路得記2:14-23

2:14 到了吃飯的時候，波阿斯對路得說：「你到這裡來吃餅，將餅蘸在醋裡。」路得就在收割的人旁邊坐下；他們把烘了的穗子遞給她。她吃飽了，還有餘剩的。
2:15 她起來又拾取麥穗，波阿斯吩咐僕人說：「她就是在捆中拾取麥穗，也可以容她，不可羞辱她；
2:16 並要從捆裡抽出些來，留在地下任她拾取，不可叱嚇她。」
2:17 這樣，路得在田間拾取麥穗，直到晚上，將所拾取的打了，約有一伊法大麥。
2:18 她就把所拾取的帶進城去給婆婆看，又把她吃飽了所剩的給了婆婆。
2:19 婆婆問她說：「你今日在哪裡拾取麥穗，在哪裡做工呢？願那顧卹你的得福。」路得就告訴婆婆說：「我今日在一個名叫波阿斯的人那裡做工。」
2:20 拿俄米對兒婦說：「願那人蒙耶和華賜福，因為他不斷地恩待活人死人。」拿俄米又說：「那是我們本族的人，是一個至近的親屬。」
2:21 摩押女子路得說：「他對我說：『你要緊隨我的僕人拾取麥穗，直等他們收完了我的莊稼。』」
2:22 拿俄米對兒婦路得說：「女兒啊，你跟著他的使女出去，不叫人遇見你在別人田間，這才為好。」
2:23 於是路得與波阿斯的使女常在一處拾取麥穗，直到收完了大麥和小麥。路得仍與婆婆同住。

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here. Have some bread and dip it in the wine vinegar.”
When she sat down with the harvesters, he offered her some roasted grain. She ate all she wanted and had some left over. ¹⁵ As she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his men, “Let her gather among the sheaves and don’t reprimand her. ¹⁶ Even pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up, and don’t rebuke her.”
¹⁷ So Ruth gleaned in the field until evening. Then she threshed the barley she had gathered, and it amounted to about an ephah.^{[a] 18} She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also brought out and gave her what she had left over after she had eaten enough.
¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? Blessed be the man who took notice of you!”
Then Ruth told her mother-in-law about the one at whose place she had been working. “The name of the man I worked with today is Boaz,” she said.
²⁰ “The Lord bless him!” Naomi said to her daughter-in-law. “He has not stopped showing his kindness to the living and the dead.” She added, “That man is our close relative; he is one of our guardian-redeemers.^[b]”
²¹ Then Ruth the Moabite said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay with my workers until they finish harvesting all my grain.’”
²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It will be good for you, my daughter, to go with the women who work for him, because in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”
²³ So Ruth stayed close to the women of Boaz to glean until the barley and wheat harvests were finished. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

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    婆婆有意讓路得與波阿斯在一起，所以對她說：「女兒啊，你跟著他的使女出去，不叫人遇見你在別人田間，這才為好。」

    雖然是人的作為，也是上帝的心意。

路得記2章

        路得記2:1-13   ,     

        路得記2:14-23    , 路得記2:17-23    ,

 

 

路得記2:1-13

2:1 拿俄米的丈夫以利米勒的親族中，有一個人名叫波阿斯，是個大財主。
2:2 摩押女子路得對拿俄米說：「容我往田間去，我蒙誰的恩，就在誰的身後拾取麥穗。」拿俄米說：「女兒啊，你只管去。」
2:3 路得就去了，來到田間，在收割的人身後拾取麥穗。她恰巧到了以利米勒本族的人波阿斯那塊田裡。
2:4 波阿斯正從伯利恆來，對收割的人說：「願耶和華與你們同在！」他們回答說：「願耶和華賜福與你！」
2:5 波阿斯問監管收割的僕人說：「那是誰家的女子？」
2:6 監管收割的僕人回答說：「是那摩押女子，跟隨拿俄米從摩押地回來的。
2:7 她說：『請你容我跟著收割的人拾取打捆剩下的麥穗。』她從早晨直到如今，除了在屋子裡坐一會兒，常在這裡。」
2:8 波阿斯對路得說：「女兒啊，聽我說，不要往別人田裡拾取麥穗，也不要離開這裡，要常與我使女們在一處。
2:9 我的僕人在那塊田收割，你就跟著他們去。我已經吩咐僕人不可欺負你；你若渴了，就可以到器皿那裡喝僕人打來的水。」
2:10 路得就俯伏在地叩拜，對他說：「我既是外邦人，怎麼蒙你的恩，這樣顧卹我呢？」
2:11 波阿斯回答說：「自從你丈夫死後，凡你向婆婆所行的，並你離開父母和本地，到素不認識的民中，這些事人全都告訴我了。
2:12 願耶和華照你所行的賞賜你。你來投靠耶和華─以色列上帝的翅膀下，願你滿得他的賞賜。」
2:13 路得說：「我主啊，願在你眼前蒙恩。我雖然不及你的一個使女，你還用慈愛的話安慰我的心。」

Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side, a man of standing from the clan of Elimelek, whose name was Boaz.

² And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.”
Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So she went out, entered a field and began to glean behind the harvesters. As it turned out, she was working in a field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.
⁴ Just then Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “The Lord be with you!”
“The Lord bless you!” they answered.
⁵ Boaz asked the overseer of his harvesters, “Who does that young woman belong to?”
⁶ The overseer replied, “She is the Moabite who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.’ She came into the field and has remained here from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter.”
⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “My daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with the women who work for me. ⁹ Watch the field where the men are harvesting, and follow along after the women. I have told the men not to lay a hand on you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and get a drink from the water jars the men have filled.”
¹⁰ At this, she bowed down with her face to the ground. She asked him, “Why have I found such favor in your eyes that you notice me—a foreigner?”
¹¹ Boaz replied, “I’ve been told all about what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband—how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to live with a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord repay you for what you have done. May you be richly rewarded by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”
¹³ “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord,” she said. “You have put me at ease by speaking kindly to your servant—though I do not have the standing of one of your servants.”

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    故事的男主角波阿斯出現了，做這特別說他是大財主，表示他有很多田地。所以路得運氣很好，遇到了大老闆！而且這個大老闆很照顧她，因為她對婆婆的孝心傳開了，獲得這位大老闆的讚許。大老闆用祝福的話向她說：「願耶和華照你所行的賞賜你。你來投靠耶和華─以色列上帝的翅膀下，願你滿得他的賞賜。」

    然而路得也很懂得禮貌，很得體的回答他：「我主啊，願在你眼前蒙恩。我雖然不及你的一個使女，你還用慈愛的話安慰我的心。」

箴言17:10

一句責備話深入聰明人的心，強如責打愚昧人一百下。

A rebuke impresses a discerning person
    more than a hundred lashes a fool.

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    指責人也要看對象，不然會白努力又惹人厭，這不是因為我牧會過，求安全所以這樣說，這是《箴言》的作者說的！這是至理名言呢！

    但是這句話當然不可以從這角度說，要從受責備人的角度來想，你要做「聰明人」？還是「愚昧人」？

    既然如此，我們要留心接受別人的責備，以免到後來不可收拾責打一百下也無濟於事！

箴言17:8

賄賂在餽送的人眼中看為寶玉，隨處運動都得順利。

A bribe is seen as a charm by the one who gives it;
    they think success will come at every turn.

*************

    「賄賂」其實是對人心輕看，以為用財物就可以買通人心，這實在是低估人，也貶低人！有許多人是看不在眼裡，更是覺得受辱的感覺。所以，不一定行得通，尤其是現在，大家都唾棄賄選！

    不過正常的禮物往來，還是需要，因為人與人之間有時需要裡物來表達心意和禮貌，這也不為過。所以，也不要看成賄賂。不過好友之間，彼此相交，還是以情誼為重，沒什麼禮尚往來也無妨。

    當然對於餽贈物品，我們還是小心收受為妙，俗話說：「吃人嘴軟，收人手短」，不能不謹慎，以免禮物成為我們的網羅。

箴言17:7

愚頑人說美言本不相宜，何況君王說謊話呢？

Eloquent lips are unsuited to a godless fool—
    how much worse lying lips to a ruler!

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    說話和人品是要相稱的，所以在講話之前要先培養自己的性情。當然，對基督徒而言，我們不是靠自己的修養動作，而是認清自己是上帝兒女的身分，靠上帝話語的陶造，最後長成基督的樣式。當然上帝也會用各樣的處境來更新我們，用聖靈來使話語活化起來。

    然而我們是上帝的兒女，就如基督一般也有三重的職分在我們身上，其中一個就是君王。既然有君王的職分，說話更是要小心，要有幽默感，但是不可以有輕浮的戲言，說話要算話，要負責任的，更何況我們還要宣講上帝的話呢！豈可隨便呢！

    我們要如同保羅所說：「所以，弟兄們，我以上帝的慈悲勸你們，將身體獻上，當作活祭，是聖潔的，是上帝所喜悅的；你們如此事奉乃是理所當然的。不要傚法這個世界，只要心意更新而變化，叫你們察驗何為上帝的善良、純全、可喜悅的旨意。」（羅馬書12:1-2）

    我們的說話就是要榮耀上帝與造就人，因為我們也是「君王」！