Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

81 Sing aloud unto God our strength; make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.

² Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.

³ Blow the trumpet in the new moon, at the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.

⁴ For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.

⁵ This He ordained in Joseph as a testimony, when He went out through the land of Egypt, where I heard a language that I understood not:

⁶ “I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were delivered from the pots.

⁷ Thou called in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder. I tested thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I will testify unto thee, O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto Me!

⁹ There shall be no strange god among thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god.

¹⁰ I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

¹¹ “But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.

¹² So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust, and they walked in their own counsels.

¹³ Oh that My people had hearkened unto Me, and Israel had walked in My ways!

¹⁴ I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned My and against their adversaries.”

¹⁵ The haters of the Lord should have submitted themselves unto Him, but their time should have endured for ever.

¹⁶ He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat, and, “With honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.”

2 And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband’s, a mighty man of wealth of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz.

² And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace.” And she said unto her, “Go, my daughter.”

³ And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech.

⁴ And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said unto the reapers, “The Lord be with you.” And they answered him, “The Lord bless thee.”

⁵ Then said Boaz unto his servant who was set over the reapers, “Whose damsel is this?”

⁶ And the servant who was set over the reapers answered and said, “It is the Moabite damsel who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab.

⁷ And she said, ‘I pray you, let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and hath continued even from the morning until now, except she tarried a little in the house.”

⁸ Then said Boaz unto Ruth, “Hearest thou not, my daughter? Go not to glean in another field, neither go from hence, but abide here fast by my maidens.

⁹ Let thine eyes be on the field that they reap, and go thou after them. Have I not charged the young men that they shall not touch thee? And when thou art athirst, go unto the vessels and drink of that which the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell on her face and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, “Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take notice of me, seeing I am a stranger?”

¹¹ And Boaz answered and said unto her, “It hath fully been shown to me all that thou hast done unto thy mother-in-law since the death of thine husband, and how thou hast left thy father and thy mother and the land of thy nativity, and hast come unto a people whom thou knewest not heretofore.

¹² The Lord recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings thou hast come to trust.”

¹³ Then she said, “Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord; for thou hast comforted me, and thou hast spoken friendly unto thine handmaid, though I am not like unto one of thine handmaidens.”

¹⁴ And Boaz said unto her, “At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread and dip thy morsel in the vinegar.” And she sat beside the reapers; and he passed to her parched corn, and she ate and was sufficed, and left.

¹⁵ And when she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not.

¹⁶ And let fall also some of the handfuls purposely for her; and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned; and it was about an ephah of barley.

¹⁸ And she took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned; and she brought it forth and gave to her what she had reserved after she was sufficed.

¹⁹ And her mother-in-law said unto her, “Where hast thou gleaned today? And where wroughtest thou? Blessed be he that took notice of thee.” And she showed her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The man’s name with whom I wrought today is Boaz.”

²⁰ And Naomi said unto her daughter-in-law, “Blessed be he of the Lord, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead.” And Naomi said unto her, “The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.”

²¹ And Ruth the Moabitess said, “He said unto me also, ‘Thou shalt keep fast by my young men until they have ended all my harvest.’”

²² And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.”

²³ So she kept fast by the maidens of Boaz to glean unto the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest, and dwelt with her mother-in-law.

¹⁴ Therefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.

¹⁵ And account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you,

¹⁶ as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things. Therein are some things hard to understand, which those who are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction.

¹⁷ Ye therefore, beloved, seeing that ye know these things beforehand, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own steadfastness.

¹⁸ But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and for ever. Amen.