Knights of Columbus Beaver Valley Chapter Electronic Books

The New Jerusalem Bible with Apocrypha
RUTH

Ruth is not part of the deuteronomic history, but is a tale of family loyalty, probably written c. 800 bc, though possibly some centuries later. It is inserted here because the loyalty of Ruth, the foreigner, enables her to become the ancestress of David.

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Chapter 1

RUTH AND NAOMI

^1:1In the days when the Judges were governing, a famine occurred in the country and a certain man from Bethlehem of Judah went—he, his wife and his two sons—to live in the Plains of Moab. ²The man was called Elimelech, his wife Naomi and his two sons Mahlon and Chilion; ^{*[The names are chosen for their meanings: Mahlon = sickness, Chilion passing away.]} they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Going to the Plains of Moab, they settled there. ³Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died, and she and her two sons were left. ⁴These married Moabite women: one was called Orpah and the other Ruth. They lived there for about ten years. ⁵Mahlon and Chilion then both died too, and Naomi was thus bereft of her two sons and her husband. ⁶She then decided to come back from the Plains of Moab with her daughters–in–law, having heard in the Plains of Moab that God had visited his people and given them food. ⁷So, with her daughters–in–law, she left the place where she was living and they took the road back to Judah. ⁸Naomi said to her two daughters–in–law, ‘Go back, each of you to your mother’s house. ⁹May Yahweh show you faithful love, as you have done to those who have died and to me. Yahweh grant that you may each find happiness with a husband!’ She then kissed them, but they began weeping loudly, ¹⁰and said, ‘No, we shall go back with you to your people.’ ¹¹"Go home, daughters," Naomi replied. "Why come with me? Have I any more sons in my womb to make husbands."^{*[A dead husband’s nearest male relative must marry the childless widow and father heirs to his nam.] 12}Go home, daughters, go, for I am now too old to marry again. Even if I said, “I still have a hope: I shall take a husband this very night and shall bear more sons,” ¹³would you be prepared to wait for them until they were grown up? Would you refuse to marry for their sake? No, daughters, I am bitterly sorry for your sakes that the hand of Yahweh should have been raised against me.’ ¹⁴They started weeping loudly all over again; Orpah then kissed her mother–in–law and went back to her people. But Ruth stayed with her. ¹⁵Naomi then said, ‘Look, your sister–in–law has gone back to her people and to her god. Go home, too; follow your sister–in–law.’ ¹⁶But Ruth said, ‘Do not press me to leave you and to stop going with you, for wherever you go, I shall go, wherever you live, I shall live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷Where you die, I shall die and there I shall be buried. Let Yahweh bring unnameable ills. ^{*[The disasters are not named because mere mention might bring their effect.]} on me and worse ills, too, if anything but death should part me from you!’ ¹⁸Seeing that Ruth was determined to go with her, Naomi said no more. ¹⁹The two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival set the whole town astir, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’ ²⁰To this she replied, ‘Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, ^{*[Mara =the bitter one, Naomi =my sweetness.]} for Shaddai has made my lot bitter. ²¹I departed full, and Yahweh has brought me home empty. Why, then, call me Naomi, since Yahweh has pronounced against me and Shaddai has made me wretched?’ ²²This was how Naomi came home with her daughter–in–law, Ruth the Moabitess, on returning from the Plains of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

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Chapter 2

RUTH IN THE FIELDS OF BOAZ

^2:1Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, well–to–do and of Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz. ²Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.’ She replied, ‘Go, daughter.’ ³So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech’s clan. ⁴Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. ‘Yahweh be with you!’ he said to the reapers. ‘Yahweh bless you!’ they replied. ⁵Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’ ⁶And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, ‘The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab. ⁷She said, “Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.” Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.’ ⁸Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work–women. ⁹Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.’ ¹⁰Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, ‘How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?’ ¹¹Boaz replied, ‘I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother–in–law since your husband’s death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing. ¹²May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’ ¹³She said, ‘My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favour! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work–women.’ ¹⁴When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, ‘Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.’ Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over. ¹⁵When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work–people, ‘Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her. ¹⁶And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.’ ¹⁷So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley. ¹⁸Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother–in–law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her. ¹⁹Her mother–in–law said, ‘Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Ruth told her mother–in–law in whose field she had been working. ‘The name of the man with whom I have been working today’, she said, ‘is Boaz.’ ²⁰Naomi said to her daughter–in–law, ‘May he be blessed by Yahweh who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man’, Naomi added, ‘is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.’ ²¹Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother–in–law, ‘He also said, “Stay with my work–people until they have finished my whole harvest.” ’ ²²Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter–in–law, ‘It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work–women than to go to some other field where you might be ill–treated.’ ²³So she stayed with Boaz’s work–women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother–in –l.

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Chapter 3

BOAZ SLEEPS

^3:1Her mother–in–law Naomi then said, ‘Daughter, is it not my duty to see you happily settled? ²And Boaz, the man with whose work–women you were, is he not our kinsman? Tonight he will be winnowing the barley on the threshing–floor. ³So wash and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing–floor. Don’t let him recognise you while he is still eating and drinking. ⁴But when he lies down, take note where he lies, then go and turn back the covering at his feet and lie down yourself. He will tell you what to do.’ ⁵Ruth said, ‘I shall do everything you tell me.’ ⁶So she went down to the threshing–floor and did everything her mother–in–law had told her. ⁷When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he went off happily and lay down beside the pile of barley. Ruth then quietly went, turned back the covering at his feet and lay down. ⁸In the middle of the night, he woke up with a shock and looked about him; and there lying at his feet was a woman. ⁹‘Who are you?’ he said; and she replied, ‘I am your servant Ruth. Spread the skirt of your cloak over your servant for you have the right of redemption over me.’ ¹⁰‘May Yahweh bless you, daughter,’ he said, ‘for this second act of faithful love of yours is greater than the first, since you have not run after young men, poor or rich. ¹¹Don’t be afraid, daughter, I shall do everything you ask, since the people at the gate of my town all know that you are a woman of great worth. ¹²But, though it is true that I have the right of redemption over you, you have a kinsman closer than myself. ¹³Stay here for tonight and, in the morning, if he wishes to exercise his right over you, very well, let him redeem you. But if he does not wish to do so, then as Yahweh lives, I shall redeem you. Lie here till morning.’ ¹⁴So she lay at his feet till morning, but got up before the hour when one man can recognise another; and he thought, ‘It must not be known that this woman came to the threshing–floor.’ ¹⁵He then said, ‘Let me have the cloak you are wearing, hold it out!’ She held it out while he put six measures of barley into it and then loaded it on to her; and off she went to the town. ¹⁶When Ruth got home, her mother–in–law asked her, ‘How did things go with you, daughter?’ She then told her everything that the man had done for her. ¹⁷‘He gave me these six measures of barley and said, “You must not go home empty–handed to your mother–in–law.” ’ ¹⁸Naomi said, ‘Do nothing, daughter, until you see how things have gone; I am sure he will not rest until he has settled the matter this very day.’

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Chapter 4

BOAZ MARRIES RUTH

^4:1Boaz, meanwhile, had gone up to the gate and sat down, and the relative of whom he had spoken then came by. Boaz said to him, ‘Here, my friend, come and sit down’; the man came and sat down. ²Boaz then picked out ten of the town’s elders and said, ‘Sit down here’; they sat down. ³Boaz then said to the man who had the right of redemption, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the Plains of Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother, Elimelech. ⁴I thought I should tell you about this and say, “Acquire it in the presence of the men who are sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to use your right of redemption, redeem it; if you do not, tell me so that I know, for I am the only person to redeem it besides yourself, and I myself come after you.” ’ The man said, ‘I am willing to redeem it.’ ⁵Boaz then said, ‘The day you acquire the field from Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the man who has died, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance.’ ⁶The man with the right of redemption then said, ‘I cannot use my right of redemption without jeopardising my own inheritance. Since I cannot use my right of redemption, exercise the right yourself.’ ⁷Now, in former times, it was the custom in Israel to confirm a transaction in matters of redemption or inheritance by one of the parties taking off his sandal and giving it to the other. ^{*[A distortion of the legislation given in Dt 25:9 –10. To plant a sandal (or foot) on a field marks a claim to it. Here, taking off the sandal signifies renunciation of a claim.]} This was how agreements were ratified in Israel. ⁸So, when the man with the right of redemption said to Boaz, ‘Acquire it for yourself,’ he took off his sandal. ⁹Boaz then said to the elders and all the people there, ‘Today you are witnesses that from Naomi I acquire everything that used to belong to Elimelech, and everything that used to belong to Mahlon and Chilion ¹⁰and that I am also acquiring Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon’s widow, to be my wife, to perpetuate the dead man’s name in his inheritance, so that the dead man’s name will not be lost among his brothers and at the gate of his town. Today you are witnesses to this.’ ¹¹All the people at the gate said, ‘We are witnesses’; and the elders said, ‘May Yahweh make the woman about to enter your family like Rachel and Leah who together built up the House of Israel. Grow mighty in Ephrathah, be renowned in Bethlehem! ¹²And through the children Yahweh will give you by this young woman, may your family be like the family of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’ ¹³So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. And when they came together, Yahweh made her conceive and she bore a son. ¹⁴And the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be Yahweh who has not left you today without anyone to redeem you. May his name be praised in Israel! ¹⁵The child will be a comfort to you and the prop of your old age, for he has been born to the daughter–in–law who loves you and is more to you than seven sons.’ ¹⁶And Naomi, taking the child, held him to her breast; and she it was who looked after him. ¹⁷And the women of the neighbourhood gave him a name. ‘A son’, they said, ‘has been born to Naomi,’ and they called him Obed. This was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

THE GENEALOGY OF DAVID

¹⁸These are the descendants of Perez. Perez fathered Hezron, ¹⁹Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, ²⁰Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, ²¹Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, ²²Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

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