Here’s a
readers’ theatre setting of Ruth 1: 1-18, the suggested Old Testament reading
for Proper 26 B (Ordinary 31 B). It is set for three voices.
Readers’ Theatre: Ruth
1:1-18
One: In the days
when the judges ruled in Israel,
a severe
famine came upon the land.
So a man
from Bethlehem in Judah left his home
and went to
live in the country of Moab,
taking his
wife and two sons with him.
The man’s
name was Elimelech, and his wife was Naomi.
Their two
sons were Mahlon and Kilion.
They were
Ephrathites from Bethlehem in the land of Judah.
And when
they reached Moab, they settled there.
Then
Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons.
The two
sons married Moabite women.
One married a woman named Orpah,
and the other a woman named Ruth.
But about ten years later, both Mahlon
and Kilion died.
This left Naomi alone, without her
two sons or her husband.
Then Naomi
heard in Moab
that the Lord had blessed
his people in Judah
by giving them good crops again.
So Naomi and her daughters-in-law
got ready to leave Moab
to return to her homeland.
With her
two daughters-in-law
she set out from the place where she
had been living,
and they took the road that would
lead them back to Judah.
But on the
way, Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law,
Two: Go back to your mothers’ homes.
And may the Lord reward you
for your kindness to your husbands
and to me.
May the Lord bless you with the security of another marriage.
One: Then she kissed them good-bye, and they all
broke down and wept.
Three: No, we want to go with you to your people.
Two: Why should you go on with me?
Can I still give birth to other sons
who could grow up to be your
husbands?
No, my
daughters, return to your parents’ homes,
for I am too old to marry again.
And even if it were possible,
and I were to get married tonight
and bear sons, then what?
Would you
wait for them to grow up
and refuse to marry someone else?
No, of course not, my daughters!
Things are far more bitter for me
than for you,
because the Lord himself
has raised his fist against me.”
One: And again they wept together,
and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law
good-bye.
But Ruth clung tightly to Naomi.
Two: Look, your sister-in-law has gone
back to her people and to her gods.
You should do the same.
Three: Don’t ask me to leave you and turn
back.
Wherever you go, I will go; wherever
you live, I will live.
Your people will be my people, and
your God will be my God.
Wherever
you die, I will die, and there I will be buried.
May the Lord punish me
severely
if I allow anything but death to
separate us!
One: When Naomi saw that Ruth was
determined to go with her,
she said nothing more.
