Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

127 Unless the Lord builds a house, the builders’ work is useless. Unless the Lord protects a city, sentries do no good. ² It is senseless for you to work so hard from early morning until late at night, fearing you will starve to death; for God wants his loved ones to get their proper rest.

³ Children are a gift from God; they are his reward. ⁴ Children born to a young man are like sharp arrows to defend him.

⁵ Happy is the man who has his quiver full of them. That man shall have the help he needs when arguing with his enemies.^[a]

4 So Boaz went down to the marketplace^[a] and found the relative he had mentioned.

“Say, come over here,” he called to him. “I want to talk to you a minute.”

So they sat down together. ² Then Boaz called for ten of the chief men of the village and asked them to sit as witnesses.

³ Boaz said to his relative, “You know Naomi, who came back to us from Moab. She is selling our brother Elimelech’s property. ⁴ I felt that I should speak to you about it so that you can buy it if you wish, with these respected men as witnesses. If you want it,^[b] let me know right away, for if you don’t take it, I will. You have the first right to purchase it and I am next.”

The man replied, “All right, I’ll buy it.”

⁵ Then Boaz told him, “Your purchase of the land from Naomi requires your marriage to Ruth so that she can have children to carry on her husband’s name and to inherit the land.”

⁶ “Then I can’t do it,” the man replied. “For her son would become an heir to my property too;^[c] you buy it.”

⁷ In those days it was the custom in Israel for a man transferring a right of purchase to pull off his sandal and hand it to the other party; this publicly validated the transaction. ⁸ So, as the man said to Boaz, “You buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz said to the witnesses and to the crowd standing around, “You have seen that today I have bought all the property of Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon, from Naomi, ¹⁰ and that with it I have purchased Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife, so that she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband.”

⁶ When we were utterly helpless, with no way of escape, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners who had no use for him. ⁷ Even if we were good, we really wouldn’t expect anyone to die for us, though, of course, that might be barely possible. ⁸ But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. ⁹ And since by his blood he did all this for us as sinners, how much more will he do for us now that he has declared us not guilty? Now he will save us from all of God’s wrath to come. ¹⁰ And since, when we were his enemies, we were brought back to God by the death of his Son, what blessings he must have for us now that we are his friends and he is living within us!

¹¹ Now we rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God—all because of what our Lord Jesus Christ has done in dying for our sins—making us friends of God.