Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁵ Blessed is he who has the God of Jacob for his help; whose hope is in the LORD his God,

⁶ Who made Heaven and Earth, the sea, and all that therein is. Who keeps his fidelity forever.

⁷ Who executes justice for the oppressed, Who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD frees the prisoners.

⁸ The LORD gives sight to the blind. The LORD raises up the crooked. The LORD loves the righteous.

⁹ The LORD keeps the strangers. He relieves the fatherless and widow; but He overthrows the way of the wicked.

¹⁰ The LORD shall reign forever! O Zion, your God endures from generation to generation. Praise the LORD!

⁶ So she left the place where she was (and her two daughters-in-law with her) and they went on their way, to return to the land of Judah.

⁷ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in law, “Go. Each of you return to your own mother’s house. The LORD show favor to you, as you have done with the dead, and with me.

⁸ “The LORD grant you that you may find rest, either of you, in the house of her husband.” And when she kissed them, they lifted up their voices and wept.

⁹ And they said to her, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

¹⁰ But Naomi said, “Turn back my daughters. For what reason would you go with me? Are there any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

¹¹ “Turn back my daughters. Go your way. For I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ and if I had a husband this night (indeed, and if I had borne sons) would you wait for them until they were of age? Would you be deterred from the taking of husbands, for them?

¹² “No, my daughters. For it grieves me greatly for your sakes that the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”

¹³ Then they lifted up their voices and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law. But Ruth stayed with her.

¹⁴ And Naomi said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law.”

¹⁵ And Ruth answered, “Do not urge me to leave you, or to depart from you. For where you go, I will go. And where you dwell, I will dwell. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.

¹⁶ Where you die, I will die. And there I will be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death separates you and me.”

¹⁷ When she saw that she was steadfastly-minded to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.

¹⁸ So they both went, until they came to Bethlehem. And when they had come to Bethlehem, word spread throughout all the city. And they said, “Is not this Naomi?”

3 This second letter I now write to you, beloved (with which I stir up and warn your pure minds),

² to remind you of the words which were foretold by the holy Prophets; and of the Commandment by us, the Apostles of the Lord and Savior.

³ First, understand this: that in the last days there shall come mockers, who will walk after their lusts

⁴ and say, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the Fathers died, all things continue just as from the beginning of the creation.”

⁵ For of this they are willingly ignorant: that the heavens were of old; and the Earth—which was of the water and by the water—by the Word of God;

⁶ through which water the world that then existed perished, being flooded.

⁷ But the heavens and Earth which exist now are stored up by the same Word, and reserved for fire until the Day of Condemnation, and of the destruction of ungodly men.

⁸ Dearly beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing: that one day is as a thousand years with the Lord, and a thousand years as one day.

⁹ The Lord of that promise is not slow as some think of slowness; but is patient toward us, and would have no one perish, but have all come to repentance.

¹⁰ But the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, on which the heavens shall pass away with a great rushing noise and the elements shall melt with heat. And the Earth, with the works in it, shall be burnt up.