13So Boaz married Ruth; she became his wife, and he cohabited with her. The LORD let her conceive, and she bore a son. 14And the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the LORD, who has not withheld a redeemer from you today! May his name be perpetuated in Israel! 15He will renew your life and sustain your old age; for he is born of your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons.”
16Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom. She became its foster mother, 17and the women neighbors gave him a name, saying, “A son is born to Naomi!” They named him Obed; he was the father of Jesse, father of David.
18This is the line of Perez: Perez begot Hezron, 19Hezron begot Ram, Ram begot Amminadab, 20Amminadab begot Nahshon, Nahshon begot Salmon,f 21Salmon begot Boaz, Boaz begot Obed, 22Obed begot Jesse, and Jesse begot David.
a I.e., the leaders who arose in the period before the monarchy; others “judges.”
b-b A formula of imprecation.
c I.e., “Pleasantness.”
d I.e., “Bitterness.”
e Usually rendered “the Almighty.”
f-f Others “testified against.”
a-a Meaning of Heb. uncertain.
b-b Lit. “Have you not heard, daughter?”
c Cf. Lev. 25.25 and note and Deut. 25.5–6. The fact that Boaz was a kinsman of Ruth’s dead husband opened up the possibility of providing an heir for the latter.
a-a A formal act of espousal; cf. Ezek. 16.8.
b I.e., she sought out a kinsman of her dead husband; see note at 2.20 above. Her first act of loyalty had been to return with Naomi.
c-c Lit. “gate of my people.”
d So in many Heb. mss; most mss. read “he.”
a So many Heb. mss., Septuagint, and Targum; most mss. read “he.”
b-b Emendation yields “you must also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of the deceased”; cf. v. 10.
c I.e., by expending capital for property which will go to the son legally regarded as Mablon’s; see Deut. 25.5–6.
d Understanding Heb. te ‘udah in the sense of the Arabic ‘ādah and Syriac ‘yādā. Cf. Ibn Ezra.
e Ephrathah is another name applied to Bethlehem; cf. 1.2; Gen. 35.16, 19; 48.7; Mic. 5.1.
f Heb. “Salmah.”
Lamentations
1
aAlas!
Lonely sits the city
Once great with people!
She that was great among nations
Is become like a widow;
The princess among states
Is become a thrall.
2Bitterly she weeps in the night,
Her cheek wet with tears.
There is none to comfort her
Of all her friends.
All her allies have betrayed her;
They have become her foes.
3Judah has gone into exile
Because of misery and harsh oppression;
When she settled among the nations,
She found no rest;
All her pursuers overtook her
b-In the narrow places.-b
4Zion’s roads are in mourning,
Empty of festival pilgrims;
All her gates are deserted.
Her priests sigh,
Her maidens are unhappy—
She is utterly disconsolate!
5Her enemies are now the masters,
Her foes are at ease,
Because the LORD has afflicted her
For her many transgressions;
Her infants have gone into captivity
Before the enemy.
6Gone from Fair Zion are all
That were her glory;
Her leaders were like stags
That found no pasture;
They could only walk feebly
Before the pursuer.
7All the precious things she had
In the days of old
Jerusalem recalled
In her days of woe and sorrow,
When her people fell by enemy hands
With none to help her;
When enemies looked on and gloated
Over her downfall.
8Jerusalem has greatly sinned,
Therefore she is become a mockery.
All who admired her despise her,
For they have seen her disgraced;
And she can only sigh
And shrink back.
9Her uncleanness clings to her skirts.
She gave no thought to her future;
She has sunk appallingly,
With none to comfort her.—
See, O LORD, my misery;
How the enemy jeers!
10The foe has laid hands
On everything dear to her.
She has seen her Sanctuary
Invaded by nations
Which You have denied admission
Into Your community.
11All her inhabitants sigh
As they search for bread;
They have bartered their treasures for food,
To keep themselves alive.—
See, O LORD, and behold,
c-How abject-c I have become!
12b-May it never befall you,-b
All who pass along the road—
Look about and see:
Is there any agony like mine,
Which was dealt out to me
When the LORD afflicted me
On His day of wrath?
13From above He sent a fire
Down into my bones.
He spread a net for my feet,
He hurled me backward;
He has left me forlorn,
In constant misery.
14dThe yoke of my offenses is bound fast,
Lashed tight by His hand;
Imposed upon my neck,
It saps my strength;
The Lord has delivered me into the hands
Of those I cannot withstand.
15The Lord in my midst has rejected
All my heroes;
He has proclaimed a set time against me
To crush my young men.
As in a press the Lord has trodden
Fair Maiden Judah.
16For these things do I weep,
My eyes flow with tears:
Far from me is any comforter
Who might revive my spirit;
My children are forlorn,
For the foe has prevailed.
17Zion spreads out her hands,
She has no one to comfort her;
The LORD has summoned against Jacob
His enemies all about him;
Jerusalem has become among them
A thing unclean.
18The LORD is in the right,
For I have disobeyed Him.
Hear, all you peoples,
And behold my agony:
My maidens and my youths
Have gone into captivity!
19I cried out to my friends,
But they played me false.
My priests and my elders
Have perished in the city
As they searched for food
To keep themselves alive.
20See, O LORD, the distress I am in!
My heart is in anguish,
e-I know how wrong I was-e
To disobey.
Outside the sword deals death;
Indoors, the plague.
21When they heard how I was sighing,
There was none to comfort me;
All my foes heard of my plight and exulted.
For it is Your doing:
f-You have brought on the day that You threatened.
Oh, let them become like me!-f
22Let all their wrongdoing come before You,
And deal with them
As You have dealt with me
For all my transgressions.
For my sighs are many,
And my heart is sick.
2
Alas!
The Lord in His wrath
Has shameda Fair Zion,
Has cast down from heaven to earth
The majesty of Israel.
He did not remember His Footstoolb
On His day of wrath.
2The Lord has laid waste without pity
All the habitations of Jacob;
He has razed in His anger
Fair Judah’s strongholds.
He has brought low in dishonor
The kingdom and its leaders.
3In blazing anger He has cut down
All the might of Israel;
He has withdrawn His right hand
In the presence of the foe;
He has ravaged Jacob like flaming fire,
Consuming on all sides.
4He bent His bow like an enemy,
Poised His right hand like a foe;
He slew all who delighted the eye.
He poured out His wrath like fire
In the Tent of Fair Zion.
5The Lord has acted like a foe,
He has laid waste Israel,
Laid waste all her citadels,
Destroyed her strongholds.
He has increased within Fair Judah
Mourning and moaning.
6He has stripped His Boothb like a garden,
He has destroyed His Tabernacle;c
The LORD has ended in Zion
Festival and sabbath;
In His raging anger He has spurned
King and priest.
7The Lord has rejected His altar,
Disdained His Sanctuary.
He has handed over to the foe
The walls of its citadels;
They raised a shout in the House of the LORD
As on a festival day.
8The LORD resolved to destroy
The wall of Fair Zion;
d-He measured with a line,-d refrained not
From bringing destruction.
He has made wall and rampart to mourn,
Together they languish.
9Her gates have sunk into the ground,
He has smashed her bars to bits;
Her king and her leaders are e-in exile,-e
Instructionf is no more;
Her prophets, too, receive
No vision from the LORD.
10Silent sit on the ground
The elders of Fair Zion;
They have strewn dust on their heads
And girded themselves with sackcloth;
The maidens of Jerusalem have bowed
Their heads to the ground.
11My eyes are spent with tears,
My heart is in tumult,
g-My being melts away-g
Over the ruin of h-my poor people,-h
As babes and sucklings languish
In the squares of the city.
12They keep asking their mothers,
“Where is bread and wine?”
As they languish like battle-wounded
In the squares of the town,
As their life runs out
In their mothers’ bosoms.
13What can I i-take as witness-i or liken
To you, O Fair Jerusalem?
What can I match with you to console you,
O Fair Maiden Zion?
For your ruin is vast as the sea:
Who can heal you?
14Your seers prophesied to you
Delusion and folly.
They did not expose your iniquity
So as to restore your fortunes,
But prophesied to you oracles
Of delusion and deception.
15All who pass your way
Clap their hands at you;
They hiss and wag their head
At Fair Jerusalem:j
“Is this the city that was called
Perfect in Beauty,
Joy of All the Earth?”
16All your enemies
Jeer at you;
They hiss and gnash their teeth,
And cry: “We’ve ruined her!
Ah, this is the day we hoped for;
k-We have lived to see it!”-k
17The LORD has done what He purposed,
Has carried out the decree
That He ordained long ago;
He has torn down without pity.
He has let the foe rejoice over you,
Has exalted the might of your enemies.
18l-Their heart cried out-l to the Lord.
O wall of Fair Zion,
Shed tears like a torrent
Day and night!
Give yourself no respite,
Your eyes no rest.
19Arise, cry out in the night
At the beginning of the watches,
Pour out your heart like water
In the presence of the Lord!
Lift up your hands to Him
For the life of your infants,
Who faint for hunger
At every street corner,
20See, O LORD, and behold,
To whom You have done this!
Alas, women eat their own fruit,
Their new-bornm babes!
Alas, priest and prophet are slain
In the Sanctuary of the Lord!
21Prostrate in the streets lie
Both young and old.
My maidens and youths
Are fallen by the sword;
You slew them on Your day of wrath,
You slaughtered without pity.
22You summoned, as on a festival,
My neighbors from roundabout.
On the day of the wrath of the LORD,
None survived or escaped;
Those whom I borem and reared
My foe has consumed.
3
I am the man a-who has known affliction
Under-a the rod of His wrath;
2Me He drove on and on
In unrelieved darkness;
3On none but me He brings down His hand
Again and again, without cease.
4 He has worn away my flesh and skin;
He has shattered my bones.
5All around me He has built
Miseryb and hardship;
6He has made me dwell in darkness,
Like those long dead.
7He has walled me in and I cannot break out;
He has weighed me down with chains.
8And when I cry and plead,
He
