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Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there,
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Elimelech died, and Naomi was left alone with her two sons,
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who married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. About ten years later
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Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons.
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Some time later Naomi heard that the LORD had blessed his people by giving them good crops; so she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law.
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They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way
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she said to them, "Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the LORD be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died.
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And may the LORD make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home." So Naomi kissed them good-bye. But they started crying
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and said to her, "No! We will go with you to your people."
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"You must go back, my daughters," Naomi answered. "Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry?
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Go back home, for I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons,
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would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that's impossible. The LORD has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you."
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Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home, but Ruth held on to her.
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So Naomi said to her, "Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go back home with her."
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But Ruth answered, "Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.
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Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the LORD's worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death separate me from you!"
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When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.
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They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, "Is this really Naomi?"
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"Don't call me Naomi," she answered; "call me Marah, because Almighty God has made my life bitter.
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When I left here, I had plenty, but the LORD has brought me back without a thing. Why call me Naomi when the LORD Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble?"
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This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning.
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Naomi had a relative named Boaz, a rich and influential man who belonged to the family of her husband Elimelech.
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One day Ruth said to Naomi, "Let me go to the fields to gather the grain that the harvest workers leave. I am sure to find someone who will let me work with him." Naomi answered, "Go ahead, daughter."
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So Ruth went out to the fields and walked behind the workers, picking up the heads of grain which they left. It so happened that she was in a field that belonged to Boaz.
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Some time later Boaz himself arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the workers. "The LORD be with you!" he said. "The LORD bless you!" they answered.
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Boaz asked the man in charge, "Who is that young woman?"
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The man answered, "She is the foreigner who came back from Moab with Naomi.
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She asked me to let her follow the workers and gather grain. She has been working since early morning and has just now stopped to rest for a while under the shelter."
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Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Let me give you some advice. Don't gather grain anywhere except in this field. Work with the women here;
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watch them to see where they are reaping and stay with them. I have ordered my men not to molest you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and drink from the water jars that they have filled."
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Ruth bowed down with her face touching the ground, and said to Boaz, "Why should you be so concerned about me? Why should you be so kind to a foreigner?"
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Boaz answered, "I have heard about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. I know how you left your father and mother and your own country and how you came to live among a people you had never known before.
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May the LORD reward you for what you have done. May you have a full reward from the LORD God of Israel, to whom you have come for protection!"
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Ruth answered, "You are very kind to me, sir. You have made me feel better by speaking gently to me, even though I am not the equal of one of your servants."
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At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, "Come and have a piece of bread, and dip it in the sauce." So she sat with the workers, and Boaz passed some roasted grain to her. She ate until she was satisfied, and she still had some food left over.
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After she had left to go and gather grain, Boaz ordered the workers, "Let her gather grain even where the bundles are lying, and don't say anything to stop her. Besides that, pull out some heads of grain from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up."
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So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening, and when she had beaten it out, she found she had nearly twenty-five pounds.
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She took the grain back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. She also gave her the food left over from the meal.
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Naomi asked her, "Where did you gather all this grain today? Whose field have you been working in? May God bless the man who took an interest in you!" So Ruth told Naomi that she had been working in a field belonging to a man named Boaz.
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"May the LORD bless Boaz!" Naomi exclaimed. "The LORD always keeps his promises to the living and the dead." And she went on, "That man is a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us."
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Then Ruth said, "Best of all, he told me to keep gathering grain with his workers until they finish the harvest."
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Naomi said to Ruth, "Yes, daughter, it will be better for you to work with the women in Boaz' field. You might be molested if you went to someone else's field."
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So Ruth worked with them and gathered grain until all the barley and wheat had been harvested. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.
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Fools say to themselves, "There is no God." They are all corrupt, and they have done terrible things; there is no one who does what is right.
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God looks down from heaven at people to see if there are any who are wise, any who worship him.
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But they have all turned away; they are all equally bad. Not one of them does what is right, not a single one.
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"Don't they know?" God asks. "Are these evildoers ignorant? They live by robbing my people, and they never pray to me."
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But then they will become terrified, as they have never been before, for God will scatter the bones of the enemies of his people. God has rejected them, and so Israel will totally defeat them.
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How I pray that victory will come to Israel from Zion. How happy the people of Israel will be when God makes them prosperous again!
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Hear my cry, O God; listen to my prayer!
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In despair and far from home I call to you! Take me to a safe refuge,
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for you are my protector, my strong defense against my enemies.
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Let me live in your sanctuary all my life; let me find safety under your wings.
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You have heard my promises, O God, and you have given me what belongs to those who honor you.
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Add many years to the king's life; let him live on and on!
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May he rule forever in your presence, O God; protect him with your constant love and faithfulness.
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So I will always sing praises to you, as I offer you daily what I have promised.
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For we know that when this tent we live in---our body here on earth---is torn down, God will have a house in heaven for us to live in, a home he himself has made, which will last forever.
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And now we sigh, so great is our desire that our home which comes from heaven should be put on over us;
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by being clothed with it we shall not be without a body.
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While we live in this earthly tent, we groan with a feeling of oppression; it is not that we want to get rid of our earthly body, but that we want to have the heavenly one put on over us, so that what is mortal will be transformed by life.
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God is the one who has prepared us for this change, and he gave us his Spirit as the guarantee of all that he has in store for us.
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So we are always full of courage. We know that as long as we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord's home.
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For our life is a matter of faith, not of sight.
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We are full of courage and would much prefer to leave our home in the body and be at home with the Lord.
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More than anything else, however, we want to please him, whether in our home here or there.
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For all of us must appear before Christ, to be judged by him. We will each receive what we deserve, according to everything we have done, good or bad, in our bodily life.
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We know what it means to fear the Lord, and so we try to persuade others. God knows us completely, and I hope that in your hearts you know me as well.
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We are not trying again to recommend ourselves to you; rather, we are trying to give you a good reason to be proud of us, so that you will be able to answer those who boast about people's appearance and not about their character.
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Are we really insane? It is for God's sake. Or are we sane? Then it is for your sake.
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We are ruled by the love of Christ, now that we recognize that one man died for everyone, which means that they all share in his death.
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He died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for him who died and was raised to life for their sake.
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No longer, then, do we judge anyone by human standards. Even if at one time we judged Christ according to human standards, we no longer do so.
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Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come.
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All this is done by God, who through Christ changed us from enemies into his friends and gave us the task of making others his friends also.
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Our message is that God was making all human beings his friends through Christ. God did not keep an account of their sins, and he has given us the message which tells how he makes them his friends.
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Here we are, then, speaking for Christ, as though God himself were making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ's behalf: let God change you from enemies into his friends!
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Christ was without sin, but for our sake God made him share our sin in order that in union with him we might share the righteousness of God.
