Ruth 1 - 2 - Legacy Standard Bible

Ruth 1 - 2

Naomi’s Husband and Sons Die

Now it happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. And a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to sojourn in the fields of Moab with his wife and his two sons. 2 The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi; and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem in Judah. Now they came to the fields of Moab and remained there. 3 Then Elimelech, Naomi’s husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. 4 They took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. And they lived there about ten years. 5 Then both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and the woman was left without her two children and her husband.

Ruth Is Determined to Go with Naomi

6 Then she arose with her daughters-in-law and returned from the fields of Moab, for she had heard in the fields of Moab that Yahweh had visited His people to give them food. 7 So she went forth 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 of you to her mother’s house. May Yahweh show lovingkindness with you as you have shown with the dead and with me. 9 May Yahweh grant that you may find rest, each in the house of her husband.” Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voices and wept. 10 And they said to her, “No, but we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Return, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Have I yet sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12 Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I should even have a husband tonight and also bear sons, 13 would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of Yahweh has gone forth 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 Then she said, “Behold, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said, “Do not press me to forsake you in turning back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where 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 I will be buried. Thus may Yahweh do to me, and more, if anything but death separates you and me.” 18 So she saw that she was determined to go with her, and she said no more to her. 19 Then they both went until they came to Bethlehem. Now it happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, all the city was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 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, but Yahweh has caused me to return empty. Why do you call me Naomi? Yahweh has answered against me, and the Almighty has brought calamity against me.” 22 So Naomi returned, and with her Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, who returned from the fields of Moab. Now they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth Gleans in Boaz’ Field

Now Naomi had a kinsman of her husband, a mighty man of excellence, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. 2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one whom I may find favor in his eyes.” And she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she went. And she came and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And it so happened that she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. 4 Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May Yahweh be with you.” And they said to him, “May Yahweh bless you.” 5 Then Boaz said to his young man who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young woman is this?” 6 The young man in charge of the reapers replied, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the fields of Moab. 7 And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.” 8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Have you not heard, my daughter? Do not go to glean in another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one, but stay here with my young women. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap, and go after them. Indeed, I have commanded the young men not to touch you. And if you are thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the young men draw.” 10 Then she fell on her face, bowing to the ground and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your sight that you should take notice of me, though I am a foreigner?” 11 Boaz replied to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband has been fully told to me, and how you forsook your father and your mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people that you did not previously know. 12 May Yahweh fully repay your work, and may your wages be full from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.” 13 Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and indeed have spoken to the heart of your servant-woman, though I am not like one of your servant-women.” 14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here, that you may eat of the bread and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.” So she sat beside the reapers; and he served her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left. 15 Then she rose to glean, and Boaz commanded his young men, saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not dishonor her. 16 Also you shall purposely pull out for her some grain from the bundles and leave it that she may glean, and do not rebuke her.” 17 So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley. 18 She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She also took it out and gave Naomi what she had left after she was satisfied. 19 Her mother-in-law then said to her, “Where did you glean today and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.” 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 Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of Yahweh who has not forsaken his lovingkindness to the living and to the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “The man is our relative; he is one of our kinsman redeemers.” 21 Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “Furthermore, he said to me, ‘You should stay close to my young men until they have finished all my harvest.’” 22 Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his young women, so that others do not oppress you in another field.” 23 So she stayed close by the young women of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

2 Timothy 3 - 4

Difficult Times Will Come

But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, without gentleness, without love for good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, but having denied its power. Keep away from such men as these. 6 For among them are those who enter into households and take captive weak women weighed down with sins, being led on by various desires, 7 always learning and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, disqualified in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their folly will be obvious to all, just as theirs was also. 10 But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. What persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 But you, continue in the things you learned and became convinced of, knowing from whom you learned them, 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Preach the Word

I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and teaching. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. 5 But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. 6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith. 8 In the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Personal Concerns

9 Be diligent to come to me soon, 10 for Demas, having loved this present age, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica; Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia. 11 Only Luke is with me. Pick up Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service. 12 But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come bring the cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus, and the scrolls, especially the parchments. 14 Alexander the coppersmith showed me much harm; the Lord will award him according to his deeds. 15 Be on guard against him yourself, for he vigorously opposed our words. 16 At my first defense no one supported me, but all deserted me. May it not be counted against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that through me the preaching might be fulfilled, and that all the Gentiles might hear. And I was rescued out of the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will save me unto His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen. 19 Greet Prisca and Aquila, and the household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, but Trophimus I left sick at Miletus. 21 Be diligent to come before winter. Eubulus greets you, also Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers. 22 The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with all of you.

Proverbs 5

Warning Against Adultery

My son, pay attention to my wisdom,

Incline your ear to my discernment;

That you may keep discretion

And that your lips may guard knowledge.

For the lips of a strange woman drip honey

And smoother than oil is her speech;

But her end is bitter as wormwood,

Sharp as a two‑edged sword.

Her feet go down to death,

Her steps take hold of Sheol,

Lest she watch the path of life;

Her tracks are unstable, she does not know it.

So now, my sons, listen to me

And do not turn away from the words of my mouth.

Keep your way far from her

And do not go near the door of her house,

Lest you give your splendor to others

And your years to the cruel one;

Lest strangers be satisfied by your strength

And by your painful labor, those in the house of a foreigner;

And you groan at your end,

When your flesh and your body are consumed;

And you say, “How I have hated discipline!

And my heart spurned reproof!

I have not listened to the voice of my instructors,

And I have not inclined my ear to my teachers!

I was almost in utter ruin

In the midst of the assembly and congregation.”

Drink water from your own cistern

And fresh water from your own well.

Should your springs be dispersed abroad,

Streams of water in the streets?

Let them be for you alone,

And not for strangers with you.

Let your fountain be blessed,

And be glad in the wife of your youth.

As a loving hind and a graceful doe,

Let her breasts satisfy you at all times;

Be intoxicated always with her love.

So why should you, my son, be intoxicated with a strange woman

And embrace the bosom of a foreign woman?

For the ways of a man are before the eyes of Yahweh,

And He watches all his tracks.

His own iniquities will capture him who is the wicked one,

And with the cords of his sin he will be held fast.

He will die for lack of discipline,

And in the abundance of his folly he will stumble in intoxication.