Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
God Will Pay Back His Enemies
94 The Lord is a God who punishes.
God, show your greatness and punish!
2 Rise up, Judge of the earth,
and give the proud what they deserve.
3 How long will the wicked be happy?
How long, Lord?
4 They are full of proud words;
those who do evil brag about what they have done.
5 Lord, they crush your people
and make your children suffer.
6 They kill widows and foreigners
and murder orphans.
7 They say, “The Lord doesn’t see;
the God of Jacob doesn’t notice.”
8 You stupid ones among the people, pay attention.
You fools, when will you understand?
9 Can’t the creator of ears hear?
Can’t the maker of eyes see?
10 Won’t the one who corrects nations punish you?
Doesn’t the teacher of people know everything?
11 The Lord knows what people think.
He knows their thoughts are just a puff of wind.
12 Lord, those you correct are happy;
you teach them from your law.
13 You give them rest from times of trouble
until a pit is dug for the wicked.
14 The Lord won’t leave his people
nor give up his children.
15 Judgment will again be fair,
and all who are honest will follow it.
16 Who will help me fight against the wicked?
Who will stand with me against those who do evil?
17 If the Lord had not helped me,
I would have died in a minute.
18 I said, “I am about to fall,”
but, Lord, your love kept me safe.
19 I was very worried,
but you comforted me and made me happy.
20 Crooked leaders cannot be your friends.
They use the law to cause suffering.
21 They join forces against people who do right
and sentence to death the innocent.
22 But the Lord is my defender;
my God is the rock of my protection.
23 God will pay them back for their sins
and will destroy them for their evil.
The Lord our God will destroy them.
1 Long ago when the judges[a] ruled Israel, there was a shortage of food in the land. 2 So a man named Elimelech left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons. His wife was named Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathahites from Bethlehem in Judah. When they came to Moab, they settled there.
3 Then Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. Naomi and her sons had lived in Moab about ten years 5 when Mahlon and Kilion also died. So Naomi was left alone without her husband or her two sons.
6 While Naomi was in Moab, she heard that the Lord had come to help his people and had given them food again. So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab and return home. 7 Naomi and her daughters-in-law left the place where they had lived and started back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back home, each of you to your own mother’s house. May the Lord be as kind to you as you have been to me and my sons who are now dead. 9 May the Lord give you another happy home and a new husband.”
When Naomi kissed the women good-bye, they began to cry out loud. 10 They said to her, “No, we want to go with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “My daughters, return to your own homes. Why do you want to go with me? I cannot give birth to more sons to give you new husbands; 12 go back, my daughters, to your own homes. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I told myself, ‘I still have hope’ and had another husband tonight, and even if I had more sons, 13 should you wait until they were grown into men? Should you live for so many years without husbands? Don’t do that, my daughters. My life is much too sad for you to share, because the Lord has been against me!”
14 The women cried together out loud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi good-bye, but Ruth held on to her tightly.
15 Naomi said to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and her own gods. Go back with her.”
Ruth Stays with Naomi
16 But Ruth said, “Don’t beg me to leave you or to stop following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 And where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. I ask the Lord to punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise: Not even death will separate us.”
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth had firmly made up her mind to go with her, she stopped arguing with her. 19 So Naomi and Ruth went on until they came to the town of Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, all the people became very excited. The women of the town said, “Is this really Naomi?”
20 Naomi answered the people, “Don’t call me Naomi.[b] Call me Mara,[c] because the Almighty has made my life very sad. 21 When I left, I had all I wanted, but now, the Lord has brought me home with nothing. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has spoken against me and the Almighty has given me so much trouble?”
22 So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, the Moabite, returned from Moab and arrived at Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
Rules for Living with Others
5 Do not speak angrily to an older man, but plead with him as if he were your father. Treat younger men like brothers, 2 older women like mothers, and younger women like sisters. Always treat them in a pure way.
3 Take care of widows who are truly widows. 4 But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to do their duty to their own family and to repay their parents or grandparents. That pleases God. 5 The true widow, who is all alone, puts her hope in God and continues to pray night and day for God’s help. 6 But the widow who uses her life to please herself is really dead while she is alive. 7 Tell the believers to do these things so that no one can criticize them. 8 Whoever does not care for his own relatives, especially his own family members, has turned against the faith and is worse than someone who does not believe in God.
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.