Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

God judges all people

⁷ In Israel at this time, when somebody agreed to sell land, he removed his shoe. He gave it to the man who was buying the land. Then everyone could see that they both agreed. They could not change their minds.

⁸ So the relative said to Boaz, ‘You may buy the land.’ When he said that, he removed his shoe.

⁹ Boaz said to the town's leaders and to all the people there, ‘You have all seen today that I have bought the land from Naomi. I have bought all the land that belonged to Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I will also marry Ruth, who came here from Moab. She was Mahlon's wife. In that way, the land will still belong to his family. Ruth's descendants will still have his family's name. His family will continue to belong to this town where he lived. Today you have seen that this is what we have agreed together.’

¹¹ Then all the leaders and the other people at the gate said, ‘We have seen that this is true. We pray that the Lord will bless the woman who is coming into your home as your wife. We pray that he will bless her as he blessed Rachel and Leah.^[a] They gave birth to many children for the family of Israel. We pray that you will become a rich man in Ephrathah's clan. And we pray that you will become famous in Bethlehem town. ¹² We pray that this woman will give birth to many children for you. Then the Lord will give you many descendants, so that you have a large family. We pray that your family will be like the family of Perez, who was the son of Judah and his wife, Tamar.’^[b]

Ruth gives birth to a son

¹³ So Boaz married Ruth. He lived with her as his wife. The Lord blessed her so that she became pregnant. She gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women of Bethlehem said to Naomi, ‘We praise the Lord! Today, he has given to you a relative to take care of you! We pray that the child will become famous everywhere in Israel! ¹⁵ He will help you to feel young again. He will take care of you when you are old. Your son's wife, Ruth, has given birth to this boy. She loves you and she has helped you more than seven sons could ever do.’

¹⁶ Naomi took the child and she held him near to her. She took care of him as if he was her own son. ¹⁷ The women who lived there said, ‘Now Naomi has a son again!’ They called the boy Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who became the father of David.

King David's family

¹⁶ Jesus went to Nazareth, the town where he had grown up. On the Jewish day of rest, he went to their meeting place.^[a] This was what he usually did. He stood up to read aloud from the Bible.^[b]

¹⁷ They gave him the scroll that had the messages of God's prophet Isaiah. Jesus opened the scroll. He found the place where Isaiah wrote:

¹⁸ ‘The Spirit of the Lord God is on me.

He has chosen me to tell good news to poor people.

He has sent me to tell people who are in prison, “You can go free!”

I must say to people that cannot see, “See again!”

I must cause people that are like slaves to become free.

¹⁹ I must tell everyone, “This is the year when God will be kind to his people.” ’^[c]

²⁰ When Jesus had read this to the people, he closed the scroll. He gave it back to an officer of the meeting place. Then he sat down to teach the people. Everyone in the meeting place was looking carefully at him.

²¹ Jesus said to them, ‘Today this message has become true. It has happened while you were listening.’

²² Everyone was talking about Jesus. They were surprised at the good way in which he spoke. They said to each other, ‘We know that he is only Joseph's son.’

²³ Jesus then said to them, ‘Now you will tell me the proverb, “Doctor, make yourself well!” You will also say, “We have heard that you did many surprising things in Capernaum. This is your home town, so do the same things here!” ²⁴ I tell you this: People do not accept a prophet of God who comes from their own town.

²⁵ What I tell you is true. There were many widows in the country of Israel when Elijah was alive. At that time, it did not rain for three and a half years. So people were very hungry in all the country. ²⁶ But God did not send Elijah to help a widow in Israel. Instead, God sent Elijah to the country called Sidon. There he helped a widow in a place called Zarephath.^[d]

²⁷ Here is another example: When God's prophet Elisha was alive, there were many people in Israel with a bad disease of the skin. But God did not make any of them well. Instead, he made a man well who was from the country called Syria. That man was called Naaman.’^[e]

²⁸ The people in the meeting place heard what Jesus said.^[f] They became very angry. ²⁹ They stood up and they made him leave the town. They took him to the top of the hill outside the town. They wanted to throw him over the edge to the bottom. ³⁰ But Jesus walked through the middle of the crowd and he went away.