Ruth
Chapter:
1
2
3
4
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Ruth 1
1 Now it came to pass, in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the
land. And a certain man of Bethlehem, Judah, went to dwell in the land of Moab, he and
his wife and his two sons.
2 The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of
his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion; Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went to
the land of Moab and remained there.
3 Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons.
4 And they took wives of the women of Moab: the name of the one was Orpah, and the
name of the other Ruth. And they dwelt there about ten years.
5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died; so the woman survived her two children and
her husband.
6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law that she might return from the land of Moab,
for she had heard in the land of Moab that Jehovah had visited His people by giving them
bread.
7 Therefore she went out from the place where she was, and her two daughters-in-law
with her; and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.
8 And Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, Go, return each to her mother's house.
Jehovah deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.
9 Jehovah grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband. And she kissed
them, and they lifted up their voices and wept.
10 And they said to her, Surely we will return with you to your people.
11 And Naomi said, Turn back, my daughters; why will you go with me? Are there yet
sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?
12 Turn back, my daughters, go; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say I have
hope, if I should have a husband tonight and should also bear sons,
13 would you wait for them till they were grown? Would you restrain yourselves from
having husbands? No, my daughters; for it grieves me very much for your sakes that the
hand of Jehovah has gone out against me!
14 And they lifted up their voices and wept again; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law,
but Ruth clung to her.
15 And she said, Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods;
return after your sister-in-law.
16 But Ruth said: Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you;
for wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be
my people, and your God, my God.
17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. Jehovah do so to me, and more
also, if anything but death parts you and me.
18 When she saw that she was determined to go with her, she stopped speaking to her.
19 So the two of them went until they came to Bethlehem. And it happened, when they
had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was in a stir because of them; and they said, Is this
Naomi?
20 And she said to them, Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt
very bitterly with me.
21 I went out full, and Jehovah has brought me back home empty. Why do you call me
Naomi, since Jehovah has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?
22 Thus Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law with her, who
returned from the land of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley
harvest.
Ruth 2
1 Now Naomi had an acquaintance, a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of wealth
of the family of Elimelech. His name was Boaz.
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, Please let me go to the fields, and glean heads
of grain after him in whose eyes I may find favor. And she said to her, Go, my daughter.
3 And she went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And she happened to
come to the part of the fields belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
4 And behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, Jehovah be with
you! And they answered him, Jehovah bless you!
5 Then Boaz said to his servant who was appointed over the reapers, Whose young
woman is this?
6 And the servant who was appointed over the reapers answered and said, It is the young
Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab.
7 And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. So she
came and has continued from morning until now, though she sat a little in the house.
8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, You will listen, my daughter, will you not? Do not go to glean
in another field, nor go from here, but stay close by my young women.
9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Have I not
commanded the young men not to touch you? And when you are thirsty, go to the vessels
and drink from what the young men have drawn.
10 And she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, Why have I
found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?
11 And Boaz answered and said to her, It has been fully reported to me, all that you have
done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you have left your
father and your mother and the land of your birth, and have come to a people whom you
have not known before.
12 May Jehovah reward your work, and full wages be given you by Jehovah the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge.
13 And she said, Let me find favor in your eyes, my lord; for you have comforted me, and
have spoken to the heart of your maidservant, though I am not like one of your
maidservants.
14 And Boaz said to her at mealtime, Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your piece
of bread in the vinegar. So she sat beside the reapers, and he held out parched grain to
her; and she ate and was satisfied, and had some left over.
15 And when she rose up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her
glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.
16 Also let grain from the bundles fall purposely for her; leave it that she may glean, and
do not rebuke her.
17 So she gleaned in the field until evening, and beat out what she had gleaned, and it
was about an ephah of barley.
18 And she took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had
gleaned. And she brought out and gave to her what had been left over after she had been
satisfied.
19 And her mother-in-law said to her, Where have you gleaned today? And where have
you worked? Blessed is the one taking notice of you. So she told her mother-in-law with
whom she had worked, and said, The name of the man with whom I worked today is
Boaz.
20 And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed is he of Jehovah, who has not
forsaken His kindness to the living and the dead! And Naomi said to her, This man is next
of kin to us, a kinsman redeemer.
21 And Ruth the Moabitess said, He also said to me, You shall stay close by my young
men until they have finished all my harvest.
22 And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, It is good, my daughter, that you go out
with his young women, and that you not be fallen upon in another field.
23 So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz, to glean until the end of barley
harvest and wheat harvest; and she dwelt with her mother-in-law.
Ruth 3
1 Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, My daughter, shall I not seek a secure rest
for you, that it may be well with you?
2 Now Boaz, whose young women you were with, is he not our kinsman? Behold, he is
winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor.
3 Therefore wash yourself and anoint yourself, dress up and go down to the threshing
floor; but do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
4 And it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies; and you
shall go in, uncover his feet, and lie down; and he will tell you what you shall do.
5 And she said to her, All that you say to me I will do.
6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did according to all that her mother-in-law
had charged her.
7 And after Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was glad, he went to lie down at the
end of the heap of grain; and she came secretly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.
8 And it happened at midnight that the man was startled, and turned himself; and behold,
a woman was lying at his feet.
9 And he said, Who are you? So she answered, I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread
your skirt over your maidservant, for you are a kinsman redeemer.
10 And he said, Blessed are you of Jehovah, my daughter! For you have shown more
kindness at the end than at the beginning, in that you did not go after young men, whether
poor or rich.
11 And now, my daughter, do not fear. I will do for you all that you speak, for all the
people of my town know that you are a woman of strength.
12 Now it is true that I am a kinsman redeemer; however, there is a kinsman redeemer
closer than I.
13 Stay this night, and in the morning it shall be that if he will redeem you, good, let him
do it. But if he does not want to redeem you, then I will be your kinsman redeemer, as
Jehovah lives! Lie down until morning.
14 So she lay at his feet until morning, and she arose before one could recognize another.
And he said, Do not let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.
15 And he said, Bring the shawl that is on you and hold it. And when she held it, he
measured six ephahs of barley, and laid it on her. And she went into the city.
16 And when she came to her mother-in-law, she said, Is that you, my daughter? And she
told her all that the man had done for her.
17 And she said, These six ephahs of barley he gave me; for he said to me, Do not go
empty to your mother-in-law.
18 Then she said, Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for
the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day.
Ruth 4
1 And Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there; and behold, the kinsman redeemer
of whom Boaz had spoken came by. So he said, Ho there, you! Turn aside and sit down
here. So he came aside and sat down.
2 And he took ten men of the elders of the city, and said, Sit down here. And they sat
down.
3 And he said to the kinsman redeemer, Naomi, who has come back from the land of
Moab, has sold the piece of land which belonged to our brother Elimelech.
4 And I thought to uncover your ear to say, Buy it in the presence of the inhabitants and
the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then
tell me, that I may know; for there is no one but you to redeem it, and I am next after you.
And he said, I will redeem it.
5 Then Boaz said, On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must also
buy it from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on
his inheritance.
6 And the kinsman redeemer said, I cannot redeem it for myself, lest I ruin my own
inheritance. You redeem my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.
7 Now this was the custom in former times in Israel concerning redeeming and
exchanging, to establish anything: one man took off his sandal and gave it to the other, and
this was an attestation in Israel.
8 Therefore the kinsman redeemer said to Boaz, Buy it for yourself; and he drew off his
sandal.
9 And Boaz said to the elders and all the people, You are witnesses this day that I have
bought all that was Elimelech's, and all that was Chilion's and Mahlon's, from the hand of
Naomi.
10 Moreover, Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, I have acquired as my wife, to
raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut
off from among his brethren and from his position at the gate. You are witnesses this day.
11 And all the people who were at the gate, and the elders, said, We are witnesses.
Jehovah make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, the two
who built the house of Israel; and may you prosper in Ephrathah and be famous in
Bethlehem.
12 May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, because of
the seed which Jehovah shall give to you from this young woman.
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife; and when he went in to her, Jehovah
gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14 And the women said to Naomi, Blessed is Jehovah, who has not left you this day
without a kinsman redeemer; and may his name be famous in Israel!
15 And may he be to you a restorer of life and a nourisher of your old age; for your
daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.
16 And Naomi took the child and laid him on her bosom, and nursed him.
17 Also the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, There is a son born to Naomi. And
they called his name Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18 Now these are the generations of Perez: Perez begot Hezron;
19 Hezron begot Ram, and Ram begot Amminadab;
20 Amminadab begot Nahshon, and Nahshon begot Salmon;
21 Salmon begot Boaz, and Boaz begot Obed;
22 Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
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