish.
³⁰ Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the rooms of their kings.
³¹ He spoke, and swarms of flies came,
and lice in all their borders.
³² He gave them hail for rain,
with lightning in their land.
³³ He struck their vines and also their fig trees,
and shattered the trees of their country.
³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came
with the grasshoppers, without number,
³⁵ ate up every plant in their land,
and ate up the fruit of their ground.
³⁶ He struck also all the firstborn in their land,
the first fruits of all their manhood.

Proverbs 14:26-27

²⁶ In the fear of the Lord is a secure fortress,
and he will be a refuge for his children.
²⁷ The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life,
turning people from the snares of death.

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