Ruth 1-2
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Naomi’s Family in Moab
1 During the time[a] of the judges,(A) there was a famine in the land.(B) A man left Bethlehem[b](C) in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech,[c] and his wife’s name was Naomi.[d] The names of his two sons were Mahlon[e] and Chilion.[f] They were Ephrathites(D) from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the land of Moab and settled there. 3 Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 Her sons took Moabite women as their wives: one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth. After they lived in Moab about 10 years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two children and without her husband.
Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi
6 She and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab, because she had heard in Moab that the Lord had paid attention to His people’s need by providing them food.(E) 7 She left the place where she had been living, accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, and traveled along the road leading back to the land of Judah.
8 She said to them, “Each of you go back to your mother’s home.(F) May the Lord show faithful love to you as you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord enable each of you to find security(G) in the house of your new husband.” She kissed them, and they wept loudly.
10 “No,” they said to her. “We will go with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Am I able to have any more sons[g] who could become your husbands?(H) 12 Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13 would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying?[h] No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share,[i] because the Lord’s hand has turned against me.”(I) 14 Again they wept loudly, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god.[j](J) Follow your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth replied:
Do not persuade me to leave you
or go back and not follow you.
For wherever you go, I will go,
and wherever you live, I will live;
your people will be my people,
and your God will be my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May Yahweh punish me,[k](K)
and do so severely,
if anything but death separates you and me.
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.
19 The two of them traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was excited about their arrival[l](L) and the local women exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”
20 “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,”[m] she answered,[n] “for the Almighty(M) has made me very bitter.(N) 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty.(O) Why do you call me Naomi, since the Lord has pronounced judgment on[o] me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?”
22 So Naomi came back from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.(P)
Ruth and Boaz Meet
2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side named Boaz. He was a prominent man of noble character(Q) from Elimelech’s family.
2 Ruth the Moabitess asked Naomi, “Will you let me go into the fields and gather fallen grain(R) behind someone who allows me to?”
Naomi answered her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” 3 So Ruth left and entered the field to gather grain behind the harvesters. She happened(S) to be in the portion of land belonging to Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.
4 Later, when Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “The Lord be with you.”(T)
“The Lord bless you,”(U) they replied.
5 Boaz asked his servant who was in charge of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”
6 The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. 7 She asked, ‘Will you let me gather fallen grain among the bundles behind the harvesters?’ She came and has remained from early morning until now, except that she rested a little in the shelter.”[p]
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter.[q] Don’t go and gather grain in another field, and don’t leave this one, but stay here close to my female servants. 9 See which field they are harvesting, and follow them. Haven’t I ordered the young men not to touch you?[r] When you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”
10 She bowed with her face to the ground(V) and said to him, “Why are you so kind to notice me, although I am a foreigner?”
11 Boaz answered her, “Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn’t previously know. 12 May the Lord reward you for what you have done,(W) and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.”(X)
13 “My lord,” she said, “you have been so kind to me, for you have comforted and encouraged[s] your slave, although I am not like one of your female servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz told her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it in the vinegar sauce.” So she sat beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain. She ate and was satisfied and had some left over.
15 When she got up to gather grain, Boaz ordered his young men, “Let her even gather grain among the bundles, and don’t humiliate her. 16 Pull out some stalks from the bundles for her and leave them for her to gather. Don’t rebuke her.” 17 So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. She beat out what she had gathered, and it was about 26 quarts[t] of barley. 18 She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Then she brought out what she had left over from her meal and gave it to her.
19 Then her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you gather barley today, and where did you work? May the Lord bless the man who noticed you.”(Y)
Ruth told her mother-in-law about the men she had worked with and said, “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz.”
20 Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord,(Z) who has not forsaken his[u] kindness to the living or the dead.”(AA) Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our family redeemers.”(AB)
21 Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished all of my harvest.’”
22 So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work[v] with his female servants, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.” 23 Ruth stayed close to Boaz’s female servants and gathered grain until the barley and the wheat harvests were finished.(AC) And she lived with[w] her mother-in-law.
Footnotes
- Ruth 1:1 Lit In the days of the judging
- Ruth 1:1 = House of Bread
- Ruth 1:2 = My God Is King
- Ruth 1:2 = Pleasant
- Ruth 1:2 = Sickly
- Ruth 1:2 = Weak or failing
- Ruth 1:11 Lit More to me sons in my womb
- Ruth 1:13 Lit marrying a man
- Ruth 1:13 Lit daughters, for more bitter to me than you
- Ruth 1:15 Or gods
- Ruth 1:17 A solemn oath formula; 1Sm 3:17; 2Sm 3:9,35; 1Kg 2:23; 2Kg 6:31
- Ruth 1:19 Lit excited because of them
- Ruth 1:20 = Bitter
- Ruth 1:20 Lit answered them
- Ruth 1:21 LXX, Syr, Vg read has humiliated
- Ruth 2:7 LXX reads until evening she has not stopped in the field; Vg reads now and she did not return to the house; Hb uncertain
- Ruth 2:8 Lit Haven’t you heard, my daughter?
- Ruth 2:9 Either sexual or physical harassment
- Ruth 2:13 Lit and spoken to the heart of
- Ruth 2:17 Lit about an ephah
- Ruth 2:20 Or His
- Ruth 2:22 Lit go out
- Ruth 2:23 Some Hb mss, Vg read she returned to
Psalm 129
Holman Christian Standard Bible
Psalm 129
Protection of the Oppressed
A song of ascents.
1 Since my youth they have often attacked me—
let Israel say—
2 Since my youth they have often attacked me,
but they have not prevailed against me.(A)
3 Plowmen plowed over my back;
they made their furrows long.(B)
4 The Lord is righteous;
He has cut the ropes of the wicked.(C)
5 Let all who hate Zion
be driven back in disgrace.(D)
6 Let them be like grass on the rooftops,
which withers before it grows up[a](E)
7 and can’t even fill the hands of the reaper
or the arms of the one who binds sheaves.(F)
8 Then none who pass by will say,
“May the Lord’s blessing be on you.”
We bless you in the name of Yahweh.(G)
Footnotes
- Psalm 129:6 Or it can be pulled out
Proverbs 30
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Words of Agur
The man’s oration to Ithiel, to Ithiel and Ucal:[b]
2 I am more stupid than any other man,[c]
and I lack man’s ability to understand.(B)
3 I have not gained wisdom,
and I have no knowledge of the Holy One.(C)
4 Who has gone up to heaven and come down?(D)
Who has gathered the wind in His hands?
Who has bound up the waters in a cloak?(E)
Who has established all the ends of the earth?(F)
What is His name,
and what is the name of His Son—
if you know?(G)
5 Every word of God is pure;[d](H)
He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him.(I)
6 Don’t add to His words,(J)
or He will rebuke you, and you will be proved a liar.(K)
7 Two things I ask of You;
don’t deny them to me before I die:
8 Keep falsehood and deceitful words far from me.
Give me neither poverty nor wealth;
feed me with the food I need.(L)
9 Otherwise, I might have too much(M)
and deny You,(N) saying, “Who is the Lord?”(O)
or I might have nothing and steal,(P)
profaning[e] the name of my God.(Q)
10 Don’t slander a servant to his master
or he will curse you,(R) and you will become guilty.
11 There is a generation that curses its father
and does not bless its mother.(S)
12 There is a generation that is pure in its own eyes,(T)
yet is not washed from its filth.
13 There is a generation—how haughty its eyes
and pretentious its looks.[f]
14 There is a generation whose teeth are swords,(U)
whose fangs are knives,(V)
devouring the oppressed from the land(W)
and the needy from among mankind.
15 The leech has two daughters: “Give, Give!”
Three things(X) are never satisfied;
four never say, “Enough!”:
16 Sheol;(Y) a childless womb;(Z)
earth, which is never satisfied with water;
and fire, which never says, “Enough!”
17 As for the eye that ridicules a father(AA)
and despises obedience to a mother,
may ravens of the valley pluck it out
and young vultures eat it.(AB)
18 Three things are beyond me;
four I can’t understand:
19 the way of an eagle in the sky,
the way of a snake on a rock,
the way of a ship at sea,
and the way of a man with a young woman.
20 This is the way of an adulteress:
she eats and wipes her mouth
and says, “I’ve done nothing wrong.”(AC)
21 The earth trembles under three things;
it cannot bear up under four:
22 a servant when he becomes king,(AD)
a fool when he is stuffed with food,
23 an unloved woman when she marries,(AE)
and a servant girl when she ousts her queen.
24 Four things on earth are small,
yet they are extremely wise:
25 the ants are not a strong people,
yet they store up their food in the summer;(AF)
26 hyraxes are not a mighty people,
yet they make their homes in the cliffs;(AG)
27 locusts have no king,
yet all of them march in ranks;(AH)
28 a lizard[g] can be caught in your hands,
yet it lives in kings’ palaces.
29 Three things are stately in their stride,
even four are stately in their walk:
30 a lion, which is mightiest among beasts
and doesn’t retreat before anything,
31 a strutting rooster,[h] a goat,
and a king at the head of his army.[i]
32 If you have been foolish by exalting yourself
or if you’ve been scheming,
put your hand over your mouth.(AI)
33 For the churning of milk produces butter,
and twisting a nose draws blood,
and stirring up anger produces strife.(AJ)
Footnotes
- Proverbs 30:1 Or son of Jakeh from Massa; Pr 31:1
- Proverbs 30:1 Hb uncertain. Sometimes read with different word division as oration: I am weary, God, I am weary, God, and I am exhausted, or oration: I am not God, I am not God, that I should prevail. LXX reads My son, fear my words and when you have received them repent. The man says these things to the believers in God, and I pause.
- Proverbs 30:2 Lit I am more stupid than a man
- Proverbs 30:5 Lit refined
- Proverbs 30:9 Lit grabbing
- Proverbs 30:13 Lit and its eyelids lifted up
- Proverbs 30:28 Or spider
- Proverbs 30:31 Or a greyhound
- Proverbs 30:31 LXX reads king addressing his people
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