Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

²⁰ The Lord rewarded me for doing right and being pure. ²¹ For I have followed his commands and have not sinned by turning back from following him. ²² I kept close watch on all his laws; I did not refuse a single one. ²³ I did my best to keep them all, holding myself back from doing wrong. ²⁴ And so the Lord has paid me with his blessings, for I have done what is right, and I am pure of heart. This he knows, for he watches my every step.

²⁵ Lord, how merciful you are to those who are merciful. And you do not punish those who run from evil.^{[a] 26} You give blessings to the pure but pain to those who leave your paths. ²⁷ You deliver the humble but condemn the proud and haughty ones. ²⁸ You have turned on my light! The Lord my God has made my darkness turn to light. ²⁹ Now in your strength I can scale any wall, attack any troop.

³⁰ What a God he is! How perfect in every way! All his promises prove true. He is a shield for everyone who hides behind him.

⁸ Suddenly, around midnight, he wakened and sat up, startled. There was a woman lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he demanded.

“It’s I, sir—Ruth,” she replied. “Make me your wife according to God’s law, for you are my close relative.”

¹⁰ “Thank God for a girl like you!” he exclaimed. “For you are being even kinder to Naomi now than before. Naturally you’d prefer a younger man, even though poor. But you have put aside your personal desires. ¹¹ Now don’t worry about a thing, my child; I’ll handle all the details, for everyone knows what a wonderful person you are. ¹² But there is one problem. It’s true that I am a close relative, but there is someone else who is more closely related to you than I am. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning I’ll talk to him, and if he will marry you, fine; let him do his duty; but if he won’t, then I will, I swear by Jehovah; lie down until the morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until the morning and was up early, before daybreak, for he had said to her, “Don’t let it be known that a woman was here at the threshing floor.”

^15-18 “Bring your shawl,” he told her. Then he tied up a bushel and a half of barley in it as a present for her mother-in-law and laid it on her back. Then she returned to the city.

“Well, what happened, dear?” Naomi asked her when she arrived home. She told Naomi everything and gave her the barley from Boaz, and mentioned his remark that she mustn’t go home without a present.

Then Naomi said to her, “Just be patient until we hear what happens, for Boaz won’t rest until he has followed through on this. He’ll settle it today.”

³¹ As soon as Judas left the room, Jesus said, “My time has come; the glory of God will soon surround me—and God shall receive great praise because of all that happens to me. ³² And God shall give me his own glory, and this so very soon. ³³ Dear, dear children, how brief are these moments before I must go away and leave you! Then, though you search for me, you cannot come to me—just as I told the Jewish leaders.

³⁴ “And so I am giving a new commandment to you now—love each other just as much as I love you. ³⁵ Your strong love for each other will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”