Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

1 And it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man went from Bethlehem-Judah, to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

² And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem-Judah. And they came into the country of Moab, and continued there.

³ And Elimelech Naomi's husband died; and she was left, and her two sons.

⁴ And they took them Moabitish wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the second Ruth: and they abode there about ten years.

⁵ And Mahlon and Chilion died also, both of them; and the woman was left of her two children and of her husband.

⁶ And she arose, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the fields of Moab; for she had heard in the fields of Moab how that Jehovah had visited his people to give them bread.

⁷ Wherefore 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 to the land of Judah.

⁸ And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house. Jehovah deal kindly with you, as ye have dealt with the dead and with me.

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

¹⁰ And they said to her, We will certainly return with thee to thy people.

¹¹ And Naomi said, Return, my daughters: why will ye go with me? Are there yet sons in my womb, that they could be your husbands?

¹² Return, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, I have hope, should I even have a husband to-night, and should I also bear sons,

¹³ would ye wait on that account till they were grown? Would ye stay on that account from having husbands? No, my daughters, for I am in much more bitterness than you; for the hand of Jehovah is gone out against me.

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

¹⁵ And she said, Behold, thy sister-in-law is gone back to her people and to her gods: return after thy sister-in-law.

¹⁶ And Ruth said, Do not intreat me to leave thee, to return from [following] after thee; for whither thou goest I will go, and where thou lodgest I will lodge: thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God;

¹⁷ where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more also, if aught but death part me and thee!

¹⁸ And when she saw that she was stedfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.

146 Hallelujah! Praise Jehovah, O my soul.

² As long as I live will I praise Jehovah; I will sing psalms unto my God while I have my being.

³ Put not confidence in nobles, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation.

⁴ His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his purposes perish.

⁵ Blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in Jehovah his God,

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

⁷ Who executeth judgment for the oppressed, who giveth bread to the hungry. Jehovah looseth the prisoners;

⁸ Jehovah openeth [the eyes of] the blind; Jehovah raiseth up them that are bowed down; Jehovah loveth the righteous;

⁹ Jehovah preserveth the strangers; he lifteth up the fatherless and the widow; but the way of the wicked doth he subvert.

¹⁰ Jehovah will reign for ever, [even] thy God, O Zion, from generation to generation. Halleluiah!

¹¹ But Christ being come high priest of the good things to come, by the better and more perfect tabernacle not made with hand, (that is, not of this creation,)

¹² nor by blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, has entered in once for all into the [holy of] holies, having found an eternal redemption.

¹³ For if the blood of goats and bulls, and a heifer's ashes sprinkling the defiled, sanctifies for the purity of the flesh,

¹⁴ how much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship [the] living God?

²⁸ And one of the scribes who had come up, and had heard them reasoning together, perceiving that he had answered them well, demanded of him, Which is [the] first commandment of all?

²⁹ And Jesus answered him, [The] first commandment of all [is], Hear, Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord;

³⁰ and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding, and with all thy strength. This is [the] first commandment.

³¹ And a second like it [is] this: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is not another commandment greater than these.

³² And the scribe said to him, Right, teacher; thou hast spoken according to [the] truth. For he is one, and there is none other besides him;

³³ and to love him with all the heart, and with all the intelligence, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love one's neighbour as one's self, is more than all the burnt-offerings and sacrifices.

³⁴ And Jesus, seeing that he had answered intelligently, said to him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God. And no one dared question him any more.