Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
5 ·Happy [Blessed] are those who are helped by the God of Jacob [C another name for Israel].
Their hope is in the Lord their God.
6 He made heaven and earth,
the sea and everything in it [Gen. 1].
He ·remains [keeps; observes; guards] ·loyal [faithfulness; truth] forever.
7 He does ·what is fair [justice] for those who have been ·wronged [oppressed; exploited].
He gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets the prisoners free.
8 The Lord ·gives sight to [opens the eyes of] the blind.
The Lord lifts up people who are ·in trouble [bowed down; 145:14].
The Lord loves ·those who do right [the righteous].
9 The Lord ·protects [guards] the ·foreigners [sojourners].
He ·defends [supports] the orphans and widows [C the socially vulnerable],
but he ·blocks [frustrates] the way of the wicked.
10 The Lord will ·be King [reign] forever [47:2; 93:1; 96:10; 97:1; 98:6; 99:1; Rev. 19:6].
·Jerusalem [L Zion; C the location of the Temple], your God is everlasting.
Praise the Lord!
6 While Naomi was in Moab, she heard that the Lord had ·come to help [L visited] his people and had given them food again. So she and her daughters-in-law ·got ready [L arose] to leave Moab and return home. 7 Naomi and her daughters-in-law left the place where they had lived and ·started back [set off on the road to return] to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back home, each of you to your own mother’s house. May the Lord ·be as kind [show mercy/lovingkindness] to you as you have been to me and ·my sons who are now dead [L with the dead]. 9 May the Lord give you ·another happy home and a new [L to find rest/security, each in the house of her] husband.”
When Naomi kissed the women good-bye, they ·began to cry out loud [L raised their voices and wept]. 10 They said to her, “No, we ·want to go [will return] with you to your people.”
11 But Naomi said, “My daughters, ·return to your own homes [L return]. Why ·do you want to [should you] go with me? ·I cannot give birth to more sons [L Do I have sons in my womb…?] to give you new husbands; 12 go back, my daughters, to your own homes. [L …because] I am too old to have another husband. Even if I told myself, ‘I still have hope’ and had another husband tonight, and even if I had more sons, 13 ·should [or would] you wait until they were grown into men [Deut. 25:5–10]? ·Should [or Would] you ·live for so many years without husbands [remain unmarried]? Don’t do that, my daughters. ·My life is much too sad for you to share [or It is more bitter for me than for you], because the Lord has been against me!”
14 The women ·cried together out loud [L raised their voices and wept] again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi good-bye, but Ruth ·held on [clung] to her tightly.
15 Naomi said to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and her own ·gods [or god; C Chemosh was the chief god of the Moabites; 1 Kin. 11:33]. Go back with her.”
Ruth Stays with Naomi
16 But Ruth said, “Don’t ·beg [urge] me to ·leave [abandon] you or to ·stop following [L turn back from] you. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 And where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord ·punish me terribly [L do to me and even more] if I do not keep this promise: ·Not even [or Nothing but] death will separate us.”
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth ·had firmly made up her mind [was resolved/determined] to go with her, she stopped ·arguing with [urging; talking to] her.
Jesus Will Come Again
3 ·My friends [L Beloved], this is [L now] the second letter I have written you [C the first is probably 1 Peter] to ·help your honest minds remember [L awaken/arouse your sincere understanding/intentions with a reminder]. 2 I want you to ·think about [remember; recall] the words the holy prophets spoke in the past, and remember the command our Lord and Savior gave us through your apostles [Jude 17]. 3 It is most important for you to understand what will happen in the last days. ·People [L Scoffers] will ·laugh at [scoff at; ridicule] you. They will ·live doing the evil things they want to do [indulge their own desires/lusts; Jude 18]. 4 [L And] They will say, “·Jesus promised to come again. Where is he [L Where is his promised coming]? [L For] Our ·fathers [ancestors] have ·died [L fallen asleep], but ·the world [L all things] continues the way it has been since ·it was made [it began with creation].” 5 But they ·do not want to remember [willfully forget/ignore] what happened long ago. By the word of God heaven ·was made [came to be; Gen. 1:3–20; Ps. 33:6; 148:5; Heb. 11:3], and the earth was made from water [Gen. 1:2; Ps. 24:2] and with water [Gen. 1:6–7, 9; Ps. 33:7; 136:6; Prov. 8:27–29]. 6 ·Then [L Through these; C either the water and the word of God, or the heavens and earth which poured forth their water; Gen. 7:11] the world was flooded and destroyed ·with water [L being deluged with water; Gen. 6—9]. 7 And that same word of God is ·keeping [reserving; holding in store] heaven and earth that we now have in order to be destroyed by fire [Deut. 32:22; Is. 66:15–16; Zeph. 1:18; Mal. 4:1]. They are being kept for the judgment day and the destruction of ·all who are against God [L the ungodly/impious people].
8 But do not forget [ignore; miss] this one thing, ·dear friends [L beloved]: To the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day [C our perception of time is not the same as God’s; Ps. 90:4]. 9 The Lord is not ·slow [or late] in doing what he promised—the way some people understand ·slowness [lateness; Hab. 2:3]. But God is being patient with you [Ex. 34:6]. He does not want anyone to ·be lost [perish], but he wants all people to ·change their hearts and lives [L come to repentance].
10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief [C with surprise and danger]. The ·skies [heavens] will ·disappear [pass away; Matt. 5:18; 24:35; Mark 13:31; Luke 16:17; 21:33] with a loud noise. ·Everything in them [L The elements; C either everything in the cosmos or specifically the heavenly bodies] will be ·destroyed [or dissolved] by ·fire [heat; burning], and the earth and ·everything in it [or all the deeds done on it] will be exposed.[a]
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