Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)
Elimelech’s Family in Moab
1 It came to pass in the days when judges were governing, there was a famine in the land. A man went from the town of Bethlehem[a] in Judah to dwell in the region of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the region of Moab and remained there.
3 Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women—one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth, and they dwelt there about ten years. 5 Then those two, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. So the woman was left without her children and her husband.
6 Then she got up, along with her daughters-in-law to return from the region of Moab, because in the region of Moab she had heard that Adonai had taken note of His people and given them food. 7 So she left the place where she was, along with her two daughters-in-law, and they started out on the road to return to the land of Judah.
8 So Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to your mother’s house. May Adonai show you the same kindness that you have shown to the dead and to me. 9 May Adonai grant that you find rest, each of you in the house of her own husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept loudly.
10 “No!” they said to her, “we will return with you to your people.”
11 Now Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Do I have more sons in my womb who could become your husbands? 12 Go home, my daughters! I am too old to have a husband. Even if I were to say that there was hope for me and I could get married tonight, and then bore sons, 13 would you wait for them to grow up? Would you therefore hold off getting married? No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you—for the hand of Adonai has gone out against me!”
14 Again they broke into loud weeping. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her. 15 She said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Return, along with your sister-in-law!”
Ruth’s Covenant With Naomi
16 Ruth replied,
“Do not plead with me to abandon you,
to turn back 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 my God.
17 Where you die, I will die,
and there I will be buried.
May Adonai deal with me, and worse,
if anything but death comes between me and you!”
18 When she saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she no longer spoke to Ruth about it.
Justice of the Kingdom
Psalm 146
1 Halleluyah! Praise Adonai, O my soul!
2 I will praise Adonai all my life.
I will praise my God yet again.
3 Do not put your trust in princes—
in man, in whom there is no salvation.
4 His breath departs,
he returns to his dust.
In that very day his plans perish.
5 Happy is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in Adonai his God,
6 who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps truth forever,
7 who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives bread to the hungry.
Adonai sets the prisoners free.
8 Adonai opens the eyes of the blind.[a]
Adonai raises up those who are bowed down.
Adonai loves the righteous.
9 Adonai protects outsiders,
upholds the fatherless and the widow,
but thwarts the way of the wicked.
10 Adonai will reign forever,
your God, O Zion, from generation to generation.
Halleluyah!
11 But when Messiah appeared as Kohen Gadol of the good things that have now come, passing through the greater and more perfect Tent not made with hands (that is to say not of this creation), 12 He entered into the Holies once for all—not by the blood of goats and calves but by His own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. 13 For if the blood of goats and bulls[a] and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled[b] sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, 14 how much more will the blood of Messiah—who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God—cleanse our[c] conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Love Ends the Argument
28 One of the Torah scholars came and heard them debating. Seeing that Yeshua had answered them well, he asked Him, “Which commandment is first of all?”
29 Yeshua answered, “The first is, ‘Shema Yisrael, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. 30 And you shall love Adonai your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ [a] 31 The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’[b] There is no other commandment greater than these.”
32 “Well said, Teacher,” the Torah scholar said to Him. “You have spoken the truth, that He is echad, and besides Him there is no other! [c] 33 And ‘to love Him with all the heart, with all the understanding, and with all the strength,’[d] and ‘to love the neighbor as oneself,’[e] is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”
34 When Yeshua saw that he had answered wisely, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared any longer to question Him.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.