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 youor 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 deathseparates 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 Almightyhas 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.

Job Presents His Case

¹Then Job answered:

²“Truly then you are the peoplewith whom wisdom itself will die!

³But I also have a mind;I am not inferior to you.Who does not know such things as these?

⁴I am a laughingstock to my friends,though I called on God, and He answered.The righteous and upright man is a laughingstock.

⁵The one at ease scorns misfortuneas the fate of those whose feet are slipping.

⁶The tents of robbers are safe,and those who provoke God are secure—those who carry their god in their hands.

⁷But ask the animals, and they will instruct you;ask the birds of the air, and they will tell you.

⁸Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;let the fish of the sea inform you.

⁹Which of all these does not knowthat the hand of the LORD has done this?

¹⁰The life of every living thing is in His hand,as well as the breath of all mankind.

¹¹Does not the ear test wordsas the tongue tastes its food?

¹²Wisdom is found with the elderly,and understanding comes with long life.

¹³Wisdom and strength belong to God;counsel and understanding are His.

¹⁴What He tears down cannot be rebuilt;the man He imprisons cannot be released.

¹⁵If He holds back the waters, they dry up,and if He releases them, they overwhelm the land.

¹⁶True wisdom and power belong to Him.The deceived and the deceiver are His.

¹⁷He leads counselors away barefootand makes fools of judges.

¹⁸He loosens the bonds placed by kingsand fastens a belt around their waists.

¹⁹He leads priests away barefootand overthrows the established.

²⁰He deprives the trusted of speechand takes away the discernment of elders.

²¹He pours out contempt on noblesand disarms the mighty.

²²He reveals the deep things of darknessand brings deep shadows into light.

²³He makes nations great and destroys them;He enlarges nations, then disperses them.

²⁴He deprives the earth’s leaders of reasonand makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

²⁵They grope in the darkness without light;He makes them stagger like drunkards.

Joseph’s Dreams

¹Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan.

²This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them.

³Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors.

⁴When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him.

⁵Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more.

⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had:

⁷We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.”

⁸“Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements.

⁹Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

¹⁰He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?”

¹¹And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said.

Joseph Sold into Egypt

¹²Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem.

¹³Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.”“I am ready,” Joseph replied.

¹⁴Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.”So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem,

¹⁵a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?”

¹⁶“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?”

¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

¹⁸Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him.

¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another.

²⁰“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!”

²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said.

²²“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father.

²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colors he was wearing—

²⁴and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it.

²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt.

²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood?

²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed.

²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silverto the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt.

²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes,

³⁰returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?”

Jacob Mourns Joseph

³¹Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

³²They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.”

³³His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!”

³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days.

³⁵All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him.

³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianitessold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

Thanksgiving for Deliverance

¹Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.

²Let the redeemed of the LORD say so,whom He has redeemed from the hand of the enemy

³and gathered from the lands,from east and west, from north and south.

⁴Some wandered in desert wastelands,finding no path to a city in which to dwell.

⁵They were hungry and thirsty;their soul fainted within them.

⁶Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,and He delivered them from their distress.

⁷He led them on a straight pathto reach a city where they could live.

⁸Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotionand His wonders to the sons of men.

⁹For He satisfies the thirstyand fills the hungry with good things.

¹⁰Some sat in darkness and in the shadow of death,prisoners in affliction and chains,

¹¹because they rebelled against the words of Godand despised the counsel of the Most High.

¹²He humbled their hearts with hard labor;they stumbled, and there was no one to help.

¹³Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,and He saved them from their distress.

¹⁴He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of deathand broke away their chains.

¹⁵Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotionand His wonders to the sons of men.

¹⁶For He has broken down the gates of bronzeand cut through the bars of iron.

¹⁷Fools, in their rebellious ways,and through their iniquities, suffered affliction.

¹⁸They loathed all foodand drew near to the gates of death.

¹⁹Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,and He saved them from their distress.

²⁰He sent forth His word and healed them;He rescued them from the Pit.

²¹Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotionand His wonders to the sons of men.

²²Let them offer sacrifices of thanksgivingand declare His works with rejoicing.

²³Others went out to sea in ships,conducting trade on the mighty waters.

²⁴They saw the works of the LORD,and His wonders in the deep.

²⁵For He spoke and raised a tempestthat lifted the waves of the sea.

²⁶They mounted up to the heavens, then sunk to the depths;their courage melted in their anguish.

²⁷They reeled and staggered like drunkards,and all their skill was useless.

²⁸Then they cried out to the LORD in their trouble,and He brought them out of their distress.

²⁹He calmed the storm to a whisper,and the waves of the seawere hushed.

³⁰They rejoiced in the silence,and He guided them to the harbor they desired.

³¹Let them give thanks to the LORD for His loving devotionand His wonders to the sons of men.

³²Let them exalt Him in the assembly of the peopleand praise Him in the council of the elders.

³³He turns rivers into deserts,springs of water into thirsty ground,

³⁴and fruitful land into fields of salt,because of the wickedness of its dwellers.

³⁵He turns a desert into pools of waterand a dry land into flowing springs.

³⁶He causes the hungry to settle there,that they may establish a city in which to dwell.

³⁷They sow fields and plant vineyardsthat yield a fruitful harvest.

³⁸He blesses them, and they multiply greatly;He does not let their herds diminish.

³⁹When they are decreased and humbledby oppression, evil, and sorrow,

⁴⁰He pours out contempt on the noblesand makes them wander in a trackless wasteland.

⁴¹But He lifts the needy from afflictionand increases their families like flocks.

⁴²The upright see and rejoice,and all iniquity shuts its mouth.

⁴³Let him who is wise pay heed to these thingsand consider the loving devotion of the LORD.