Ruth 3, 4, Acts 28, Jeremiah 39, Psalm 11, 12

Ruth 3, 4,

1 One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, should I not try to find a home for you, where you will be well provided for?
 
2 Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
 
3 Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
 
4 When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do."
 
5 "I will do whatever you say," Ruth answered.
 
6 So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
 
7 When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.
 
8 In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet.
 
9 "Who are you?" he asked. "I am your servant Ruth," she said. "Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer."
 
10 "The LORD bless you, my daughter," he replied. "This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
 
11 And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.
 
12 Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I.
 
13 Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie here until morning."
 
14 So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, "Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor."
 
15 He also said, "Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out." When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then he went back to town.
 
16 When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, "How did it go, my daughter?" Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her
 
17 and added, "He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, 'Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.' "
 
18 Then Naomi said, "Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today."
 

    
1 Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, "Come over here, my friend, and sit down." So he went over and sat down.
 
2 Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, "Sit here," and they did so.
 
3 Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, "Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
 
4 I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if you will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line." "I will redeem it," he said.
 
5 Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquire the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property."
 
6 At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, "Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it."
 
7 (Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
 
8 So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, "Buy it yourself." And he removed his sandal.
 
9 Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, "Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon.
 
10 I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!"
 
11 Then the elders and all those at the gate said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.
 
12 Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah."
 
13 So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
 
14 The women said to Naomi: "Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!
 
15 He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth."
 
16 Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.
 
17 The women living there said, "Naomi has a son." And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
 
18 This, then, is the family line of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron,
 
19 Hezron the father of Ram, Ram the father of Amminadab,
 
20 Amminadab the father of Nahshon, Nahshon the father of Salmon,
 
21 Salmon the father of Boaz, Boaz the father of Obed,
 
22 Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David.

Acts 28,

1 Once safely on shore, we found out that the island was called Malta.
 
2 The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold.
 
3 Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand.
 
4 When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, "This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, Justice has not allowed him to live."
 
5 But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.
 
6 The people expected him to swell up or suddenly fall dead, but after waiting a long time and seeing nothing unusual happen to him, they changed their minds and said he was a god.
 
7 There was an estate nearby that belonged to Publius, the chief official of the island. He welcomed us to his home and for three days entertained us hospitably.
 
8 His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.
 
9 When this had happened, the rest of the sick on the island came and were cured.
 
10 They honored us in many ways and when we were ready to sail, they furnished us with the supplies we needed.
 
11 After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island. It was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux.
 
12 We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.
 
13 From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli.
 
14 There we found some brothers who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome.
 
15 The brothers there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged.
 
16 When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.
 
17 Three days later he called together the leaders of the Jews. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: "My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans.
 
18 They examined me and wanted to release me, because I was not guilty of any crime deserving death.
 
19 But when the Jews objected, I was compelled to appeal to Caesar-not that I had any charge to bring against my own people.
 
20 For this reason I have asked to see you and talk with you. It is because of the hope of Israel that I am bound with this chain."
 
21 They replied, "We have not received any letters from Judea concerning you, and none of the brothers who have come from there has reported or said anything bad about you.
 
22 But we want to hear what your views are, for we know that people everywhere are talking against this sect."
 
23 They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day, and came in even larger numbers to the place where he was staying. From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
 
24 Some were convinced by what he said, but others would not believe.
 
25 They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: "The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your forefathers when he said through Isaiah the prophet:
 
26 " 'Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
 
27 For this people's heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.'
 
28 "Therefore I want you to know that God's salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!"
 
29 NONE
 
30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him.
 
31 Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
 

Jeremiah 39,

1 This is how Jerusalem was taken: In the ninth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the tenth month, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon marched against Jerusalem with his whole army and laid siege to it.
 
2 And on the ninth day of the fourth month of Zedekiah's eleventh year, the city wall was broken through.
 
3 Then all the officials of the king of Babylon came and took seats in the Middle Gate: Nergal-Sharezer of Samgar, Nebo-Sarsekim a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officials of the king of Babylon.
 
4 When Zedekiah king of Judah and all the soldiers saw them, they fled; they left the city at night by way of the king's garden, through the gate between the two walls, and headed toward the Arabah.
 
5 But the Babylonian army pursued them and overtook Zedekiah in the plains of Jericho. They captured him and took him to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon at Riblah in the land of Hamath, where he pronounced sentence on him.
 
6 There at Riblah the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes and also killed all the nobles of Judah.
 
7 Then he put out Zedekiah's eyes and bound him with bronze shackles to take him to Babylon.
 
8 The Babylonians set fire to the royal palace and the houses of the people and broke down the walls of Jerusalem.
 
9 Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard carried into exile to Babylon the people who remained in the city, along with those who had gone over to him, and the rest of the people.
 
10 But Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard left behind in the land of Judah some of the poor people, who owned nothing; and at that time he gave them vineyards and fields.
 
11 Now Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had given these orders about Jeremiah through Nebuzaradan commander of the imperial guard:
 
12 "Take him and look after him; don't harm him but do for him whatever he asks."
 
13 So Nebuzaradan the commander of the guard, Nebushazban a chief officer, Nergal-Sharezer a high official and all the other officers of the king of Babylon
 
14 sent and had Jeremiah taken out of the courtyard of the guard. They turned him over to Gedaliah son of Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, to take him back to his home. So he remained among his own people.
 
15 While Jeremiah had been confined in the courtyard of the guard, the word of the LORD came to him:
 
16 "Go and tell Ebed-Melech the Cushite, 'This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: I am about to fulfill my words against this city through disaster, not prosperity. At that time they will be fulfilled before your eyes.
 
17 But I will rescue you on that day, declares the LORD; you will not be handed over to those you fear.
 
18 I will save you; you will not fall by the sword but will escape with your life, because you trust in me, declares the LORD.' "
 

Psalm 11, 12

1 In the LORD I take refuge. How then can you say to me: "Flee like a bird to your mountain.
 
2 For look, the wicked bend their bows; they set their arrows against the strings to shoot from the shadows at the upright in heart.
 
3 When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?"
 
4 The LORD is in his holy temple; the LORD is on his heavenly throne. He observes the sons of men; his eyes examine them.
 
5 The LORD examines the righteous, but the wicked and those who love violence his soul hates.
 
6 On the wicked he will rain fiery coals and burning sulfur; a scorching wind will be their lot.
 
7 For the LORD is righteous, he loves justice; upright men will see his face.
 

1 Help, LORD, for the godly are no more; the faithful have vanished from among men.
 
2 Everyone lies to his neighbor; their flattering lips speak with deception.
 
3 May the LORD cut off all flattering lips and every boastful tongue
 
4 that says, "We will triumph with our tongues; we own our lips-who is our master?"
 
5 "Because of the oppression of the weak and the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the LORD. "I will protect them from those who malign them."
 
6 And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver refined in a furnace of clay, purified seven times.
 
7 O LORD, you will keep us safe and protect us from such people forever.
 
8 The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.