Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Naomi the Matchmaker

3 Naomi her mother-in-law said to her “My daughter, should I not be seeking a resting place for you, so it may go well for you? ² Now, is Boaz, with whose female workers you have been, not our relative? Look, he will be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ So bathe and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Let it be that when he lies down and you know the place where he lies down, go uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ Ruth answered her, “I will do everything you say.” ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had said.

⁷ After Boaz ate, drank, and was in a good mood, he went to lie down at the far side of the grain pile. So she came to the grain pile quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.

¹⁷ “But as the time drew near for the promise God had sworn to Abraham, the people increased and multiplied in Egypt— ¹⁸ until ‘there arose another king over Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph.’ ^{[a] 19} Dealing with our people with cruel cunning, this king mistreated our fathers and forced them to abandon their infants so they would not survive.

²⁰ “At this time Moses was born—extraordinary before God. For three months he was nurtured in his father’s house. ²¹ And when he was set outside, Pharaoh’s daughter took him and raised him as her own son. ²² Moses was educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and he was powerful in his words and deeds.

²³ “When he was approaching forty years of age, it came into his heart to visit his brothers, Bnei-Yisrael. ²⁴ When he saw one of them being treated unjustly, he went to the defense of the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. ²⁵ He was assuming that his brothers understood that by his hand God was delivering them, but they did not understand. ²⁶ So on the next day he appeared to them as they were fighting. He tried to reconcile them in shalom, saying, ‘Men, you are brothers. Why do you wrong one another?’

²⁷ “But the one doing wrong to his neighbor pushed him away, saying, ‘Who appointed you ruler and judge over us? ²⁸ You don’t want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday, do you?’ ^{[b] 29} At this remark, Moses fled and became an exile in the land of Midian, where he became the father of two sons.