Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

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

⁶ who made the heavens and the earth, the sea and all that is therein; who keeps truth for ever:

⁷ He who does justice unto the oppressed; who gives bread to the hungry. The LORD looses the prisoners:

⁸ The LORD opens the eyes of the blind; the LORD raises those that are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous:

⁹ The LORD preserves the strangers; he raises up the fatherless and widow; but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.

¹⁰ The LORD shall reign for ever, even thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halelu-JAH.

⁶ ¶ Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, to return from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in the field of Moab how the LORD had visited his people to give them bread.

⁷ Therefore she went forth out of the place where she had been and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they went on the way to return unto the land of Judah.

⁸ And Naomi said unto her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each of you to thy mother’s house; the LORD deal with you in mercy as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.

⁹ The LORD grant you that ye may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband. Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and wept.

¹⁰ And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

¹¹ And Naomi replied, Go back, my daughters; why must ye go with me? Do I have more sons in my womb that they may be your husbands?

¹² Turn, my daughters, and go back, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I should say, I have hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons,

¹³ should ye tarry for them until they are grown? Should ye stay without husbands because of them? No, my daughters, for I have greater bitterness than you because the hand of the LORD has come out against me.

¹⁴ And they lifted up their voice and wept again, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth cleaved unto her.

¹⁵ And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods; return thou after thy sister-in-law.

¹⁶ And Ruth said, Do not intreat me to leave thee or to return from following after thee, for wherever thou goest, I will go; and wherever thou shalt lodge, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people and thy God my God.

¹⁷ Where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried; let the LORD do so unto me and let him give unto me that only death shall part thee and me.

¹⁸ When she saw that she was courageous to go with her, then she left off speaking to her.

3 ¶ Beloved, I now write unto you this second epistle, in which I alert with exhortation your pure understanding,

² that ye keep in memory the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of our commandment, that we are apostles of the Lord and Saviour,

³ ¶ knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts

⁴ and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For since the day in which the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

⁵ Of course, they willingly ignore that the heavens were created of old and the earth standing out of the water and in the water, by the word of God;

⁶ by which the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished;

⁷ but the heavens, which are now, and the earth are conserved by the same word, kept unto the fire in the day of judgment and of perdition of the ungodly men.

⁸ ¶ But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day before the Lord is as a thousand years, and a thousand years are as one day.

⁹ ¶ The Lord is not late concerning his promise, as some count lateness, but is patient with us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements, burning, shall be dissolved, and the earth and the works that are in it shall be burned up.