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Ruth Meets Boaz

2Now Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, a prominent rich man, of the family of Elimelech, whose name was Boaz. ²And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain, behind someone in whose sight I may find favour.’ She said to her, ‘Go, my daughter.’ ³So she went. She came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. As it happened, she came to the part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech. ⁴Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem. He said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you.’ They answered, ‘The Lord bless you.’ ⁵Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’ ⁶The servant who was in charge of the reapers answered, ‘She is the Moabite who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. ⁷She said, “Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.” So she came, and she has been on her feet from early this morning until now, without resting even for a moment.’^*

8 Then Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Now listen, my daughter, do not go to glean in another field or leave this one, but keep close to my young women. ⁹Keep your eyes on the field that is being reaped, and follow behind them. I have ordered the young men not to bother you. If you get thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.’ ¹⁰Then she fell prostrate, with her face to the ground, and said to him, ‘Why have I found favour in your sight, that you should take notice of me, when I am a foreigner?’ ¹¹But Boaz answered her, ‘All that you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband has been fully told me, and how you left your father and mother and your native land and came to a people that you did not know before. ¹²May the Lord reward you for your deeds, and may you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’ ¹³Then she said, ‘May I continue to find favour in your sight, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, even though I am not one of your servants.’

14 At mealtime Boaz said to her, ‘Come here, and eat some of this bread, and dip your morsel in the sour wine.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he heaped up for her some parched grain. She ate until she was satisfied, and she had some left over. ¹⁵When she got up to glean, Boaz instructed his young men, ‘Let her glean even among the standing sheaves, and do not reproach her. ¹⁶You must also pull out some handfuls for her from the bundles, and leave them for her to 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. ¹⁸She picked it up and came into the town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. Then she took out and gave her what was left over after she herself had been satisfied. ¹⁹Her mother-in-law said to her, ‘Where did you glean today? And where have you worked? Blessed be the man who took 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.’ ²⁰Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘Blessed be he by the Lord, whose kindness has not forsaken the living or the dead!’ Naomi also said to her, ‘The man is a relative of ours, one of our nearest kin.’^*

Psalm 84

1  How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts! ♦︎
   My soul has a desire and longing to enter the courts of the Lord;
      my heart and my flesh rejoice in the living God.
2  The sparrow has found her a house
      and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young: ♦︎
   at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.
3  Blessed are they who dwell in your house: ♦︎
   they will always be praising you.
4  Blessed are those whose strength is in you, ♦︎
   in whose heart are the highways to Zion,
5  Who going through the barren valley find there a spring, ♦︎
   and the early rains will clothe it with blessing.
6  They will go from strength to strength ♦︎
   and appear before God in Zion.
7  O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; ♦︎
   listen, O God of Jacob.
8  Behold our defender, O God, ♦︎
   and look upon the face of your anointed.
9  For one day in your courts ♦︎
   is better than a thousand.
10  I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God ♦︎
   than dwell in the tents of ungodliness.
11  For the Lord God is both sun and shield;
      he will give grace and glory; ♦︎
   no good thing shall the Lord withhold
      from those who walk with integrity.
12  O Lord God of hosts, ♦︎
   blessed are those who put their trust in you.

The Parable of the Sower

4 When a great crowd gathered and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable: ⁵‘A sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell on the path and was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. ⁶Some fell on the rock; and as it grew up, it withered for lack of moisture. ⁷Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it. ⁸Some fell into good soil, and when it grew, it produced a hundredfold.’ As he said this, he called out, ‘Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’

The Purpose of the Parables

9 Then his disciples asked him what this parable meant. ¹⁰He said, ‘To you it has been given to know the secrets^* of the kingdom of God; but to others I speak^* in parables, so that
“looking they may not perceive,
   and listening they may not understand.”

The Parable of the Sower Explained

11 ‘Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. ¹²The ones on the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. ¹³The ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe only for a while and in a time of testing fall away. ¹⁴As for what fell among the thorns, these are the ones who hear; but as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. ¹⁵But as for that in the good soil, these are the ones who, when they hear the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patient endurance.