Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

He Will Not Abandon His People

Psalm 94

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could be distinguished from another, for he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ Then he said, “Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.” She held it out and he poured six measures of barley into it and put it on her. Then he returned to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

So Ruth told her all that the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said “He gave me six measures of barley, for he said, ‘You shouldn’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ “Wait, my daughter,” Naomi said, “until you find out how the matter turns out, for he will not rest until he has settled the matter today.”

Who Will Redeem?

4 Meanwhile Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And all of a sudden, the goel about whom Boaz had spoken passed by. “Come over,” he called, “and sit down here, my friend.” So he came over and sat down.

² Then Boaz took ten of the town’s elders and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down. ³ Then he said to the goel, “Naomi, who has returned from the region of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belongs to our brother Elimelech. ⁴ I thought I should inform you saying, ‘Buy it in the presence of the people sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if it will not be redeemed, then tell me, so that I can know, because there is no one else in line to redeem it. I am after you.’”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi’s hand, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance.”

⁶ The kinsman said, “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, or else I might endanger my own inheritance. You, take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

⁹ Let a widow be listed only if she is at least sixty, was the wife of one husband, ¹⁰ well known for good deeds, if she raised children, if she showed hospitality, if she washed the feet of the kedoshim, if she helped those in trouble, and if she devoted herself to every good work.

¹¹ But refuse younger widows; for when their sensual desires draw them away from the Messiah, they want to get married— ¹² facing judgment because they have set aside their previous pledge. ¹³ And at the same time, they also learn to be idle, going around from house to house—and not just idle, but also gossipers and busybodies, saying things they should not. ¹⁴ Therefore, I want the younger widows to get married, have children, manage a household, and give no opportunity to the enemy for slander. ¹⁵ For some have already gone astray after satan. ¹⁶ If any woman of faith has widows in need, let her help them and not let the community be burdened, so it may help the real widows.