Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

81 To the Overseer. -- `On the Gittith.' By Asaph. Cry aloud to God our strength, Shout to the God of Jacob.

² Lift up a song, and give out a timbrel, A pleasant harp with psaltery.

³ Blow in the month a trumpet, In the new moon, at the day of our festival,

⁴ For a statute to Israel it [is], An ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵ A testimony on Joseph He hath placed it, In his going forth over the land of Egypt. A lip, I have not known -- I hear.

⁶ From the burden his shoulder I turned aside, His hands from the basket pass over.

⁷ In distress thou hast called and I deliver thee, I answer thee in the secret place of thunder, I try thee by the waters of Meribah. Selah.

⁸ Hear, O My people, and I testify to thee, O Israel, if thou dost hearken to me:

⁹ There is not in thee a strange god, And thou bowest not thyself to a strange god.

¹⁰ I [am] Jehovah thy God, Who bringeth thee up out of the land of Egypt. Enlarge thy mouth, and I fill it.

¹¹ But, My people hearkened not to My voice, And Israel hath not consented to Me.

¹² And I send them away in the enmity of their heart, They walk in their own counsels.

¹³ O that My people were hearkening to Me, Israel in My ways would walk.

¹⁴ As a little thing their enemies I cause to bow, And against their adversaries I turn back My hand,

¹⁵ Those hating Jehovah feign obedience to Him, But their time is -- to the age.

¹⁶ He causeth him to eat of the fat of wheat, And [with] honey from a rock I satisfy thee!

2 And Naomi hath an acquaintance of her husband's, a man mighty in wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name [is] Boaz.

² And Ruth the Moabitess saith unto Naomi, `Let me go, I pray thee, into the field, and I gather among the ears of corn after him in whose eyes I find grace;' and she saith to her, `Go, my daughter.'

³ And she goeth and cometh and gathereth in a field after the reapers, and her chance happeneth -- the portion of the field is Boaz's who [is] of the family of Elimelech.

⁴ And lo, Boaz hath come from Beth-Lehem, and saith to the reapers, `Jehovah [is] with you;' and they say to him, `Jehovah doth bless thee.'

⁵ And Boaz saith to his young man who is set over the reapers, `Whose [is] this young person?'

⁶ And the young man who is set over the reapers answereth and saith, `A young woman -- Moabitess -- she [is], who came back with Naomi from the fields of Moab,

⁷ and she saith, Let me glean, I pray thee -- and I have gathered among the sheaves after the reapers; and she cometh and remaineth since the morning and till now; she sat in the house a little.

⁸ And Boaz saith unto Ruth, `Hast thou not heard, my daughter? go not to glean in another field, and also, pass not over from this, and thus thou dost cleave to my young women:

⁹ thine eyes [are] on the field which they reap, and thou hast gone after them; have not I charged the young men not to touch thee? when thou art athirst then thou hast gone unto the vessels, and hast drunk from that which the young men draw.'

¹⁰ And she falleth on her face, and boweth herself to the earth, and saith unto him, `Wherefore have I found grace in thine eyes, to discern me, and I a stranger?'

¹¹ And Boaz answereth and saith to her, `It hath thoroughly been declared to me all that thou hast done with thy mother-in-law, after the death of thy husband, and thou dost leave thy father, and thy mother, and the land of thy birth, and dost come in unto a people which thou hast not known heretofore.

¹² Jehovah doth recompense thy work, and thy reward is complete from Jehovah, God of Israel, under whose wings thou hast come to take refuge.'

¹³ And she saith, `Let me find grace in thine eyes, my lord, because thou hast comforted me, and because thou hast spoken unto the heart of thy maid-servant, and I -- I am not as one of thy maid-servants.'

¹⁴ And Boaz saith to her, `At meal-time come nigh hither, and thou hast eaten of the bread, and dipped thy morsel in the vinegar.' And she sitteth at the side of the reapers, and he reacheth to her roasted corn, and she eateth, and is satisfied, and leaveth.

¹⁵ And she riseth to glean, and Boaz chargeth his young men, saying, `Even between the sheaves she doth glean, and ye do not cause her to blush;

¹⁶ and also ye do surely cast to her of the handfuls -- and have left, and she hath gleaned, and ye do not push against her.'

¹⁷ And she gleaneth in the field till the evening, and beateth out that which she hath gleaned, and it is about an ephah of barley;

¹⁸ and she taketh [it] up, and goeth into the city, and her mother-in-law seeth that which she hath gleaned, and she bringeth out and giveth to her that which she left from her satiety.

¹⁹ And her mother-in-law saith to her, `Where hast thou gleaned to-day? and where hast thou wrought? may he who is discerning thee be blessed.' And she declareth to her mother-in-law with whom she hath wrought, and saith, `The name of the man with whom I have wrought to-day [is] Boaz.'

²⁰ And Naomi saith to her daughter-in-law, `Blessed [is] he of Jehovah who hath not forsaken His kindness with the living and with the dead;' and Naomi saith to her, `The man is a relation of ours; he [is] of our redeemers.'

²¹ And Ruth the Moabitess saith, `Also he surely said unto me, Near the young people whom I have thou dost cleave till they have completed the whole of the harvest which I have.'

²² And Naomi saith unto Ruth her daughter-in-law, `Good, my daughter, that thou goest out with his young women, and they come not against thee in another field.'

²³ And she cleaveth to the young women of Boaz to glean, till the completion of the barley-harvest, and of the wheat-harvest, and she dwelleth with her mother-in-law.

¹⁴ wherefore, beloved, these things waiting for, be diligent, spotless and unblameable, by Him to be found in peace,

¹⁵ and the long-suffering of our Lord count ye salvation, according as also our beloved brother Paul -- according to the wisdom given to him -- did write to you,

¹⁶ as also in all the epistles, speaking in them concerning these things, among which things are certain hard to be understood, which the untaught and unstable do wrest, as also the other Writings, unto their own destruction.

¹⁷ Ye, then, beloved, knowing before, take heed, lest, together with the error of the impious being led away, ye may fall from your own stedfastness,

¹⁸ and increase ye in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ; to him [is] the glory both now, and to the day of the age! Amen.