Book of Common Prayer

א (Alef)

ב (Bet)

ג (Gimel)

¹⁴ When meal-time came, Bo‘az said to her, “Come here, have something to eat, and dip your piece of bread in the [olive oil and] vinegar.” She sat by the reapers, and they passed her some roasted grain. She ate till she was full, and she had some left over.

¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Bo‘az ordered his young men, “Let her glean even among the sheaves themselves, without making her feel ashamed. ¹⁶ In fact, pull some ears of grain out from the sheaves on purpose. Leave them for her to glean, and don’t rebuke her.” ¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. When she beat out what she had gathered, it came to about a bushel of barley.

¹⁸ She picked it up and went back to the city. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned, and Rut brought out and gave her what she had left over after eating her fill. ¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where were you working? Blessed be the one who took such good care of you!” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had been working; she said, “The name of the man with whom I was working today is Bo‘az.” ²⁰ Na‘omi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Adonai, who has never stopped showing grace, neither to the living nor to the dead.” Na‘omi also told her, “The man is closely related to us; he’s one of our redeeming kinsmen.” ²¹ Rut the woman from Mo’av said, “Moreover, he even said to me, ‘Stay close to my young men until they’ve finished my harvest.’” ²² Na‘omi said to Rut her daughter-in-law, “It’s good, my daughter, for you to keep going out with his girls; so that you won’t encounter hostility in some other field.” ²³ So she stayed close to Bo‘az’s girls to glean, until the end of the barley and wheat harvests; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

3 Here is a statement you can trust: anyone aspiring to be a congregation leader is seeking worthwhile work. ² A congregation leader must be above reproach, he must be faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, orderly, hospitable and able to teach. ³ He must not drink excessively or get into fights; rather, he must be kind and gentle. He must not be a lover of money. ⁴ He must manage his own household well, having children who obey him with all proper respect; ⁵ for if a man can’t manage his own household, how will he be able to care for God’s Messianic Community? ⁶ He must not be a new believer, because he might become puffed up with pride and thus fall under the same judgment as did the Adversary. ⁷ Furthermore, he must be well regarded by outsiders, so that he won’t fall into disgrace and into the Adversary’s trap.

⁸ Likewise, the shammashim must be of good character, people whose word can be trusted. They must not give themselves to excessive drinking or be greedy for dishonest gain. ⁹ They must possess the formerly hidden truth of the faith with a clean conscience. ¹⁰ And first, let them be tested; then, if they prove themselves blameless, let them be appointed shammashim. ¹¹ Similarly, the wives must be of good character, not gossips, but temperate, faithful in everything. ¹² Let the shammashim each be faithful to his wife, managing his children and household well. ¹³ For those who serve well as shammashim gain good standing for themselves and much boldness in the trust that comes through Yeshua the Messiah.

¹⁴ I hope to visit you soon; but I am writing these things ¹⁵ so that if I am delayed, you may know how one should behave in the household of God, which is the Messianic Community of the living God, the pillar and support of the truth. ¹⁶ Great beyond all question is the formerly hidden truth underlying our faith:

¹⁸ So he went on to say, “What is the Kingdom of God like? With what will we compare it? ¹⁹ It is like a mustard seed that a man took and planted in his own garden, and it grew and became a tree, and the birds flying about nested in its branches.”

²⁰ Again he said, “With what will I compare the Kingdom of God? ²¹ It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour, then waited until the whole batch of dough rose.”

²² Yeshua continued traveling through town after town and village after village, teaching and making his way toward Yerushalayim. ²³ Someone asked him, “Are only a few people being saved?” ²⁴ He answered, “Struggle to get in through the narrow door, because — I’m telling you! — many will be demanding to get in and won’t be able to, ²⁵ once the owner of the house has gotten up and shut the door. You will stand outside, knocking at the door and saying, ‘Lord! Open up for us!’ But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from!’ ²⁶ Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you! you taught in our streets!’ ²⁷ and he will tell you, ‘I don’t know where you’re from. Get away from me, all you workers of wickedness!’ ²⁸ You will cry and grind your teeth when you see Avraham, Yitz’chak, Ya‘akov and all the prophets inside the Kingdom of God, but yourselves thrown outside. ²⁹ Moreover, people will come from the east, the west, the north and the south to sit at table in the Kingdom of God. ³⁰ And notice that some who are last will be first, and some who are first will be last.”