One Year Bible.

Naomi Becomes a Widow

¹In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab. ²The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.

³Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons, ⁴who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.

And after they had lived in Moab about ten years, ⁵both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.

Ruth’s Loyalty to Naomi

⁶When Naomi heard in Moab that the LORD had attended to His people by providing them with food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab. ⁷Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah.

⁸Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the LORD show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. ⁹May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.”

And she kissed them as they wept aloud ¹⁰and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

¹¹But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? ¹²Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, ¹³would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has gone out against me.”

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

¹⁵“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

¹⁶But Ruth replied:

“Do not urge me to leave you

or to turn from following you.

For wherever you go, I will go,

and wherever you live, I will live;

your people will be my people,

and your God will be my God.

¹⁷Where you die, I will die,

and there I will be buried.

May the LORD punish me,

and ever so severely,

if anything but death

separates you and me.”

¹⁸When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

The Return to Bethlehem

¹⁹So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

²⁰“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. ²¹I went away full, but the LORD has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

²²So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Boaz Meets Ruth

¹Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a prominent man of noble character from the clan of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz.

²And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the fields and glean heads of grain after someone in whose sight I may find favor.”

“Go ahead, my daughter,” Naomi replied.

³So Ruth departed and went out into the field and gleaned after the harvesters. And she happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

⁴Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “The LORD be with you.”

“The LORD bless you,” they replied.

⁵And Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶The foreman answered, “She is the Moabitess who returned with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷She has said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the harvesters.’ So she came out and has continued from morning until now, except that she rested a short time in the shelter.”

⁸Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go and glean in another field, and do not go away from this place, but stay here close to my servant girls. ⁹Let your eyes be on the field they are harvesting, and follow along after these girls. Indeed, I have ordered the young men not to touch you. And when you are thirsty, go and drink from the jars the young men have filled.”

¹⁰At this, she fell on her face, bowing low to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you should take notice of me, even though I am a foreigner?”

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.”

¹³“My lord,” she said, “may I continue to find favor in your eyes, for you have comforted and spoken kindly to your maidservant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here; have some bread and dip it into the vinegar sauce.” So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he offered her roasted grain, and she ate and was satisfied and had some left over.

¹⁵When Ruth got up to glean, Boaz ordered his young men, “Even if she gathers among the sheaves, do not insult her. ¹⁶Rather, pull out for her some stalks from the bundles and leave them for her to gather. Do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. And when she beat out what she had gleaned, it was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸She picked up the grain and went into the town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. And she brought out what she had saved from her meal and gave it to Naomi.

¹⁹Then her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? Blessed be the man who noticed you.”

So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.

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.”

²¹Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He also told me, ‘Stay with my young men until they have finished gathering all my harvest.’”

²²And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “My daughter, it is good for you to work with his young women, so that nothing will happen to you in another field.”

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.

Prologue

¹In my first book, O Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach, ²until the day He was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles He had chosen. ³After His suffering, He presented Himself to them with many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a span of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God.

⁴And while they were gathered together, He commanded them: “Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift the Father promised, which you have heard Me discuss. ⁵For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.”

The Ascension

⁶So when they came together, they asked Him, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”

⁷Jesus replied, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by His own authority. ⁸But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

⁹After He had said this, they watched as He was taken up, and a cloud hid Him from their sight. ¹⁰They were looking intently into the sky as He was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. ¹¹“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”

Matthias Replaces Judas

¹²Then they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives, which is near the city, a Sabbath day’s journey away. ¹³When they arrived, they went to the upper room where they were staying: Peter and John, James and Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew, James son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. ¹⁴With one accord they all continued in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with His brothers.

¹⁵In those days Peter stood up among the brothers ( a gathering of about a hundred and twenty ) and said, ¹⁶“Brothers, the Scripture had to be fulfilled that the Holy Spirit foretold through the mouth of David concerning Judas, who became a guide for those who arrested Jesus. ¹⁷He was one of our number and shared in this ministry.”

¹⁸(Now with the reward for his wickedness Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong and burst open in the middle, and all his intestines spilled out. ¹⁹This became known to all who lived in Jerusalem, so they called that field in their own language Akeldama, that is, Field of Blood.)

²⁰“For it is written in the book of Psalms:

‘May his place be deserted;

let there be no one to dwell in it,’

and,

‘May another take his position.’

²¹Therefore it is necessary to choose one of the men who have accompanied us the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, ²²beginning from John’s baptism until the day Jesus was taken up from us. For one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

²³So they proposed two men: Joseph called Barsabbas (also known as Justus) and Matthias. ²⁴And they prayed, “Lord, You know everyone’s heart. Show us which of these two You have chosen ²⁵to take up this ministry and apostleship, which Judas abandoned to go to his rightful place.”

²⁶Then they cast lots, and the lot fell to Matthias. So he was added to the eleven apostles.