Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

⁶ Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab; for she had heard in the country of Moab how Yahweh^[a] had visited his people in giving them bread. ⁷ She went out of the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law with her. They went on the way to return to the land of Judah. ⁸ Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to her mother’s house. May Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me. ⁹ May Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband.”

Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices, and wept. ¹⁰ They said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? ¹² Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons, ¹³ would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me seriously for your sakes, for Yahweh’s hand has gone out against me.”

¹⁴ They lifted up their voices and wept again; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth stayed with her. ¹⁵ She said, “Behold,^[b] your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.”

¹⁶ Ruth said, “Don’t urge me to leave you, and to return from following you, for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God^[c] my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.

3 This is now, beloved, the second letter that I have written to you; and in both of them I stir up your sincere mind by reminding you ² that you should remember the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Savior, ³ knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” ⁵ For they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God, ⁶ by which means the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished. ⁷ But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

⁸ But don’t forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. ⁹ The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some count slowness; but he is patient with us, not wishing that anyone 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 will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved with fervent heat; and the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up.