Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Ruth and Boaz

3 One day, Naomi said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, I must find a home for you. There you will have everything that you need. ² You have worked with Boaz's women workers, and he is our relative. Tonight, he will be at the threshing floor where he prepares the barley seeds.^{[a] 3} So wash yourself carefully. Put some perfume on yourself. Put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor. Do not let Boaz know that you are there. Wait quietly until he has finished his food and drink. ⁴ After that, he will lie down to sleep. Then you will see where he is lying. Go and lift the cloth from over his feet. Lie down there. Then he will tell you what you should do.’

⁵ Ruth said, ‘I will do what you have said to me.’ ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor. She did everything that Naomi had told her to do.

⁷ Boaz felt very happy when he had finished his food and drink. He lay down next to the heap of barley seeds. Ruth went to him very quietly. She lifted the cloth that covered his feet. Then she lay down there.

¹⁷ Stephen then said, ‘After many years, the time arrived for God to make his promise to Abraham become true. By this time, Jacob's family who still lived in Egypt had become very many. ¹⁸ Now, a different king ruled Egypt. This new king did not know anything about Joseph and what he had done. ¹⁹ He was very cruel to our ancestors and he caused them to suffer. When new babies were born, he said that our people must put them out of their homes. He said that because he wanted the babies to die.

²⁰ It was at this time that Moses was born. He was a very beautiful baby. His parents took care of him for three months in their own home. ²¹ Then they had to put him outside. But Pharaoh's daughter found him and she took him to her home. She took care of him as if he was her own son.^{[a] 22} Moses had teachers who taught him all the wise things that the Egyptians knew. He learned how to speak well. He could also do powerful things.

²³ When Moses was 40 years old, he went to see his own people, the people of Israel. ²⁴ He saw that an Egyptian man was being cruel to one of the Israelite men. So he went to help the Israelite man. He killed the Egyptian man to punish him. ²⁵ Moses thought that his own people would understand him. They would know that God was using him to save them. They would no longer be slaves to work for the Egyptians. But his people did not understand all this. ²⁶ On the next day, Moses saw two Israelite men. They were fighting each other. He tried to make them become friends. He said to them, “Listen to me, men. You are both in the family of Israel. You should not hurt each other.”

²⁷ The man who was being cruel to the other man pushed Moses away. He said to Moses, “You have no authority to rule us. You are not our judge. ²⁸ I know that yesterday you killed an Egyptian man. So do you want to kill me too?”

²⁹ When Moses heard this, he decided to run away. He went to the land of Midian and he lived there. He married a wife and they had two sons.