Daily Readings for June 20
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Ruth 1

 

1.It happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons. 2.The name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites of Bethlehem Judah. They came into the country of Moab, and continued there. 3.Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left, and her two sons. 4.They took them wives of the women of Moab; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other Ruth: and they lived there about ten years. 5.Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband. 6.Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that Yahweh¹ had visited his people in giving them bread. 7.She went forth out of 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.Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house: Yahweh deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me. 9.Yahweh grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband."

Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept. 10.They said to her, "No, but we will return with you to your people."

11.Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands? 12.Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, 'I have hope,' if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons; 13.would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, for it grieves me much for your sakes, for the hand of Yahweh has gone out against me."

14.They lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth joined with her. 15.She said, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law."

16.Ruth said, "Don't entreat me to leave you, and to return from following after you, for where you go, I will go; and where you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God² my God; 17.where you die, will I die, and there will I be buried. Yahweh do so to me, and more also, if anything but death part you and me."

18.When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.

19.So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. It happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they asked, "Is this Naomi?"

20.She said to them, "Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara; for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. 21.I went out full, and Yahweh has brought me home again empty; why do you call me Naomi, since Yahweh has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?" 22.So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem in the beginning of barley harvest.

 

Ruth 2

 

1.Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name was Boaz. 2.Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor."

She said to her, "Go, my daughter." 3.She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

4.Behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem, and said to the reapers, "Yahweh be with you."

They answered him, "Yahweh bless you."

5.Then Boaz said to his servant who was set over the reapers, "Whose young lady is this?"

6.The servant who was set over the reapers answered, "It is the Moabite lady who came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab. 7.She said, 'Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.' So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she stayed a little in the house."

8.Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Don't go to glean in another field, and don't go from here, but stay here close to my maidens. 9.Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Haven't I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink from that which the young men have drawn."

10.Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?"

11.Boaz answered her, "It has fully been shown me, all that you have done to 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 that you didn't know before. 12.May Yahweh repay your work, and a full reward be given you from Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge."

13.Then she said, "Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your handmaid, though I am not as one of your handmaidens."

14.At meal time Boaz said to her, "Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar."

She sat beside the reapers, and they reached her parched grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left some of it. 15.When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and don't reproach her. 16.Also pull out some for her from the bundles, and leave it, and let her glean, and don't rebuke her."

17.So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah³ of barley. 18.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 that which she had left after she was sufficed.

19.Her mother-in-law said to her, "Where have you gleaned today? Where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you."

She showed her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz." 20.Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of Yahweh, who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead." Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen."

21.Ruth the Moabitess said, "Yes, he said to me, 'You shall stay close to my young men, until they have ended all my harvest.'"

22.Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field." 23.So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

 

Isaiah 44

 

1.Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. 2.This is what Yahweh who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: "Don't be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. 3.For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit on your seed, and my blessing on your offspring: 4.and they will spring up among the grass, as willows by the watercourses. 5.One will say, 'I am Yahweh's;' and another will be called by the name of Jacob; and another will write with his hand 'to Yahweh,' and honor the name of Israel."

6.This is what Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Yahweh of Armies, says: "I am the first, and I am the last; and besides me there is no God. 7.Who is like me? Who will call, and will declare it, and set it in order for me, since I established the ancient people? Let them declare the things that are coming, and that will happen. 8.Don't fear, neither be afraid. Haven't I declared it to you long ago, and shown it? You are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is not. I don't know any other Rock."

9.Everyone who makes an engraved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don't see, nor know, that they may be disappointed. 10.Who has fashioned a god, or molds an image that is profitable for nothing? 11.Behold, all his fellows will be disappointed; and the workmen are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up. They will fear. They will be put to shame together. 12.The blacksmith takes an axe, works in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with his strong arm. He is hungry, and his strength fails; he drinks no water, and is faint. 13.The carpenter stretches out a line. He marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes. He marks it out with compasses, and shapes it like the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to reside in a house. 14.He cuts down cedars for himself, and takes the cypress and the oak, and strengthens for himself one among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir tree, and the rain nourishes it. 15.Then it will be for a man to burn; and he takes some of it, and warms himself. Yes, he burns it, and bakes bread. Yes, he makes a god, and worships it; he makes it an engraved image, and falls down to it. 16.He burns part of it in the fire. With part of it, he eats meat. He roasts a roast, and is satisfied. Yes, he warms himself, and says, "Aha! I am warm. I have seen the fire." 17.The rest of it he makes into a god, even his engraved image. He bows down to it and worships, and prays to it, and says, "Deliver me; for you are my god!" 18.They don't know, neither do they consider: for he has shut their eyes, that they can't see; and their hearts, that they can't understand. 19.No one thinks, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, "I have burned part of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it. Shall I make the rest of it into an abomination? Shall I bow down to a tree trunk?" 20.He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside; and he can't deliver his soul, nor say, "Isn't there a lie in my right hand?" 21.Remember these things, Jacob and Israel; for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant. Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. 22.I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, your transgressions, and, as a cloud, your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

23.Sing, you heavens, for Yahweh has done it! Shout, you lower parts of the earth! Break out into singing, you mountains, O forest, all of your trees, for Yahweh has redeemed Jacob, and will glorify himself in Israel. 24.Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: "I am Yahweh, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself; 25.who frustrates the signs of the liars, and makes diviners mad; who turns wise men backward, and makes their knowledge foolish; 26.who confirms the word of his servant, and performs the counsel of his messengers; who says of Jerusalem, 'She will be inhabited;' and of the cities of Judah, 'They will be built,' and 'I will raise up its waste places;' 27.who says to the deep, 'Be dry,' and 'I will dry up your rivers;' 28.Who says of Cyrus, 'He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure,' even saying of Jerusalem, 'She will be built;' and of the temple, 'Your foundation will be laid.'"

 

Jude 1

 

1.Jude,¹ a servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and kept for Jesus Christ: 2.Mercy to you and peace and love be multiplied.

3.Beloved, while I was very eager to write to you about our common salvation, I was constrained to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. 4.For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

5.Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn't believe. 6.Angels who didn't keep their first domain, but deserted their own dwelling place, he has kept in everlasting bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day. 7.Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities around them, having, in the same way as these, given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire. 8.Yet in the same way, these also in their dreaming defile the flesh, despise authority, and slander celestial beings. 9.But Michael, the archangel, when contending with the devil and arguing about the body of Moses, dared not bring against him an abusive condemnation, but said, "May the Lord rebuke you!" 10.But these speak evil of whatever things they don't know. What they understand naturally, like the creatures without reason, they are destroyed in these things. 11.Woe to them! For they went in the way of Cain, and ran riotously in the error of Balaam for hire, and perished in Korah's rebellion. 12.These are hidden rocky reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you, shepherds who without fear feed themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn leaves without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots; 13.wild waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 14.About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, "Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, 15.to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the hard things which ungodly sinners have spoken against him." 16.These are murmurers and complainers, walking after their lusts (and their mouth speaks proud things), showing respect of persons to gain advantage.

17.But you, beloved, remember the words which have been spoken before by the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ. 18.They said to you that "In the last time there will be mockers, walking after their own ungodly lusts." 19.These are they who cause divisions, and are sensual, not having the Spirit. 20.But you, beloved, keep building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit. 21.Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. 22.On some have compassion, making a distinction, 23.and some save, snatching them out of the fire with fear, hating even the clothing stained by the flesh.

24.Now to him who is able to keep them² from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory in great joy, 25.to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

 

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