Old/New Testament
Chapter 1[a]
Naomi’s Life in Moab. 1 In the days of the judges,[b] a famine broke out in the land. A certain man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab along with his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech and his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They traveled to the land of Moab and dwelt there.
3 Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They both married Moabite women. The name of one was Orpah, and the name of the other was Ruth. When they had lived there for about ten years,[c] 5 both Mahlon and Chilion died, leaving the woman bereft of her husband and two sons.
6 [d]She set out with her two daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in Moab she had heard how the Lord had come to the aid of his people, giving them food to eat. 7 She and her two daughters-in-law set out from the place where they had been living and took the road leading back to the land of Judah. 8 Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Each of you should go back to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you as much kindness as you have shown to those who died and to me. 9 May the Lord grant each of you consolation in the home of a husband.” She then kissed them, and they wept aloud. 10 They said to her, “We will go with you back to your people.” 11 But Naomi replied, “Go back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Do I still have any sons in my womb who might become your husbands? 12 Go back, my daughters. Go your way. I am too old even to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me and I slept with a husband tonight and gave birth to sons, 13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you stay unmarried for them? No, my daughters, for it greatly grieves me on your account that the hand of the Lord has been raised against me.”
14 Ruth Stays with Naomi. They cried out loud again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15 Then she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods. Follow your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth answered, “Please do not insist on my leaving you or forsaking you. 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.[e] 17 Wherever you die, I will die and be buried there. May the Lord do this to me and even worse if anything other than death separates me from you.” 18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more.
19 Life in Bethlehem. So they both traveled on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived in Bethlehem, there was a commotion among all of the inhabitants of the city on account of them. The women exclaimed, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She told them, “Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara. The Almighty has made my life so very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi? The Lord has brought witness against me; the Almighty has afflicted me.”
22 So Naomi returned, and Ruth, the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, went with her. They left the land of Moab and they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Chapter 2
Ruth and Boaz.[f] 1 Naomi’s husband had a kinsman, a very wealthy man from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go now to the field and glean ears of corn after one in whose sight I might find favor.” So she said, “Go, my daughter.”
3 She left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. It happened that she arrived at a portion of the field that belonged to Boaz of the clan of Elimelech.[g] 4 Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and he said to the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” They answered him, “The Lord bless you.” 5 Boaz asked his foreman of the harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 The foreman of the harvesters answered, “The young woman is a Moabite. She came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. 7 She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather the sheaves after the harvesters.’ She arrived early this morning and has continued working continuously until now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
8 So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go and glean in any other field and do not go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls. 9 Keep your eyes on the field that they are reaping, and follow after them. I have told the young men not to bother you. When you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the young men have drawn.” 10 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, “Why have I, a foreigner, found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me?” 11 But Boaz answered her, “I have been informed of all that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died, how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth and came to live with a people whom you had not previously known. 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 taken refuge.”[h] 13 Then she said, “May I continue to find favor in your sight, my lord. You have comforted me and shown kindness to your servant, even though I am not really one of your servants.”
14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and have some bread and dip it into the sour wine.” She sat alongside the reapers. He served her so much roasted grain that she ate until she was full and there was still some left over.
15 When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men: “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not reproach her. 16 Let some fall out from the bundles and leave it there for her to glean, but do not chastise her.”
17 So she gleaned in the field until the evening. She threshed out what she had gleaned, and it amounted to an ephah of barley. 18 She gathered it up and went back into the city. She showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned, and she also brought out and gave her what she had saved after she was full. 19 Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.” She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, “The name of the man 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 withdrawn his favor from the living nor the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “The man is one of our relatives, one of our closest relations.”[i] 21 Ruth the Moabite added, “He said to me, ‘You should stay close to my young men until they have finished my harvest.’ ” 22 So Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, “It is good for you to go out with his servant girls, lest you be harmed in some other field.”
23 So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean until the barley and the wheat harvests were over, and she continued to live with her mother-in-law.
Chapter 3[j]
Naomi Instructs Ruth. 1 Then Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek a home for you so that you may find security? 2 Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you were, our relative? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor. 3 Bathe and perfume yourself and put on your best clothes. Go down to the floor, but do not let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. 4 When he lies down to sleep, note the place where he is lying. Go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what you should do.” 5 She said to her, “I will do whatever you say.”
6 She went down to the floor and did everything just as her mother-in-law had instructed her. 7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was feeling a bit merry, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. She quietly approached, uncovered his feet and lay down.
8 In the middle of the night, the man was startled when he turned over and there was a woman at his feet. 9 He said, “Who are you?” She answered, “I am Ruth, your handmaid. Spread your covering[k] over your handmaid, for you are my next of kin.” 10 He said, “May you be blessed by the Lord, my daughter. This latter kindness you have shown is greater than the former, for you have not sought after the young men, whether poor or rich. 11 Now, my daughter, do not fear. I will give you whatever you ask, for all of my people in the city know that you are a virtuous woman. 12 It is true that we are close relatives, but there is another relative closer than I. 13 Remain this night. When morning comes, if he fulfills his duty as next of kin, then good, let him do it. But if he will not fulfill his duty as next of kin, then I will fulfill that duty for you. I swear, as the Lord lives. Now lie down until the morning.”
14 So she laid at his feet until the morning, and she arose before it was possible to recognize another person. Then he said, “Do not let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.” 15 He also said, “Bring over your shawl and hold it open.” As she held it, he measured out six measures of barley and laid it upon her. She then 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 Then she said, “He gave me these six measures of barley, for he said to me, ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ” 18 Then she said, “Wait here, my daughter, until the matter has worked itself out, for the man will not rest until he has brought it to a conclusion today.”[l]
Chapter 4
Boaz Marries Ruth. 1 So Boaz went to the city gate and sat down there. The relative of whom Boaz had spoken was passing by, so he said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he came over and sat down.[m] 2 He gathered ten of the elders of the city and said, “Sit down,” and they sat down.
3 Then he said to the next of kin, “Naomi has come back from the land of Moab and is selling the parcel of land that belonged to our kinsman Elimelech. 4 I thought that I would tell this to you. Buy it in the presence of those who dwell here and in the presence of the elders. If you intend to redeem it as next of kin, then redeem it. If you do not intend to redeem it, then tell me so that I can know, for there is no one else besides you to redeem the land, and then I am next in line.” He said, “I will redeem it.” 5 Then Boaz said, “When you acquire the field, you also receive the hand of Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased, to raise up the name of the deceased for an inheritance.” 6 But the kinsman said, “I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I endanger my own inheritance. You can exercise my right of next of kin, for I cannot redeem it.”
7 Now in those days in Israel it was the custom that when there was an act of redemption or of the exchange of lands, one man would take off his sandal and give it to the other in order to confirm the action. This was an act of confirming actions in Israel. 8 So the kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” and he took off his sandal.
9 Boaz then said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, and all that belonged to Chilion and all that belonged to Mahlon. 10 Moreover, I have acquired Ruth, the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, to perpetuate the name of the deceased for an inheritance so that the name of the deceased not disappear from among his brethren nor from the gates of his native place. You are witnesses today.”
11 All the people who were in the gateway and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrathah and be renowned in Bethlehem. 12 May your home be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of the children that the Lord will give you through this young woman.”
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. He slept with her, and the Lord granted that she conceive, and she bore a son. 14 The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a next of kin; may his name be famous throughout Israel.[n] 15 He will renew your life and support you in your old age. Your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is worth more than seven sons to you, has borne him.”
16 Naomi then took the child and laid him in her lap. She became his nurse. 17 The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi.” They called him Obed.[o] He was the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 [p]This is the genealogy of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron; 19 Hezron was the father of Ram; Ram was the father of Amminadab; 20 Amminadab was the father of Nahshon; Nahshon was the father of Salmon; 21 Salmon was the father of Boaz; Boaz was the father of Obed; 22 Obed was the father of Jesse; and Jesse was the father of David.
Chapter 8
Hearing the Word
The Women Who Minister to Jesus. 1 After that, Jesus journeyed through towns and villages preaching and proclaiming the kingdom of God. Traveling with him were the Twelve, 2 [a]as well as some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out; 3 Joanna, the wife of Herod’s steward Chuza; Susanna; and many others. These women provided for them out of their own resources.
The Parable of the Sower.[b] 4 When a large crowd gathered together as people from every town flocked to him, he said in a parable: 5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some of the seed fell along the path and was trampled upon, and the birds of the sky ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, it withered for lack of moisture. 7 Some seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. 8 And some fell onto good soil, and when it grew it produced a crop of a hundredfold.”
After saying this, he cried out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
The Purpose of Parables.[c] 9 Then his disciples asked him what the parable meant. 10 He said, “To you has been granted knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but for others they are made known in parables, so that
‘looking they may not see,
and hearing they may not understand.’
11 The Explanation of the Parable of the Sower.[d]“The meaning of the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. 12 The seed on the path represents those who hear, but then the devil comes and carries off the word from their hearts so that they may not come to believe and be saved. 13 Those on rock are the ones who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a short while, but in time of trial they fall away.
14 “That which has fallen among thorns are the ones who have heard, but as they go along, they are choked by the concerns and riches and pleasures of life, and they fail to produce mature fruit. 15 But that which is on rich soil are the ones who, when they have heard the word with a good and upright heart, keep it and yield a harvest through their perseverance.
16 The Parable of the Lamp.[e]“No one after lighting a lamp covers it with a pot or places it under a bed. Rather he places it on a lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. 17 For nothing is hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing is concealed that will not be made known and brought to light. 18 Take great care, therefore, about how you listen. For to the one who has, more will be given; from the one who does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken away.”
19 The True Family of Jesus.[f] Then his mother and his brethren arrived, looking for him, but they could not get near him because of the crowd. 20 He was told, “Your mother and your brethren[g] are standing outside, and they want to see you.” 21 But he replied, “My mother and my brethren are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.”
The Progressive Revelation of the Mystery of Jesus
22 Jesus Calms the Storm.[h] One day, Jesus got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us cross over to the other side of the lake.” And so they set forth, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. Then a windstorm swept down on the lake. As a result, the boat was becoming filled with water, and they were in danger. 24 So they went to him and awakened him, saying, “Master! Master! We are perishing!”
Then he awakened and rebuked the wind and the turbulent waves. They subsided and there was calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” They were filled with fear and a sense of awe, and they said to one another, “Who can this be? He gives orders to the winds and the water, and they obey him.”
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