Thoughts and Reflection

Today we learn that Ruth marries the son of Naomi and Elimelech and has plans for a full life and family with him. Then he dies and she is in trouble. She doesn’t know if things will get better or not. She doesn’t lose her faithfulness to Naomi and her mother-in-law will be faithful to her. Ruth continues to work hard and Boaz protects her.

It is important to realize that hope takes a long time. To God, a thousand years is like a second. Even though it may seem like we walk alone, we don’t. God is always right by us.

Daily Readings

Judges 4

¹ Once Ehud was dead, the Israelites again began doing what is evil in Yahweh’s eyes,

² and Yahweh handed them over to Jabin king of Canaan, who reigned at Hazor. The commander of his army was Sisera, who lived in Haroshet-ha-Goiim.

³ The Israelites then cried to Yahweh; for Jabin had nine hundred iron chariots and had cruelly oppressed the Israelites for twenty years.

⁴ Deborah, a prophetess, wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at the time.

⁵ She used to sit under Deborah’s Palm between Ramah and Bethel in the highlands of Ephraim, and the Israelites would come to her for justice.

⁶ She sent for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, and said to him, ‘Has not Yahweh, God of Israel, commanded, “Go! March to Mount Tabor and with you take ten thousand of the sons of Naphtali and the sons of Zebulun.

⁷ I shall entice Sisera, the commander of Jabin’s army, to encounter you at the Torrent of Kishon with his chariots and troops; and I shall put him into your power”? ‘

⁸ Barak replied, ‘If you come with me, I shall go; if you will not come, I shall not go, for I do not know how to choose the day when the angel of Yahweh will grant me success.’

⁹ ‘I shall go with you then,’ she said, ‘but, the way you are going about it, the glory will not be yours; for Yahweh will deliver Sisera into the hands of a woman.’ Deborah then stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

¹⁰ Barak summoned Zebulun and Naphtali. Ten thousand men marched behind him, and Deborah went with him.

¹¹ Heber the Kenite had parted company with the tribe of Kain and with the sons of Hobab, father-in-law of Moses; he had pitched his tent near the Oak of Zaanannim, not far from Kedesh.

¹² Sisera was informed that Barak son of Abinoam had encamped on Mount Tabor.

¹³ Sisera summoned all his chariots — nine hundred iron chariots — and all the troops he had, from Harosheth-ha-Goiim to the Torrent of Kishon.

¹⁴ Deborah said to Barak, ‘Up! For today is the day when Yahweh has put Sisera into your power. Is not Yahweh marching at your head?’ And Barak charged down from Mount Tabor with ten thousand men behind him.

¹⁵ At Barak’s advance, Yahweh struck terror into Sisera, all his chariots and his entire army. Sisera leapt down from his chariot and fled on foot.

¹⁶ Barak pursued the chariots and the army as far as Harosheth-ha-Goiim. Sisera’s whole army fell by the edge of the sword; not one man was spared.

¹⁷ Sisera meanwhile fled on foot towards the tent of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite. For there was peace between Jabin king of Hazor and the family of Heber the Kenite.

¹⁸ Jael came out to meet Sisera and said to him, ‘Stay here, my lord, with me; do not be afraid!’ He stayed with her in her tent, and she covered him with a rug.

¹⁹ He said to her, ‘Please give me a little water to drink, for I am thirsty.’ She opened the skin of milk, gave him some to drink and covered him up again.

²⁰ Then he said to her, ‘Stand at the tent door, and if anyone comes and questions you — if he asks, “Is there a man here?” say, “No.” ‘

²¹ But Jael the wife of Heber took a tent-peg and picked up a mallet; she crept up softly to him and drove the peg into his temple rightthrough to the ground. He was lying fast asleep, worn out; and so he died.

²² And now Barak came up in pursuit of Sisera. Jael went out to meet him and said, ‘Come in, and I will show you the man you are looking for.’ He went into her tent; and there was Sisera dead, with the tent-peg through his temple.

²³ Thus God that day humbled Jabin king of Canaan before the Israelites.

²⁴ And the Israelites bore down more and more heavily on that king of Canaan, Jabin, until he was utterly destroyed.

Judges 5

¹ They sang a song that day, Deborah and Barak son of Abinoam, and the words were:

² That the warriors in Israel unbound their hair, that the people came forward with a will, bless Yahweh!

³ Listen, you kings! Give ear, you princes! From me, from me comes a song for Yahweh. I shall glorify Yahweh, God of Israel.

⁴ Yahweh, when you set out from Seir, when you marched from the field of Edom, the earth shook, the heavens pelted, the clouds pelted down water.

⁵ The mountains melted before Yahweh of Sinai, before Yahweh, God of Israel.

⁶ In the days of Shamgar son of Anath, in the days of Jael, there were no more caravans; those who went forth on their travels took their way along by-paths.

⁷ The villages in Israel were no more, they were no more until you arose, O Deborah, until you arose, mother of Israel!

⁸ They were choosing new gods when war was at the gates. Was there one shield, one spear to be found among the forty thousand men in Israel?

⁹ My heart is with the leaders of Israel, with the people who came forward with a will! Bless Yahweh!

¹⁰ You who ride white donkeys and sit on saddle-blankets as you ride, and you who go on foot,

¹¹ sing — to the sound of the shepherds at the watering places! There they extol Yahweh’s blessings, his saving acts for his villages in Israel! (Then Yahweh’s people marched down to the gates.)

¹² Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, declaim a song! Take heart, to your feet, Barak, capture your captors, son of Abinoam!

¹³ Then Israel marched down to the gates; like champions, Yahweh’s people marched down to fight for him!

¹⁴ The princes of Ephraim are in the valley. Behind you, Benjamin is in your ranks. Captains have come down from Machir, those who wield the commander’s staff, from Zebulun.

¹⁵ The princes of Issachar are with Deborah; Naphtali, with Barak, in the valley follows in hot pursuit. In the clans of Reuben there was much searching of heart.

¹⁶ Why did you stay among the sheepfolds, listening for the whistle, with the flocks? (In the clans of Reuben, there was much searching of heart.)

¹⁷ Gilead stayed on the other side of the Jordan, and why should Dan have stayed aboard ship? Asher remained beside the sea, peacefully living within his ports.

¹⁸ Zebulun is a people who have braved death, Naphtali too, on the high ground of the country.

¹⁹ The kings came and they fought, how they fought, those kings of Canaan, at Taanach, near the Waters of Megiddo, but no booty of silver did they take!

²⁰ The stars fought from heaven, from their orbits they fought against Sisera.

²¹ The torrent of Kishon swept them away, the torrent of old, the torrent of Kishon. -March on, be strong my soul!

²² The horses’ hooves then hammer the ground: galloping, galloping go his steeds.

²³ ‘Curse Meroz,’ said the Angel of Yahweh, ‘curse, curse the people living there for not having come to Yahweh’s help, to Yahweh’s help as warriors!’

²⁴ Most blessed of women be Jael (the wife of Heber the Kenite); of tent-dwelling women, may she be most blessed!

²⁵ He asked for water; she gave him milk; she offered him curds in a lordly dish.

²⁶ She reached her hand out to seize the peg, her right hand to seize the workman’s mallet. She hammered Sisera, she crushed his head, she pierced his temple and shattered it.

²⁷ Between her feet, he crumpled, he fell, he lay; at her feet, he crumpled, he fell. Where he crumpled, there he fell, destroyed.

²⁸ At the window, she leans and watches, Sisera’s mother, through the lattice, ‘Why is his chariot so long coming? Why so delayed the hoof-beats from his chariot?’

²⁹ The wisest of her ladies answers, and she to herself repeats,

³⁰ ‘Are they not collecting and sharing out the spoil: a girl, two girls for each warrior; a booty of coloured and embroidered stuff for Sisera, one scarf, two embroidered scarves for me!’

³¹ So perish all your enemies, Yahweh! And let those who love you be like the sun when he emerges in all his strength! And the country had peace for forty years.

Ruth 2

¹ Naomi had a kinsman on her husband’s side, well-to-do and of Elimelech’s clan. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go into the fields and glean ears of corn in the footsteps of some man who will look on me with favour.’ She replied, ‘Go, daughter.’

³ So she set out and went to glean in the fields behind the reapers. Chance led her to a plot of land belonging to Boaz of Elimelech’s clan.

⁴ Boaz, as it happened, had just come from Bethlehem. ‘Yahweh be with you!’ he said to the reapers. ‘Yahweh bless you!’ they replied.

⁵ Boaz said to a servant of his who was in charge of the reapers, ‘To whom does this young woman belong?’

⁶ And the servant in charge of the reapers replied, ‘The girl is the Moabitess, the one who came back with Naomi from the Plains of Moab.

⁷ She said, “Please let me glean and pick up what falls from the sheaves behind the reapers.” Thus she came, and here she stayed, with hardly a rest from morning until now.’

⁸ Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen to me, daughter. You must not go gleaning in any other field. You must not go away from here. Stay close to my work-women.

⁹ Keep your eyes on whatever part of the field they are reaping and follow behind. I have forbidden my men to molest you. And if you are thirsty, go to the pitchers and drink what the servants have drawn.’

¹⁰ Ruth fell on her face, prostrated herself and said, ‘How have I attracted your favour, for you to notice me, who am only a foreigner?’

¹¹ Boaz replied, ‘I have been told all about the way you have behaved to your mother-in-law since your husband’s death, and how you left your own father and mother and the land where you were born to come to a people of whom you previously knew nothing.

¹² May Yahweh repay you for what you have done, and may you be richly rewarded by Yahweh, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge!’

¹³ She said, ‘My lord, I hope you will always look on me with favour! You have comforted and encouraged me, though I am not even the equal of one of your work-women.’

¹⁴ When it was time to eat, Boaz said to her, ‘Come and eat some of this bread and dip your piece in the vinegar.’ Ruth sat down beside the reapers and Boaz made a heap of roasted grain for her; she ate till her hunger was satisfied, and she had some left over.

¹⁵ When she had got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his work-people, ‘Let her glean among the sheaves themselves. Do not molest her.

¹⁶ And be sure you pull a few ears of corn out of the bundles and drop them. Let her glean them, and do not scold her.’

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field till evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned and it came to about a bushel of barley.

¹⁸ Taking it with her, she went back to the town. Her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth also took out what she had kept after eating all she wanted, and gave that to her.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said, ‘Where have you been gleaning today? Where have you been working? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!’ Ruth told her mother-in-law in whose field she had been working. ‘The name of the man with whom I have been working today’ she said, ‘is Boaz.’

²⁰ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May he be blessed by Yahweh who does not withhold his faithful love from living or dead! This man’, Naomi added, ‘is a close relation of ours. He is one of those who have the right of redemption over us.’

²¹ Ruth the Moabitess said to her mother-in-law, ‘He also said, “Stay with my work-people until they have finished my whole harvest.” ‘

²² Naomi said to Ruth, her daughter-in-law, ‘It is better for you, daughter, to go with his work-women than to go to some other field where you might be ill-treated.’

²³ So she stayed with Boaz’s work-women, and gleaned until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she went on living with her mother-in-law.

Psalm 134

¹ [Song of Ascents] Come, bless Yahweh, all you who serve Yahweh, serving in the house of Yahweh, in the courts of the house of our God. Through the night watches

² stretch out your hands towards the sanctuary and bless Yahweh.

³ May Yahweh bless you from Zion, he who made heaven and earth!