Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

2 Na‘omi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent and wealthy member of Elimelekh’s clan, whose name was Bo‘az. ² Rut the woman from Mo’av said to Na‘omi, “Let me go into the field and glean ears of grain behind anyone who will allow me to.” She answered her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ So she set out, arrived at the field and gleaned behind the reapers.

She happened to be in the part of the field that belonged to Bo‘az from Elimelekh’s clan, ⁴ when Bo‘az arrived from Beit-Lechem. He said to the reapers, “Adonai be with you”; and they answered him, “Adonai bless you.” ⁵ Then Bo‘az asked his servant supervising the reapers, “Whose girl is this?” ⁶ The servant supervising the reapers answered, “She’s a girl from Mo’av who returned with Na‘omi from the plain of Mo’av. ⁷ She said, ‘Please, let me glean and gather what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.’ So she went and has kept at it from morning until now, except for a little rest in the shelter.”

⁸ Bo‘az said to Rut, “Did you hear that, my daughter? Don’t go to glean in another field, don’t leave this place, but stick here with my working girls. ⁹ Keep your eyes on whichever field the reapers are working in, and follow the girls. I’ve ordered the young men not to bother you. Whenever you get thirsty, go and drink from the water jars the young men have filled.”

²¹ But now, quite apart from Torah, God’s way of making people righteous in his sight has been made clear — although the Torah and the Prophets give their witness to it as well — ²² and it is a righteousness that comes from God, through the faithfulness of Yeshua the Messiah, to all who continue trusting. For it makes no difference whether one is a Jew or a Gentile, ²³ since all have sinned and come short of earning God’s praise. ²⁴ By God’s grace, without earning it, all are granted the status of being considered righteous before him, through the act redeeming us from our enslavement to sin that was accomplished by the Messiah Yeshua. ²⁵ God put Yeshua forward as the kapparah for sin through his faithfulness in respect to his bloody sacrificial death. This vindicated God’s righteousness; because, in his forbearance, he had passed over [with neither punishment nor remission] the sins people had committed in the past; ²⁶ and it vindicates his righteousness in the present age by showing that he is righteous himself and is also the one who makes people righteous on the ground of Yeshua’s faithfulness.

²⁷ So what room is left for boasting? None at all! What kind of Torah excludes it? One that has to do with legalistic observance of rules? No, rather, a Torah that has to do with trusting. ²⁸ Therefore, we hold the view that a person comes to be considered righteous by God on the ground of trusting, which has nothing to do with legalistic observance of Torah commands.

²⁹ Or is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, he is indeed the God of the Gentiles; ³⁰ because, as you will admit, God is one.^[a] Therefore, he will consider righteous the circumcised on the ground of trusting and the uncircumcised through that same trusting. ³¹ Does it follow that we abolish Torah by this trusting? Heaven forbid! On the contrary, we confirm Torah.