Ruth 1

¹⁰Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

¹Now there was another famine in the land, subsequent to the one that had occurred in Abraham’s time. And Isaac went to Abimelech king of the Philistines at Gerar.

¹³“Son of man, if a land sins against Me by acting unfaithfully, and I stretch out My hand against it to cut off its supply of food, to send famine upon it, and to cut off from it both man and beast,

²³The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

²⁴The Lord will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

¹Now Elisha had said to the woman whose son he had restored to life, “Arise, you and your household; go and live as a foreigner wherever you can. For the Lord has decreed that a seven-year famine will come to the land.”

²So the woman had proceeded to do as the man of God had instructed. And she and her household lived as foreigners for seven years in the land of the Philistines.

¹⁹I will break down your stubborn pride and make your sky like iron and your land like bronze,

¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).

²But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days of eternity.

²¹And Israel and the Philistines arrayed in formation against each other.

¹Now there was a man named Elkanah who was from Ramathaim-zophim in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

¹⁹Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him from them all.

⁶For the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastises every son He receives.”

¹Now the wife of one of the sons of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant, my husband, is dead, and you know that your servant feared the Lord. And now his creditor is coming to take my two children as his slaves!”

¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a short time as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, so that we may share in His holiness.

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

⁵Salmon was the father of Boaz by Rahab, Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, Obed the father of Jesse,

³Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,

³No Ammonite or Moabite or any of their descendants may enter the assembly of the Lord, even to the tenth generation.

¹King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women along with the daughter of Pharaoh—women of Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon, as well as Hittite women.

²These women were from the nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, for surely they will turn your hearts after their gods.” Yet Solomon clung to these women in love.

³⁹See now that I am He; there is no God besides Me. I bring death and I give life; I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.

³⁰If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,

³¹if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments,

²¹Then you will say in your heart, ‘Who has begotten these for me? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. So who has reared them? Look, I was left all alone, so where did they come from?’”

²⁵Now there were seven brothers among us. The first one married and died without having children. So he left his wife to his brother.

²⁶The same thing happened to the second and third brothers, down to the seventh.

¹⁹Your own evil will discipline you; your own apostasies will reprimand you. Consider and realize how evil and bitter it is for you to forsake the Lord your God and to have no fear of Me,” declares the Lord God of Hosts.

¹²As He approached the town gate, He saw a dead man being carried out, the only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a large crowd from the town was with her.

¹⁵I will bless her with abundant provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread.

⁵He provides food for those who fear Him; He remembers His covenant forever.

³¹and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

⁶⁸“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, because He has visited and redeemed His people.

¹¹Give us this day our daily bread.

¹⁶Go, assemble the elders of Israel and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—has appeared to me and said: I have surely attended to you and have seen what has been done to you in Egypt.

³At the end of seven years, when the woman returned from the land of the Philistines, she went to the king to appeal for her house and her land.

¹⁴Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

²⁷Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own land.

¹⁰and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by the Lord, who has not withdrawn His kindness from the living or the dead.” Naomi continued, “The man is a close relative. He is one of our kinsman-redeemers.”

⁵both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.

¹⁸Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

²⁴because you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as your reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

²“Honor your father and mother” (which is the first commandment with a promise),

³“that it may go well with you and that you may have a long life on the earth.”

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

¹⁶The people replied, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods!

¹One day Ruth’s mother-in-law Naomi said to her, “My daughter, should I not seek a resting place for you, that it may be well with you?

¹¹Then Jacob kissed Rachel and wept aloud.

³⁷They all wept openly as they embraced Paul and kissed him.

²⁷So he came near and kissed him. When Isaac smelled his clothing, he blessed him and said: “Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed.

¹⁵Joseph kissed each of his brothers as he wept over them. And afterward his brothers talked with him.

²³This is what the Lord of Hosts says: “In those days ten men from the nations of every tongue will tightly grasp the robe of a Jew, saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

⁶³I am a friend to all who fear You, and to those who keep Your precepts.

³As for the saints in the land, they are the excellence in whom all my delight resides.

⁵When brothers dwell together and one of them dies without a son, the widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband’s brother is to take her as his wife and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law for her.

¹¹Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house.

¹⁷Abraham fell facedown. Then he laughed and said to himself, “Can a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Can Sarah give birth at the age of ninety?”

⁹A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, faithful to her husband,

²¹Have pity on me, my friends, have pity, for the hand of God has struck me.

⁴For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was drained as in the summer heat. Selah

¹⁵Wherever Israel marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring calamity, just as He had sworn to them. So they were greatly distressed.

²For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me.

⁹I have become mute; I do not open my mouth because of what You have done.

¹⁰Remove Your scourge from me; I am perishing by the force of Your hand.

¹⁵Indeed, the Lord’s hand was against them, to eliminate them from the camp, until they had all perished.

²⁴A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who stays closer than a brother.

²⁴Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.

³⁷Anyone who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me;

²²When the young man heard this, he went away in sorrow, because he had great wealth.

³⁹But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.

⁶⁶From that time on many of His disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him.

⁶⁷So Jesus asked the Twelve, “Do you want to leave too?”

⁶and those who turn back from following the Lord, neither seeking the Lord nor inquiring of Him.”

²⁴Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the Lord our God has granted us.

⁵But those who turn to crooked ways the Lord will banish with the evildoers. Peace be upon Israel.

²and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

¹⁵But if it is unpleasing in your sight to serve the Lord, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you are living. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

³⁸But My righteous one will live by faith; and if he shrinks back, I will take no pleasure in him.”

²¹But Ittai answered the king, “As surely as the Lord lives, and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king may be, whether it means life or death, there will your servant be!”

¹¹Boaz replied, “I have been made fully aware of all you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you did not know before.

¹²May the Lord repay your work, and may you receive a rich reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have taken refuge.”

²and Elijah said to Elisha, “Please stay here, for the Lord has sent me on to Bethel.” But Elisha replied, “As surely as the Lord lives and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” So they went down to Bethel.

³Then the sons of the prophets at Bethel came out to Elisha and said, “Do you know that the Lord will take your master away from you today?” “Yes, I know,” he replied. “Do not speak of it.”

¹⁰Listen, O daughter! Consider and incline your ear: Forget your people and your father’s house,

¹⁹And one of the scribes came to Him and said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.”

³⁷“Lord,” said Peter, “why can’t I follow You now? I will lay down my life for You.”

¹⁷“What was the message He gave you?” Eli asked. “Do not hide it from me. May God punish you, and ever so severely, if you hide from me anything He said to you.”

¹³And say to Amasa, ‘Aren’t you my flesh and blood? May God punish me, and ever so severely, if from now on you are not the commander of my army in place of Joab!’”

³¹He announced, “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders through this day!”

²³Then King Solomon swore by the Lord: “May God punish me, and ever so severely, if Adonijah has not made this request at the expense of his life.

¹⁰Then Ben-hadad sent another message to Ahab: “May the gods deal with me, and ever so severely, if enough dust remains of Samaria for each of my men to have a handful.”

²²May God punish David, and ever so severely, if I let one male belonging to Nabal survive until morning.”

¹⁴When he would not be dissuaded, we quieted down and said, “The Lord’s will be done.”

⁴²They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.

¹⁰Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

¹⁰When Jesus had entered Jerusalem, the whole city was stirred and asked, “Who is this?”

¹⁵All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?”

⁷Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away?

⁴For the arrows of the Almighty have pierced me; my spirit drinks in their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me.

¹¹No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields a harvest of righteousness and peace to those who have been trained by it.

¹⁵From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.

¹³I composed myself until the morning. Like a lion He breaks all my bones; from day until night You make an end of me.

⁶then understand that it is God who has wronged me and drawn His net around me.

¹⁴For I am afflicted all day long and punished every morning.

⁷The Lord sends poverty and wealth; He humbles and He exalts.

⁸He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them among princes and bestows on them a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord’s, and upon them He has set the world.

²¹saying: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

⁸You have bound me, and it has become a witness; my frailty rises up and testifies against me.

²⁶For You record bitter accusations against me and bequeath to me the iniquities of my youth.

¹⁷You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.

²³So Ruth stayed close to the servant girls of Boaz to glean grain until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

⁹And he delivered them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the hill before the Lord. So all seven of them fell together; they were put to death in the first days of the harvest, at the beginning of the barley harvest.

³¹(Now the flax and barley were destroyed, since the barley was ripe and the flax was in bloom;

³²but the wheat and spelt were not destroyed, because they are late crops.)