Monday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. By now Abraham was old and well along in years, and the LORD had blessed him in every way. 2Verse 2. So Abraham instructed the chief servant of his household, who managed all he owned, “Place your hand under my thigh, 3Verse 3. and I will have you swear by the LORD, the God of heaven and the God of earth, that you will not take a wife for my son from the daughters of the Canaanites among whom I am dwelling, 4Verse 4. but will go to my country and my kindred to take a wife for my son Isaac.” 5Verse 5. The servant asked him, “What if the woman is unwilling to follow me to this land? Shall I then take your son back to the land from which you came?” 6Verse 6. Abraham replied, “Make sure that you do not take my son back there. 7Verse 7. The LORD, the God of heaven, who brought me from my father’s house and my native land, who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give this land’— He will send His angel before you so that you can take a wife for my son from there. 8Verse 8. And if the woman is unwilling to follow you, then you are released from this oath of mine. Only do not take my son back there.” 9Verse 9. So the servant placed his hand under the thigh of his master Abraham and swore an oath to him concerning this matter. 10Verse 10. Then the servant took ten of his master’s camels and departed with all manner of good things from his master in hand. And he set out for Nahor’s hometown in Aram-naharaim.

1Verse 1. In 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. 2Verse 2. The 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. 3Verse 3. Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons, 4Verse 4. who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth. And after they had lived in Moab about ten years, 5Verse 5. both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband. 6Verse 6. When 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. 7Verse 7. Accompanied 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. 8Verse 8. Then 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. 9Verse 9. May the LORD enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.” And she kissed them as they wept aloud 10Verse 10. and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.” 11Verse 11. But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? 12Verse 12. Return 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, 13Verse 13. would 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.” 14Verse 14. Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her. 15Verse 15. “Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.” 16Verse 16. But 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. 17Verse 17. Where 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.” 18Verse 18. When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her. 19Verse 19. So 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?” 20Verse 20. “Do not call me Naomi, ” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. 21Verse 21. I 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.” 22Verse 22. So 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.