Offerings of Tribal Princes

7 When Moses finished setting up the Tabernacle, he anointed and consecrated it and all its implements, the altar and all its utensils, and he anointed and consecrated them. ² Then the princes of Israel, heads of their ancestral houses—they were tribal princes in charge over those who were numbered—gave offerings. ³ They brought as their gift before Adonai six covered carts and twelve oxen. A cart came from every two princes and an ox from each one of them. They presented them before the Tabernacle.

⁴ Adonai spoke to Moses saying, ⁵ “Accept these from them to use in the service of the Tent of Meeting. Give them to the Levites to use as each man’s work requires.”

⁶ So Moses took the carts and the oxen and he gave them to the Levites. ⁷ He gave two carts and four oxen to the sons of Gershon, as their work required, ⁸ and four carts and eight oxen to the sons of Merari, as their work required, under the direction of Ithamar son of Aaron the kohen. ⁹ But to the sons of Kohath he did not give any because their responsibility was carrying the holy items on their shoulders.

¹⁰ When the altar was anointed, the princes brought their dedication offerings and presented them before Adonai. ¹¹ For Adonai had said to Moses, “Each day one of the princes is to bring his offering for the altar’s dedication.”

¹² Bringing his offering on the first day was Nahshon son of Amminadab, from the tribe of Judah. ¹³ His offering was one silver plate weighing 130 shekels, one silver basin weighing 70 shekels by the shekel of the Sanctuary, both of them filled with fine flour mixed with oil as a grain offering, ¹⁴ one ladle of 10 shekels of gold filled with incense, ¹⁵ one young bull from the herd, one ram, one male lamb a year old as a burnt offering, ¹⁶ one male goat as a sin offering, ¹⁷ and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs one year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nahshon son of Amminadab.

¹⁸ On the second day, Nethanel son of Zuar, prince of Issachar, brought his offering. ¹⁹ The offering he brought was one silver plate weighing 130 shekels, one silver basin weighing 70 shekels according to the shekel of the Sanctuary, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, ²⁰ one gold ladle of 10 shekels filled with incense, ²¹ one young bull, one ram and one male lamb one year old for a burnt offering, ²² one male goat for a sin offering, ²³ and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs one year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Nethanel son of Zuar.

²⁴ On the third day was the prince of the sons of Zebulun, Eliab son of Helon. ²⁵ His offering was one silver plate weighing 130 shekels, one silver basin weighing 70 shekels, both according to the shekel of the Sanctuary, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, ²⁶ one ladle of 10 shekels of gold filled with incense, ²⁷ one young bull, one ram and one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, ²⁸ one male goat for a sin offering, ²⁹ two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Eliab son of Helon.

³⁰ On the fourth day was the prince of the sons of Reuben, Elizur son of Shedeur. ³¹ His offering was one silver plate weighing 130 shekels, one silver basin weighing 70 shekels according to the shekel of the Sanctuary, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, ³² one ladle of 10 shekels of gold filled with incense, ³³ one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, ³⁴ one male goat for a sin offering, ³⁵ and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Elizur son of Shedeur.

³⁶ On the fifth day was the prince of the sons of Simeon, Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai. ³⁷ His offering was one silver plate weighing 130 shekels, one silver basin weighing 70 shekels according to the shekel of the Sanctuary, both filled with fine flour mixed with oil for a grain offering, ³⁸ one ladle of 10 shekels of gold filled with incense, ³⁹ one young bull, one ram, one male lamb a year old for a burnt offering, ⁴⁰ one male goat for a sin offering, ⁴¹ and two oxen, five rams, five male goats and five male lambs a year old to be sacrificed as a fellowship offering. This was the offering of Shelumiel son of Zurishaddai.

Elimelech’s Family in Moab

1 It came to pass in the days when judges were governing, there was a famine in the land. A man went from the town of Bethlehem^[a] in Judah to dwell in the region of Moab with his wife and his two sons. ² The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the region of Moab and remained there.

³ Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women—one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth, and they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵ Then those two, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. So the woman was left without her children and her husband.

⁶ Then she got up, along with her daughters-in-law to return from the region of Moab, because in the region of Moab she had heard that Adonai had taken note of His people and given them food. ⁷ So she left the place where she was, along with her two daughters-in-law, and they started out on the road to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ So Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to your mother’s house. May Adonai show you the same kindness that you have shown to the dead and to me. ⁹ May Adonai grant that you find rest, each of you in the house of her own husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept loudly.

¹⁰ “No!” they said to her, “we will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ Now Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Do I have more sons in my womb who could become your husbands? ¹² Go home, my daughters! I am too old to have a husband. Even if I were to say that there was hope for me and I could get married tonight, and then bore sons, ¹³ would you wait for them to grow up? Would you therefore hold off getting married? No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you—for the hand of Adonai has gone out against me!”

¹⁴ Again they broke into loud weeping. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵ She said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Return, along with your sister-in-law!”

Ruth’s Covenant With Naomi

¹⁶ Ruth replied,

¹⁸ When she saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she no longer spoke to Ruth about it.

¹⁹ So the two of them went on until they arrived in Bethlehem. As soon as they arrived in Bethlehem the whole city was excited because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰ “Do not call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara—since Shaddai has made my life bitter. ^{[b] 21} I went away full, but Adonai has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi, since Adonai has testified against me and Shaddai has brought calamity on me?”

²² So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess returned from the region of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Gleaning in Boaz’s Field

2 Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side—from Elimelech’s family—a prominent man of substance whose name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess, said to Naomi, “Please let me go out to the field and glean grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth went out and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. She just so happened to be in the field of Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

⁴ Soon after Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “Adonai be with you.”

They replied, “May Adonai bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ “She is a Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab,” the foreman replied. ⁷ “She asked ‘Please allow me to glean and gather among the barley sheaves behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has been working in the field since morning until now, except for a little while in the shelter.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field or even pass on from here, but stay close to my female workers. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that they are harvesting, and follow after them. I strongly ordered the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, you can go to the jars and drink from the water the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell upon her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you have noticed me, even though I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied and said to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me—how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May Adonai repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by Adonai, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ She said, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, even though I am not one of your maidservants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and eat some bread and dip your piece into the wine vinegar.” So she sat beside the harvesters and he held out to her roasted grain. She ate until she was full, and some was still left. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his workers saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, do not humiliate her. ¹⁶ Also be sure to pull out some grain for her from the sheaves and leave them for her to pick up, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. When she thrashed what she had gathered, there was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ She carried it back to town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth took some out and gave her what was left over after eating her fill.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the one who noticed you be blessed!”

She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and she said, “The name of the man for whom I worked is Boaz.”

²⁰ So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Adonai who has not stopped his kindness to the living or to the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is closely related to us, one of our kinsmen-redeemers.”^[c]

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close to my workers until they have finished the entire harvest.’”

²² Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter-in-law, that you go out with his female workers, so that you will not be harmed in another field.”

²³ So she stayed close to Boaz’s female workers, gleaning until both the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were completed. Meanwhile she lived with her mother-in-law.

Greetings

1 Paul, an emissary of Messiah Yeshua by God’s will, and Timothy our brother,

² To the kedoshim, the faithful brothers and sisters in Messiah, who are at Colossae:

Grace and shalom to you from God our Father!^[a]

Thanksgiving and Prayer

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, whenever we pray for you. ⁴ For we heard of your trust in Messiah Yeshua and the love you have for all the kedoshim ⁵ because of the hope stored up for you in heaven. You heard before about this hope in the true message of the Good News ⁶ that has come to you. In all the world this Good News is bearing fruit and growing,^[b] just as it has in you since you first heard it and came to truly know God’s grace. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras—our dearly loved fellow slave, who is a faithful servant of Messiah on our behalf. ⁸ He also made clear to us your love in the Ruach.

⁹ For this reason also, ever since we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We keep asking God that you might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding— ¹⁰ to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God. ¹¹ We pray that you may be strengthened with all the power that comes from His glorious might, for you to have all kinds of patience and steadfastness. With joy ¹² we give thanks to the Father, who qualified you to share in the inheritance of the kedoshim in the light. ¹³ He rescued us from the domain of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son whom He loves. ¹⁴ In Him we have redemption—the release of sins.

Ben-Elohim Is Supreme

²¹ Once you were alienated from God and hostile in your attitude by wicked deeds. ²² But now He has reconciled you in Messiah’s physical body through death, in order to present you holy, spotless and blameless in His eyes— ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, established and firm, not budging from the hope of the Good News that you have heard. This Good News has been proclaimed throughout all creation under heaven, and I, Paul, have become its servant.

The Mystery Revealed

²⁴ Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and in my physical body—for the sake of His body, Messiah’s community—I fill up what is lacking in the afflictions of Messiah. ²⁵ I became its servant according to God’s commission, given to me for you, in order to declare His message in full— ²⁶ the mystery that was hidden for ages and generations, but now has been revealed to His kedoshim. ²⁷ God chose to make known to them this glorious mystery regarding the Gentiles—which is Messiah in you, the hope of glory! ²⁸ We proclaim Him, warning and teaching everyone in all wisdom, so that we may present every person complete^[d] in Messiah. ²⁹ To this end I labor, striving with all His strength which is powerfully at work in me.