³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters.^(A) As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.^(B)

¹² Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ^(A) to settle down and earn the food they eat.^(B)

³¹ A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.^(A)

²⁹ Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.^[a]

¹¹ and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands,^(A) just as we told you, ¹² so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders^(B) and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.

⁵ Just as Gehazi was telling the king how Elisha had restored^(A) the dead to life, the woman whose son Elisha had brought back to life came to appeal to the king for her house and land.

Gehazi said, “This is the woman, my lord the king, and this is her son whom Elisha restored to life.”

Mordecai Honored

6 That night the king could not sleep;^(A) so he ordered the book of the chronicles,^(B) the record of his reign, to be brought in and read to him. ² It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway, who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes.^(C)