Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God judges all people

¹⁴ So Ruth lay beside Boaz's feet until morning arrived. Then she got up before anyone could see her. Boaz said to her, ‘Nobody must know that a woman came here to the threshing floor.’

¹⁵ He said to Ruth, ‘Bring me the coat that you are wearing.’ She brought the coat to him. Then Boaz poured six bowls of barley seeds onto it. He tied it together and put it on her shoulder. Later, he returned to the town.

¹⁶ When Ruth returned home to Naomi, Naomi asked her, ‘My daughter, what happened last night?’ Then Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷ She said to Naomi, ‘He also gave me all this barley. He said, “Do not return to Naomi with nothing to give to her.” ’

¹⁸ Naomi said, ‘My daughter, you must be patient. We must wait to see what will happen. Boaz will surely do what he needs to do today.’

Boaz marries Ruth

4 In the morning, Boaz went to the gate of the town and he sat down there.^[a] Later, the family-redeemer that Boaz had talked about to Ruth came there. Boaz said to him, ‘Come here, my friend, and sit down.’ So the man went to sit with Boaz.

² Boaz chose ten of the town's leaders and he said to them, ‘Come and sit here.’ So they sat down. ³ Then Boaz said to the family-redeemer, ‘Naomi has returned from Moab. She wants to sell the piece of land that belonged to our relative, Elimelech. ⁴ I thought that I must tell you about this, in front of the leaders of our town. Tell us if you will buy this land from Naomi, so that all the people who sit here know what you decide. If you want to buy it, then you should buy it. If you do not want to buy it, then you must tell me. Then I will know what to do. You are the person who must decide. If you do not choose to buy the land, then I can buy it.’ The relative said, ‘I will buy it.’

⁵ Then Boaz said, ‘You should also know this: When you buy the land from Naomi, you also have to marry the Moabite woman, Ruth. She is the widow of Elimelech's son. She will give birth to your children and Elimelech's land will continue to belong to his family.’

⁶ When Boaz said that, the relative replied, ‘If that is true, I cannot buy the land. It would not belong to my own children when I die. You may buy the land instead of me. I cannot buy it myself.’^[b]

⁹ If you want to put a widow's name on the list of widows, this is what she must be like. She must be more than 60 years old. She must have been the wife of one husband. ¹⁰ People should know that she has done good things. For example, she must have been a good mother to her children. She must have received visitors into her home. She must have helped God's people as their servant. She must have taken care of people who had problems. She must have continued to do all kinds of good things like that.

¹¹ But do not put the names of younger widows on the list. They may decide to marry again, because they strongly want to have sex. Then they will no longer choose to serve Christ. ¹² As a result, they will stop doing what they had earlier promised to do for the church. That will make them guilty.^[a]

¹³ Young widows may learn to be lazy. They may go around from house to house. Not only do they become lazy, but they talk too much about silly things. They talk wrongly about other people and what they are doing. They say things that they ought not to say. ¹⁴ So I think that widows who are still young women should marry again. Then they can have children and they can take care of their own homes. If they live well like that, the enemy of God's people will not have a chance to say bad things against us. ¹⁵ Some of the younger widows have already turned away from Christ, so that they can obey Satan.

¹⁶ A woman who believes in Christ should take care of any widows in her own family. Then the church will not have to do that work. Instead, the church will be able to help those widows who are really alone.