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, one that will be good for you. ² Now Boaz, whose young women you worked with, is our close relative.^[a] Tonight he will be working at the threshing floor. ³ Wash yourself, put on perfume, change your clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let him know you’re there until he has finished his dinner. ⁴ Watch him so you will know where he lies down to sleep. When he lies down, go 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 and did all her mother-in-law told her to do. ⁷ After his evening meal, Boaz felt good and went to sleep lying beside the pile of grain. Ruth went to him quietly and lifted the cover from his feet and lay down.

¹⁷ “The promise God made to Abraham was soon to come true, and the number of people in Egypt grew large. ¹⁸ Then a new king, who did not know who Joseph was, began to rule Egypt. ¹⁹ This king tricked our people and was cruel to our ancestors, forcing them to leave their babies outside to die. ²⁰ At this time Moses was born, and he was very beautiful. For three months Moses was cared for in his father’s house. ²¹ When they put Moses outside, the king’s daughter adopted him and raised him as if he were her own son. ²² The Egyptians taught Moses everything they knew, and he was a powerful man in what he said and did.

²³ “When Moses was about forty years old, he thought it would be good to visit his own people, the people of Israel. ²⁴ Moses saw an Egyptian mistreating one of his people, so he defended the Israelite and punished the Egyptian by killing him. ²⁵ Moses thought his own people would understand that God was using him to save them, but they did not. ²⁶ The next day when Moses saw two men of Israel 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 pushed Moses away and 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 and went to live in the land of Midian where he was a stranger. While Moses lived in Midian, he had two sons.