Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Naomi’s Plan

3 Then Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, I must find a suitable home for you. That would be good for you. ² Now Boaz is our close relative.^[a] You worked with his women servants. Tonight he will be working at the threshing floor. ³ Go wash yourself and put on perfume. Change your clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let him see you until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Then he will lie down. Watch him so you will know the place where he lies down. Go there and lift the cover off his feet^[b] and lie down. He will tell you what you should do.”

⁵ Then Ruth answered, “I will do everything you say.”

⁶ So Ruth went down to the threshing floor. She did all her mother-in-law told her to do. ⁷ After eating and drinking, Boaz was feeling good. He went to lie down beside the pile of grain. Then Ruth went to him quietly. She lifted the cover from his feet and lay down.

¹⁷ “The number of people in Egypt grew large. There were more and more of our people there. (The promise that God made to Abraham was soon to come true.) ¹⁸ Then a new king began to rule Egypt. He did not know who Joseph was. ¹⁹ This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors. He forced them to put their babies outside to die. ²⁰ This was the time when Moses was born. He was a fine child. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter took him. She raised him as if he were her own son. ²² The Egyptians taught Moses all the things they knew. He was a powerful man in the things he said and did.

²³ “When Moses was about 40 years old, he thought it would be good to visit his brothers, the people of Israel. ²⁴ Moses saw an Egyptian doing wrong to a Jew. So he defended the Jew and punished the Egyptian for hurting him. Moses killed the Egyptian. ²⁵ Moses thought that his fellow Jews would understand that God was using him to save them. But they did not understand. ²⁶ The next day, Moses saw two Jewish men fighting. He tried to make peace between them. He said, ‘Men, you are brothers! Why are you hurting each other?’ ²⁷ The man who was hurting the other man pushed Moses away. He said, ‘Who made you our ruler and judge? ²⁸ Are you going to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’^{[a] 29} When Moses heard him say this, he left Egypt. He went to live in the land of Midian where he was a stranger. While Moses lived in Midian, he had two sons.