Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God’s Goodness and Israel’s Waywardness.

For the music director; ^[a]on the Gittith. A Psalm of Asaph.

Ruth Gleans in Boaz’s Field

2 Now Naomi had ^[a]a relative of her husband, a ^[b]man of great wealth, of the family of ^(A)Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. ² And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and ^(B)glean among the ears of grain following one in whose eyes I may find favor.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ So she left and went and gleaned in the field after the reapers; and ^[c]she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. ⁴ Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “^(C)May the Lord be with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.” ⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was ^[d]in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” ⁶ And the servant ^[e]in charge of the reapers replied, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷ And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ So she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “^[f]Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but join my young women here. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have ordered the servants not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the ^[g]water jars and drink from what the servants draw.” ¹⁰ Then she ^(D)fell on her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?” ¹¹ Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully reported to me, and how you left your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. ^12 (E)May the Lord reward your ^[h]work, and may your wages be full from the Lord, the God of Israel, ^(F)under whose wings you have come to take refuge.” ¹³ Then she said, “I have found favor in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken ^[i]kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your female servants.”

¹⁴ And at mealtime Boaz said to her, “^[j]Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied ^(G)and had some left. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not ^[k]insult her. ¹⁶ Also you are to purposely slip out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ^[l]ephah of barley. ¹⁸ And she picked it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also took some out and ^(H)gave ^[m]Naomi what she had left after ^[n]she was satisfied. ¹⁹ Her mother-in-law then said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who ^(I)took notice of you be blessed.” So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” ²⁰ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “^(J)May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living and from the dead.” Again Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative; he is one of our ^(K)redeemers.” ²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “^[o]Furthermore, he said to me, ‘You are to stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’” ²² And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that others do not assault you in another field.” ²³ So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz in order to glean until ^(L)the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

^14 (A)Therefore, ^(B)beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be ^(C)found ^(D)spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, ¹⁵ and regard the ^(E)patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also ^(F)our beloved brother Paul, ^(G)according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you, ¹⁶ as also in all his letters, speaking in them of ^(H)these things, ^(I)in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and ^(J)unstable distort, as they do also ^(K)the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. ¹⁷ You therefore, ^(L)beloved, knowing this beforehand, ^(M)be on your guard so that you are not carried away by ^(N)the error of ^[a](O)unscrupulous people and ^(P)lose your own ^[b]firm commitment, ¹⁸ but grow in the grace and ^(Q)knowledge of our ^(R)Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. ^(S)To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.