Burnt offering VIII

Ruth

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men,

*****

How long will ye vex my soul,

and break me in pieces with words?

These ten times have ye reproached me:

ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me.

And be it indeed that I have erred, - mine error remaineth with myself.

If indeed ye will magnify yourselves against me,

and plead against me my reproach:

Know now that God hath overthrown me, and hath compassed me with his net.

Behold,

I cry out of wrong,

but I am not heard:

I cry aloud,

but there is no judgment.

He hath fenced up - my way that I cannot pass,

and he hath set darkness in my paths.

He hath stripped me of my glory,

and taken the crown from my head.

He hath destroyed me on every side,

and I am gone:

and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.

He hath also kindled his wrath against me,

and he counteth me unto him as one of his enemies.

His troops come together,

and raise up  their way against me,

and encamp round about my tabernacle.

He hath put my brethren - far from me,

and mine acquaintance are verily estranged from me.

My kinsfolk have failed,

and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

They that dwell in mine house,

and my maids, count me for a stranger:

I am an alien in their sight.

I called my servant, and he gave me no answer; I entreated him with my mouth.

My breath is strange to my wife,

though I entreated for the children=s sake of mine own body.

Yea,

young children despised me;

I arose,

and they spake against me.

All my inward friends abhorred me:

and they whom I loved are turned against me.

My bone cleaveth to my skin

and to my flesh,

and I am escaped with the skin of my teeth.

Have pity upon me,

have pity upon me,

O ye my friends;

for the hand of God hath touched me.

*****

Boaz commanded his young men,

saying,

Let her glean even among the sheaves,

and reproach her not:

***

Unto the woman he said,

I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception;

in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;

and thy desire shall be to thy husband,

and he shall rule over thee.

***

And in that day - seven women shall take hold of one man,

saying,

We will eat our own bread,

and wear our own apparel:

only let us be called by thy name,

to take away our reproach.

*****

And God said,

Let us make man in our image,

*

And Lamech took unto him two wives: the name of the one was Adah,

and the name of the other Zillah.

*

Thus the heavens and the earth were finished,

and all the host of them.

*

And Me- thu-s-elah lived an hundred eighty and seven years,

and begat Lamech:

*

Hear my voice;

ye wives of Lamech,

hearken unto my speech:

***

Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom;

give ear unto the law of our God,

ye people of Gomorrah.

**

To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me?

saith the Lord:

I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts;

and I delight not in the blood of bullocks,

or of lambs,

or of he goats.

*

This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth:

and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations.

For the Lord of hosts hath purposed,

and who shall disannul it?

and his hand is stretched out,

and who shall turn it back?

*****

Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:

And let fall also - some of the handfuls of purpose for her, and leave them, that she may glean them,

*****

And many people shall go and say, Come ye,

and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,

to the house of the God of Jacob;

and he will teach us of his ways,

and we will walk in his paths:

for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people:

and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,

and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

*****

and rebuke her not.

ISamuelX