Bible in 90 Days

¹³ “All right,” they said, “we are only going to tie you up and hand you over to them. We won't kill you.” So they tied him up with two new ropes and brought him back from the cliff.

¹⁴ When he got to Lehi, the Philistines came running toward him, shouting at him. Suddenly the power of the Lord made him strong, and he broke the ropes around his arms and hands as if they were burnt thread. ¹⁵ Then he found a jawbone of a donkey that had recently died. He reached down and picked it up, and killed a thousand men with it. ¹⁶ So Samson sang,

¹⁷ After that, he threw the jawbone away. The place where this happened was named Ramath Lehi.^[b]

¹⁸ Then Samson became very thirsty, so he called to the Lord and said, “You gave me this great victory; am I now going to die of thirst and be captured by these heathen Philistines?” ¹⁹ Then God opened a hollow place in the ground there at Lehi, and water came out of it. Samson drank it and began to feel much better. So the spring was named Hakkore;^[c] it is still there at Lehi.

²⁰ Samson led Israel for twenty years while the Philistines ruled the land.

Samson at Gaza

16 One day Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza, where he met a prostitute and went to bed with her. ² The people of Gaza found out that Samson was there, so they surrounded the place and waited for him all night long at the city gate. They were quiet all night, thinking to themselves, “We'll wait until daybreak, and then we'll kill him.” ³ But Samson stayed in bed only until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the city gate and pulled it up—doors, posts, lock, and all. He put them on his shoulders and carried them far off to the top of the hill overlooking Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in Sorek Valley. ⁵ The five Philistine kings went to her and said, “Trick Samson into telling you why he is so strong and how we can overpower him, tie him up, and make him helpless. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me what makes you so strong. If someone wanted to tie you up and make you helpless, how could he do it?”

⁷ Samson answered, “If they tie me up with seven new bowstrings that are not dried out, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

⁸ So the Philistine kings brought Delilah seven new bowstrings that were not dried out, and she tied Samson up. ⁹ She had some men waiting in another room, so she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” But he snapped the bowstrings just as thread breaks when fire touches it. So they still did not know the secret of his strength.

¹⁰ Delilah told Samson, “Look, you've been making a fool of me and not telling me the truth. Please tell me how someone could tie you up.”

¹¹ He told her, “If they tie me with new ropes that have never been used, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

¹² So Delilah got some new ropes and tied him up. Then she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” The men were waiting in another room. But he snapped the ropes off his arms like thread.

¹³ Delilah said to Samson, “You're still making a fool of me and not telling me the truth. Tell me how someone could tie you up.”

He told her, “If you weave my seven locks of hair into a loom, and make it tight with a peg, I'll be as weak as anybody else.”

¹⁴ Delilah then lulled him to sleep, took his seven locks of hair, and wove them into the loom.^[d] She made it tight with a peg and shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” But he woke up and pulled his hair loose from the loom.

¹⁵ So she said to him, “How can you say you love me, when you don't mean it? You've made a fool of me three times, and you still haven't told me what makes you so strong.” ¹⁶ She kept on asking him, day after day. He got so sick and tired of her bothering him about it ¹⁷ that he finally told her the truth. “My hair has never been cut,” he said. “I have been dedicated to God as a nazirite^[e] from the time I was born. If my hair were cut, I would lose my strength and be as weak as anybody else.”

¹⁸ When Delilah realized that he had told her the truth, she sent a message to the Philistine kings and said, “Come back one more time. He has told me the truth.” Then they came and brought the money with them. ¹⁹ Delilah lulled Samson to sleep in her lap and then called a man, who cut off^[f] Samson's seven locks of hair. Then she began to torment him, for he had lost his strength. ²⁰ Then she shouted, “Samson! The Philistines are coming!” He woke up and thought, “I'll get loose and go free, as always.” He did not know that the Lord had left him. ²¹ The Philistines captured him and put his eyes out. They took him to Gaza, chained him with bronze chains, and put him to work grinding at the mill in the prison. ²² But his hair started growing back.

The Death of Samson

²³ The Philistine kings met together to celebrate and offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They sang, “Our god has given us victory over our enemy Samson!” ^24-25 They were enjoying themselves, and so they said, “Call Samson, and let's make him entertain us!”^[g] When they brought Samson out of the prison, they made him entertain them^[h] and made him stand between the columns. When the people saw him, they sang praise to their god: “Our god has given us victory over our enemy, who devastated our land and killed so many of us!” ²⁶ Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Let me touch the columns that hold up the building. I want to lean on them.” ²⁷ The building was crowded with men and women. All five Philistine kings were there, and there were about three thousand men and women on the roof, watching Samson entertain them.^[i]

²⁸ Then Samson prayed, “Sovereign Lord, please remember me; please, God, give me my strength just this one time more, so that with this one blow I can get even with the Philistines for putting out my two eyes.” ²⁹ So Samson took hold of the two middle columns holding up the building. Putting one hand on each column, he pushed against them ³⁰ and shouted, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his might, and the building fell down on the five kings and everyone else. Samson killed more people at his death than he had killed during his life.

³¹ His brothers and the rest of his family came down to get his body. They took him back and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. He had been Israel's leader for twenty years.

Micah's Idols

17 There was once a man named Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim. ² He told his mother, “When someone stole those eleven hundred pieces of silver from you, you put a curse on the robber. I heard you do it. Look, I have the money. I am the one who took it.”

His mother said, “May the Lord bless you, my son!” ³ He gave the money back to his mother, and she said, “To keep the curse from falling on my son, I myself am solemnly dedicating the silver to the Lord. It will be used to make a wooden idol covered with silver. So now I will give the pieces of silver back to you.” ⁴ Then he gave them back to his mother. She took two hundred of the pieces of silver and gave them to a metalworker, who made an idol, carving it from wood and covering it with the silver. It was placed in Micah's house.

⁵ This man Micah had his own place of worship. He made some idols and an ephod,^[j] and appointed one of his sons as his priest. ^6 (A)There was no king in Israel at that time; everyone did whatever they wanted.

⁷ At that same time there was a young Levite who had been living in the town of Bethlehem in Judah. ⁸ He left Bethlehem to find another place to live. While he was traveling, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim. ⁹ Micah asked him, “Where do you come from?”

He answered, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a place to live.”

¹⁰ Micah said, “Stay with me. Be my adviser and priest, and I will give you ten pieces of silver a year, some clothes, and your food.”^{[k] 11} The young Levite agreed to stay with Micah and became like a son to him. ¹² Micah appointed him as his priest, and he lived in Micah's home. ¹³ Micah said, “Now that I have a Levite as my priest, I know that the Lord will make things go well for me.”

Micah and the Tribe of Dan

18 There was no king in Israel at that time. In those days the tribe of Dan was looking for territory to claim and settle in because they had not yet received any land of their own among the tribes of Israel. ² So the people of Dan chose five qualified^[l] men out of all the families in the tribe and sent them from the towns of Zorah and Eshtaol with instructions to explore the land and spy on it. When they arrived in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah's house. ³ While they were there, they recognized the accent of the young Levite, so they went up to him and asked, “What are you doing here? Who brought you here?”

⁴ He answered, “I have an arrangement with Micah, who pays me to serve as his priest.”

⁵ They said to him, “Please ask God if we are going to be successful on our trip.”

⁶ The priest answered, “You have nothing to worry about. The Lord is taking care of you on this trip.”

⁷ So the five men left and went to the town of Laish. They saw how the people there lived in security like the Sidonians. They were a peaceful, quiet people, with no argument with anyone; they had all they needed.^[m] They lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with any other people. ⁸ When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, the people asked them what they had found out. ⁹ “Come on,” they replied. “Let's attack Laish. We saw the land, and it's very good. Don't stay here doing nothing; hurry! Go on in and take it over! ¹⁰ When you get there, you will find that the people don't suspect a thing. It is a big country; it has everything a person could want, and God has given it to you.”

¹¹ So six hundred men from the tribe of Dan left Zorah and Eshtaol, ready for battle. ¹² They went up and camped west of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place is still called Camp of Dan. ¹³ They went on from there and came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.

¹⁴ Then the five men who had gone to spy on the country around Laish said to their companions, “Did you know that here in one of these houses there is a wooden idol covered with silver? There are also other idols and an ephod. What do you think we should do?” ¹⁵ So they went into Micah's house, where the young Levite lived, and asked the Levite how he was getting along. ¹⁶ Meanwhile the six hundred Danite soldiers, ready for battle, were standing at the gate. ¹⁷ The five spies went straight on into the house and took the wooden idol covered with silver, the other idols, and the ephod, while the priest stayed at the gate with the six hundred armed men.

¹⁸ When the men went into Micah's house and took the sacred objects, the priest asked them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ They told him, “Keep quiet. Don't say a word. Come with us and be our priest and adviser. Wouldn't you rather be a priest for a whole Israelite tribe than for the family of one man?” ²⁰ This made the priest very happy, so he took the sacred objects and went along with them.

²¹ They turned around and started off, with their children, their livestock, and their belongings going ahead. ²² They had traveled a good distance from the house when Micah called his neighbors out for battle. They caught up with the Danites ²³ and shouted at them. The Danites turned around and asked Micah, “What's the matter? Why all this mob?”

²⁴ Micah answered, “What do you mean, ‘What's the matter?’ You take my priest and the gods that I made, and walk off What have I got left?”

²⁵ The Danites told him, “You had better not say anything else unless you want these men to get angry and attack you. You and your whole family would die.” ²⁶ Then the Danites went on. Micah saw that they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.

^27-28 After the Danites had taken the priest and the things that Micah had made, they went and attacked Laish, that town of peaceful, quiet people which was in the same valley as Bethrehob. They killed the inhabitants and burned the town. There was no one to save them, because Laish was a long way from Sidon, and they had no dealings with any other people. The Danites rebuilt the town and settled down there. ²⁹ They changed its name from Laish to Dan, after their ancestor Dan, the son of Jacob. ³⁰ The Danites set up the idol to be worshiped, and Jonathan, the son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, served as a priest for the Danites, and his descendants served as their priests until the people were taken away into exile. ³¹ Micah's idol remained there as long as the Tent where God was worshiped remained at Shiloh.

The Levite and His Concubine

19 In those days before Israel had a king, there was a Levite living far back in the hill country of Ephraim. He took a young woman from Bethlehem in Judah to be his concubine. ² But she became angry with him, went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, and stayed there four months. ³ Then the man decided to go after her and try to persuade her to return to him. He took his servant and two donkeys with him. The woman showed the Levite into the house, and when her father saw him, he gave him a hearty greeting. ⁴ The father insisted that he stay, and so he stayed for three days. The couple had their meals and spent the nights there. ⁵ On the morning of the fourth day they woke up early and got ready to go. But the woman's father said to the Levite, “Have something to eat first. You'll feel better. You can go later.”

⁶ So the two men sat down and ate and drank together. Then the woman's father told him, “Please spend the night and enjoy yourself.”

⁷ The Levite got up to go, but the father urged him to stay, so he spent another night there. ⁸ Early in the morning of the fifth day he started to leave, but the woman's father said, “Eat something, please. Wait until later in the day.” So the two men ate together.

⁹ When the man, his concubine, and the servant once more started to leave, the father said, “Look, it's almost evening now; you might as well stay all night. It will be dark soon; stay here and have a good time. Tomorrow you can get up early for the trip and go home.”

^10-11 But the man did not want to spend another night there, so he and his concubine started on their way, with their servant and two donkeys with pack saddles. It was late in the day when they came near Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), so the servant said to his master, “Why don't we stop and spend the night here in this Jebusite city?”

^12-13 But his master said, “We're not going to stop in a city where the people are not Israelites. We'll pass on by and go a little farther and spend the night at Gibeah or Ramah.” ¹⁴ So they passed by Jebus and continued on their way. It was sunset when they came to Gibeah in the territory of the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁵ They turned off the road to go and spend the night there. They went into town and sat down in the city square, but no one offered to take them home for the night.

¹⁶ While they were there, an old man came by at the end of a day's work on the farm. He was originally from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was now living in Gibeah. (The other people there were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷ The old man noticed the traveler in the city square and asked him, “Where do you come from? Where are you going?”

¹⁸ The Levite answered, “We have been in Bethlehem in Judah, and now we are on our way home^[n] deep in the hill country of Ephraim. No one will put us up for the night, ¹⁹ even though we have fodder and straw for our donkeys, as well as bread and wine for my concubine and me and for my servant. We have everything we need.”

²⁰ The old man said, “You are welcome in my home! I'll take care of you; you don't have to spend the night in the square.” ²¹ So he took them home with him and fed their donkeys. His guests washed their feet and had a meal.

^22 (B)They were enjoying themselves when all of a sudden some sexual perverts from the town surrounded the house and started beating on the door. They said to the old man, “Bring out that man that came home with you! We want to have sex with him!”

²³ But the old man went outside and said to them, “No, my friends! Please! Don't do such an evil, immoral thing! This man is my guest. ²⁴ Look! Here is his concubine and my own virgin daughter. I'll bring them out now, and you can have them. Do whatever you want to with them. But don't do such an awful thing to this man!” ²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and put her outside with them. They raped her and abused her all night long and didn't stop until morning.

²⁶ At dawn the woman came and fell down at the door of the old man's house, where her husband was. She was still there when daylight came. ²⁷ Her husband got up that morning, and when he opened the door to go on his way, he found his concubine lying in front of the house with her hands reaching for the door. ²⁸ He said, “Get up. Let's go.” But there was no answer. So he put her body across the donkey and started on his way home. ^29 (C)When he arrived, he went in the house and got a knife. He took his concubine's body, cut it into twelve pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it said, “We have never heard of such a thing! Nothing like this has ever happened since the Israelites left Egypt! We have to do something about this! What will it be?”

Israel Prepares for War

20 All the people of Israel from Dan in the north to Beersheba in the south, as well as from the land of Gilead in the east, answered the call. They gathered in one body in the Lord's presence at Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the tribes of Israel were present at this gathering of God's people, and there were 400,000 foot soldiers. ³ Meanwhile the people of Benjamin heard that all the other Israelites had gathered at Mizpah.

The Israelites asked, “Tell us, how was this crime committed?” ⁴ The Levite whose concubine had been murdered answered, “My concubine and I went to Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin to spend the night. ⁵ The men of Gibeah came to get me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me; instead they raped my concubine, and she died. ⁶ I took her body, cut it in pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. These people have committed an evil and immoral act among us. ⁷ All of you here are Israelites. What are we going to do about this?”

⁸ All the people stood up together and said, “None of us, whether he lives in a tent or in a house, will go home. ⁹ This is what we will do: we will draw lots and choose some men to attack Gibeah.^{[o] 10} One tenth of the men in Israel will provide food for the army, and the others will go and punish Gibeah^[p] for this immoral act that they have committed in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men in Israel assembled with one purpose—to attack the town.

¹² The Israelite tribes sent messengers all through the territory of the tribe of Benjamin to say, “What is this crime that you have committed? ¹³ Now hand over those perverts in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and remove this evil from Israel.” But the people of Benjamin paid no attention to the other Israelites. ¹⁴ From all the cities of Benjamin they came to Gibeah to fight the other people of Israel. ^15-16 They called out twenty-six thousand soldiers from their cities that day. Besides these, the citizens of Gibeah gathered seven hundred specially chosen men^[q] who were left-handed. Every one of them could sling a stone at a strand of hair and never miss. ¹⁷ Not counting the tribe of Benjamin, the Israelites gathered 400,000 trained soldiers.

The War against the Benjaminites

¹⁸ The Israelites went to the place of worship at Bethel, and there they asked God, “Which tribe should attack the Benjaminites first?”

The Lord answered, “The tribe of Judah.”

¹⁹ So the Israelites started out the next morning and camped near the city of Gibeah. ²⁰ They went to attack the army of Benjamin, and placed the soldiers in position facing the city. ²¹ The army of Benjamin came out of the city, and before the day was over they had killed twenty-two thousand Israelite soldiers. ^22-23 Then the Israelites went to the place of worship and mourned in the presence of the Lord until evening. They asked him, “Should we go again into battle against our brothers the Benjaminites?”

The Lord answered, “Yes.”

So the Israelite army was encouraged, and they placed their soldiers in position again, where they had been the day before. ²⁴ They marched against the army of Benjamin a second time. ²⁵ And for the second time the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and this time they killed eighteen thousand trained Israelite soldiers. ²⁶ Then all the people of Israel went up to Bethel and mourned. They sat there in the Lord's presence and did not eat until evening. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burned some sacrifices whole—all in the presence of the Lord. ^27-28 God's Covenant Box was there at Bethel in those days, and Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was in charge of it. The people asked the Lord, “Should we go out to fight our brothers the Benjaminites again, or should we give up?”

The Lord answered, “Fight. Tomorrow I will give you victory over them.”

²⁹ So the Israelites put some soldiers in hiding around Gibeah. ³⁰ Then for the third straight day they marched against the army of Benjamin and placed their soldiers in battle position facing Gibeah, as they had done before. ³¹ The Benjaminites came out to fight and were led away from the city. As they had before, they began killing some Israelites in the open country, on the road to Bethel and on the road to Gibeah. They killed about thirty Israelites. ³² The Benjaminites said, “We've beaten them just as before.”

But the Israelites had planned to retreat and lead them away from the city onto the roads. ³³ So when the main army of the Israelites pulled back and regrouped at Baaltamar, the men surrounding Gibeah suddenly rushed out of their hiding places in the rocky country around the city.^{[r] 34} Ten thousand men, specially chosen out of all Israel, attacked Gibeah, and the fighting was hard. The Benjaminites had not realized that they were about to be destroyed. ³⁵ The Lord gave Israel victory over the army of Benjamin. The Israelites killed 25,100 of the enemy that day, ³⁶ and the Benjaminites realized they were defeated.

How the Israelites Won

The main body of the Israelite army had retreated from the Benjaminites because they were relying on the men that they had put in hiding around Gibeah. ³⁷ These men ran quickly toward Gibeah; they spread out in the city and killed everyone there. ³⁸ The main Israelite army and the men in hiding had arranged a signal. When they saw a big cloud of smoke going up from the town, ³⁹ the Israelites out on the battlefield were to turn around. By this time the Benjaminites had already killed the thirty Israelites. They told themselves, “Yes, we've beaten them just as before.” ⁴⁰ Then the signal appeared; a cloud of smoke began to go up from the town. The Benjaminites looked behind them and were amazed to see the whole city going up in flames. ⁴¹ Then the Israelites turned around, and the Benjaminites were thrown into panic because they realized that they were about to be destroyed. ⁴² They retreated from the Israelites and ran toward the open country, but they could not escape. They were caught between the main army and the men who were now coming out of the city,^[s] and they were destroyed. ⁴³ The Israelites had the enemy trapped, and without stopping they pursued them as far as a point east of Gibeah, killing them as they went.^{[t] 44} Eighteen thousand of the best Benjaminite soldiers were killed. ⁴⁵ The others turned and ran toward the open country to Rimmon Rock. Five thousand of them were killed on the roads. The Israelites continued to pursue the rest to Gidom, killing two thousand. ⁴⁶ In all, twenty-five thousand Benjaminites were killed that day—all of them brave soldiers.

⁴⁷ But six hundred men were able to escape to the open country to Rimmon Rock, and they stayed there four months. ⁴⁸ The Israelites turned back against the rest of the Benjaminites and killed them all—men, women, and children, and animals as well. They burned every town in the area.

Wives for the Tribe of Benjamin

21 When the Israelites had gathered at Mizpah, they had made a solemn promise to the Lord: “None of us will allow a Benjaminite to marry a daughter of ours.” ² So now the people of Israel went to Bethel and sat there in the presence of God until evening. Loudly and bitterly they mourned: ³ “Lord God of Israel, why has this happened? Why is the tribe of Benjamin about to disappear from Israel?”

⁴ Early the next morning the people got up and built an altar there. They offered fellowship sacrifices and burned some sacrifices whole. ⁵ They asked, “Is there any group out of all the tribes of Israel that did not go to the gathering in the Lord's presence at Mizpah?” (They had taken a solemn oath that anyone who had not gone to Mizpah would be put to death.) ⁶ The people of Israel felt sorry for their brothers the Benjaminites and said, “Today Israel has lost one of its tribes. ⁷ What shall we do to provide wives for the men of Benjamin who are left? We have made a solemn promise to the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters.”

⁸ When they asked if there was some group out of the tribes of Israel that had not gone to the gathering at Mizpah, they found out that no one from Jabesh in Gilead had been there; ⁹ at the roll call of the army no one from Jabesh had responded. ¹⁰ So the assembly sent twelve thousand of their bravest men with the orders, “Go and kill everyone in Jabesh, including women and children. ¹¹ Kill all the males, and also every woman who is not a virgin.” ¹² They found four hundred young virgins among the people in Jabesh, so they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole assembly sent word to the Benjaminites who were at Rimmon Rock and offered to end the war. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites came back, and the other Israelites gave them the young women from Jabesh whom they had not killed. But there were not enough of them.

¹⁵ The people felt sorry for the Benjaminites because the Lord had broken the unity of the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ So the leaders of the gathering said, “There are no more women in the tribe of Benjamin. What shall we do to provide wives for the men who are left? ¹⁷ Israel must not lose one of its twelve tribes. We must find a way for the tribe of Benjamin to survive, ¹⁸ but we cannot allow them to marry our daughters, because we have put a curse on anyone who allows a Benjaminite to marry one of our daughters.”

¹⁹ Then they thought, “The yearly festival of the Lord at Shiloh is coming soon.” (Shiloh is north of Bethel, south of Lebonah, and east of the road between Bethel and Shechem.) ²⁰ They told the Benjaminites, “Go and hide in the vineyards ²¹ and watch. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance during the festival, you come out of the vineyards. Each of you take a wife by force from among them and take her back to the territory of Benjamin with you. ²² If their fathers or brothers come to you^[u] and protest, you^[v] can tell them, ‘Please let us keep them, because we did not take them from you in battle to be our wives. And since you did not give them to us, you are not guilty of breaking your promise.’”

²³ The Benjaminites did this; each of them chose a wife from the young women who were dancing at Shiloh and carried her away. Then they went back to their own territory, rebuilt their towns, and lived there. ²⁴ At the same time the rest of the Israelites left, and every man went back to his own tribe and family and to his own property.

^25 (D)There was no king in Israel at that time. Everyone did whatever they pleased.

Elimelech and His Family Move to Moab

1 ^1-2 Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there, ³ Elimelech died, and Naomi was left alone with her two sons, ⁴ who married Moabite women, Orpah and Ruth. About ten years later ⁵ Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left all alone, without husband or sons.

Naomi and Ruth Return to Bethlehem

⁶ Some time later Naomi heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them good crops; so she got ready to leave Moab with her daughters-in-law. ⁷ They started out together to go back to Judah, but on the way ⁸ she said to them, “Go back home and stay with your mothers. May the Lord be as good to you as you have been to me and to those who have died. ⁹ And may the Lord make it possible for each of you to marry again and have a home.”

So Naomi kissed them good-bye. But they started crying ¹⁰ and said to her, “No! We will go with you to your people.”

¹¹ “You must go back, my daughters,” Naomi answered. “Why do you want to come with me? Do you think I could have sons again for you to marry? ¹² Go back home, for I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought there was still hope, and so got married tonight and had sons, ¹³ would you wait until they had grown up? Would this keep you from marrying someone else? No, my daughters, you know that's impossible. The Lord has turned against me, and I feel very sorry for you.”^[w]

¹⁴ Again they started crying. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye and went back home,^[x] but Ruth held on to her. ¹⁵ So Naomi said to her, “Ruth, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her god.^[y] Go back home with her.”

¹⁶ But Ruth answered, “Don't ask me to leave you! Let me go with you. 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. ¹⁷ Wherever you die, I will die, and that is where I will be buried. May the Lord's worst punishment come upon me if I let anything but death^[z] separate me from you!”

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she said nothing more.

¹⁹ They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, “Is this really Naomi?”

²⁰ “Don't call me Naomi,” she answered; “call me Marah,^[aa] because Almighty God has made my life bitter. ²¹ When I left here, I had plenty, but the Lord has brought me back without a thing. Why call me Naomi when the Lord Almighty has condemned me and sent me trouble?”

²² This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning.

Ruth Works in the Field of Boaz

2 Naomi had a relative named Boaz, a rich and influential man who belonged to the family of her husband Elimelech. ^2 (E)One day Ruth said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields to gather the grain that the harvest workers leave. I am sure to find someone who will let me work with him.”

Naomi answered, “Go ahead, daughter.”

³ So Ruth went out to the fields and walked behind the workers, picking up the heads of grain which they left. It so happened that she was in a field that belonged to Boaz.

⁴ Some time later Boaz himself arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the workers. “The Lord be with you!” he said.

“The Lord bless you!” they answered.

⁵ Boaz asked the man in charge, “Who is that young woman?”

⁶ The man answered, “She is the foreigner who came back from Moab with Naomi. ⁷ She asked me to let her follow the workers and gather grain. She has been working since early morning and has just now stopped to rest for a while under the shelter.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Let me give you some advice. Don't gather grain anywhere except in this field. Work with the women here; ⁹ watch them to see where they are reaping and stay with them. I have ordered my men not to molest you. And whenever you are thirsty, go and drink from the water jars that they have filled.”

¹⁰ Ruth bowed down with her face touching the ground, and said to Boaz, “Why should you be so concerned about me? Why should you be so kind to a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered, “I have heard about everything that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband died. I know how you left your father and mother and your own country and how you came to live among a people you had never known before. ¹² May the Lord reward you for what you have done. May you have a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, to whom you have come for protection!”

¹³ Ruth answered, “You are very kind^[ab] to me, sir. You have made me feel better by speaking gently to me, even though I am not the equal of one of your servants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, “Come and have a piece of bread, and dip it in the sauce.” So she sat with the workers, and Boaz passed some roasted grain to her. She ate until she was satisfied, and she still had some food left over. ^15-16 After she had left to go and gather grain, Boaz ordered the workers, “Let her gather grain even where the bundles are lying, and don't say anything to stop her. Besides that, pull out some heads of grain from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening, and when she had beaten it out, she found she had nearly twenty-five pounds. ¹⁸ She took the grain back into town and showed her mother-in-law how much she had gathered. She also gave her the food left over from the meal. ¹⁹ Naomi asked her, “Where did you gather all this grain today? Whose field have you been working in? May God bless the man who took an interest in you!”

So Ruth told Naomi that she had been working in a field belonging to a man named Boaz.

^20 (F)“May the Lord bless Boaz!” Naomi exclaimed. “The Lord always keeps his promises to the living and the dead.” And she went on, “That man is a close relative of ours, one of those responsible for taking care of us.”

²¹ Then Ruth said, “Best of all, he told me to keep gathering grain with his workers until they finish the harvest.”

²² Naomi said to Ruth, “Yes, daughter, it will be better for you to work with the women in Boaz' field. You might be molested if you went to someone else's field.” ²³ So Ruth worked with them and gathered grain until all the barley and wheat had been harvested. And she continued to live with her mother-in-law.

Ruth Finds a Husband

3 Some time later Naomi said to Ruth, “I must find a husband for you, so that you will have a home of your own. ² Remember that this man Boaz, whose women you have been working with, is our relative. Now listen. This evening he will be threshing the barley. ³ So wash yourself, put on some perfume, and get dressed in your best clothes. Then go where he is threshing, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Be sure to notice where he lies down, and after he falls asleep, go and lift the covers and lie down at his feet. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ Ruth answered, “I will do everything you say.”

⁶ So Ruth went to the threshing place and did just what her mother-in-law had told her. ⁷ When Boaz had finished eating and drinking, he was in a good mood. He went to the pile of barley and lay down to sleep. Ruth slipped over quietly, lifted the covers and lay down at his feet. ⁸ During the night he woke up suddenly, turned over, and was surprised to find a woman lying at his feet. ⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“It's Ruth, sir,” she answered. “Because you are a close relative, you are responsible for taking care of me. So please marry me.”

¹⁰ “The Lord bless you,” he said. “You are showing even greater family loyalty in what you are doing now than in what you did for your mother-in-law. You might have gone looking for a young man, either rich or poor, but you haven't. ¹¹ Now don't worry, Ruth. I will do everything you ask; as everyone in town knows, you are a fine woman. ^12 (G)It is true that I am a close relative and am responsible for you, but there is a man who is a closer relative than I am. ¹³ Stay here the rest of the night, and in the morning we will find out whether or not he will take responsibility for you. If so, well and good; if not, then I swear by the living Lord that I will take the responsibility. Now lie down and stay here till morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay there at his feet, but she got up before it was light enough for her to be seen, because Boaz did not want anyone to know that she had been there. ¹⁵ Boaz said to her, “Take off your cloak and spread it out here.” She did, and he poured out almost fifty pounds of barley and helped her lift it to her shoulder. Then she returned to town with it. ¹⁶ When she arrived home, her mother-in-law asked her, “How did you get along, daughter?”

Ruth told her everything that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷ She added, “He told me I must not come back to you empty-handed, so he gave me all this barley.”

¹⁸ Naomi said to her, “Now be patient, Ruth, until you see how this all turns out. Boaz will not rest today until he settles the matter.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 Boaz went to the meeting place at the town gate and sat down there. Then Elimelech's nearest relative, the man whom Boaz had mentioned, came by, and Boaz called to him, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down. ² Then Boaz got ten of the leaders of the town and asked them to sit down there too. When they were seated, ³ he said to his relative, “Now that Naomi has come back from Moab, she wants to sell the field that belonged to our relative Elimelech, ⁴ and I think you ought to know about it. Now then, if you want it, buy it in the presence of these men sitting here. But if you don't want it, say so, because the right to buy it belongs first to you and then to me.”

The man said, “I will buy it.”

⁵ Boaz said, “Very well, if you buy the field from Naomi, then you are also buying Ruth,^[ac] the Moabite widow, so that the field will stay in the dead man's family.”

⁶ The man answered, “In that case I will give up my right to buy the field, because it would mean that my own children would not inherit it. You buy it; I would rather not.”

^7 (H)Now in those days, to settle a sale or an exchange of property, it was the custom for the seller to take off his sandal and give it to the buyer. In this way the Israelites showed that the matter was settled.

⁸ So when the man said to Boaz, “You buy it,” he took off his sandal and gave it to Boaz.^{[ad] 9} Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the others there, “You are all witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and to his sons Chilion and Mahlon. ^10 (I)In addition, Ruth the Moabite, Mahlon's widow, becomes my wife. This will keep the property in the dead man's family, and his family line will continue among his people and in his hometown. You are witnesses to this today.”

^11 (J)The leaders and the others said, “Yes, we are witnesses. May the Lord make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem. ^12 (K)May the children that the Lord will give you by this young woman make your family like the family of Perez, the son of Judah and Tamar.”

Boaz and His Descendants

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife. The Lord blessed her, and she became pregnant and had a son. ¹⁴ The women said to Naomi, “Praise the Lord! He has given you a grandson today to take care of you. May the boy become famous in Israel! ¹⁵ Your daughter-in-law loves you, and has done more for you than seven sons. And now she has given you a grandson, who will bring new life to you and give you security in your old age.” ¹⁶ Naomi took the child, held him close,^[ae] and took care of him.

¹⁷ The women of the neighborhood named the boy Obed. They told everyone, “A son has been born to Naomi!”

Obed became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.

^18-22 This is the family line from Perez to David: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.

Elkanah and His Family at Shiloh

1 There was a man named Elkanah, from the tribe of Ephraim, who lived in the town of Ramah in the hill country of Ephraim. He was the son of Jeroham and grandson of Elihu, and belonged to the family of Tohu, a part of the clan of Zuph. ² Elkanah had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah did not. ³ Every year Elkanah went from Ramah to worship and offer sacrifices to the Lord Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the Lord. ⁴ Each time Elkanah offered his sacrifice, he would give one share of the meat to Peninnah and one share to each of her children. ⁵ And even though he loved Hannah very much he would give her only one share, because^[af] the Lord had kept her from having children. ⁶ Peninnah, her rival, would torment and humiliate her, because the Lord had kept her childless. ⁷ This went on year after year; whenever they went to the house of the Lord, Peninnah would upset Hannah so much that she would cry and refuse to eat anything. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah would ask her, “Hannah, why are you crying? Why won't you eat? Why are you always so sad? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?”

Hannah and Eli

^9-10 One time, after they had finished their meal in the house of the Lord at Shiloh, Hannah got up. She was deeply distressed, and she cried bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. Meanwhile, Eli the priest was sitting in his place by the door. ^11 (L)Hannah made a solemn promise: “Lord Almighty, look at me, your servant! See my trouble and remember me! Don't forget me! If you give me a son, I promise that I will dedicate him to you for his whole life and that he will never have his hair cut.”^[ag]

¹² Hannah continued to pray to the Lord for a long time, and Eli watched her lips. ¹³ She was praying silently; her lips were moving, but she made no sound. So Eli thought that she was drunk, ¹⁴ and he said to her, “Stop making a drunken show of yourself Stop your drinking and sober up!”

¹⁵ “No, I'm not drunk, sir,” she answered. “I haven't been drinking! I am desperate, and I have been praying, pouring out my troubles to the Lord. ¹⁶ Don't think I am a worthless woman. I have been praying like this because I'm so miserable.”

¹⁷ “Go in peace,” Eli said, “and may the God of Israel give you what you have asked him for.”

¹⁸ “May you always think kindly of me,” she replied. Then she went away, ate some food, and was no longer sad.

Samuel's Birth and Dedication

¹⁹ The next morning Elkanah and his family got up early, and after worshiping the Lord, they went back home to Ramah. Elkanah had intercourse with his wife Hannah, and the Lord answered her prayer. ²⁰ So it was that she became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,^[ah] and explained, “I asked the Lord for him.”

²¹ The time came again for Elkanah and his family to go to Shiloh and offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and the special sacrifice he had promised. ²² But this time Hannah did not go. She told her husband, “As soon as the child is weaned, I will take him to the house of the Lord, where he will stay all his life.”

²³ Elkanah answered, “All right, do whatever you think best; stay at home until you have weaned him. And may the Lord make your^[ai] promise come true.” So Hannah stayed at home and nursed her child.

²⁴ After she had weaned him, she took him to Shiloh, taking along a three-year-old bull,^[aj] a bushel of flour, and a leather bag full of wine. She took Samuel, young as he was, to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. ²⁵ After they had killed the bull, they took the child to Eli. ²⁶ Hannah said to him, “Excuse me, sir. Do you remember me? I am the woman you saw standing here, praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I asked him for this child, and he gave me what I asked for. ²⁸ So I am dedicating him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he will belong to the Lord.”

Then they^[ak] worshiped the Lord there.

Hannah's Prayer

2 ^(M)Hannah prayed:

¹¹ Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah, but the boy Samuel stayed in Shiloh and served the Lord under the priest Eli.

The Sons of Eli

¹² The sons of Eli were scoundrels. They paid no attention to the Lord ¹³ or to the regulations concerning what the priests could demand from the people. Instead, when someone was offering a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fork. While the meat was still cooking, ¹⁴ he would stick the fork into the cooking pot, and whatever the fork brought out belonged to the priest. All the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices were treated like this. ¹⁵ In addition, even before the fat was taken off and burned, the priest's servant would come and say to the one offering the sacrifice, “Give me some meat for the priest to roast; he won't accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

¹⁶ If the person answered, “Let us do what is right and burn the fat first; then take what you want,” the priest's servant would say, “No! Give it to me now! If you don't, I will have to take it by force!”

¹⁷ This sin of the sons of Eli was extremely serious in the Lord's sight, because they treated the offerings to the Lord with such disrespect.

Samuel at Shiloh

¹⁸ In the meantime the boy Samuel continued to serve the Lord, wearing a sacred linen apron. ¹⁹ Each year his mother would make a little robe and take it to him when she accompanied her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰ Then Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife, and say to Elkanah, “May the Lord give you other children by this woman to take the place of the one you dedicated to him.”

After that they would go back home.

²¹ The Lord did bless Hannah, and she had three more sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.

Eli and His Sons

²² Eli was now very old. He kept hearing about everything his sons were doing to the Israelites and that they were even sleeping with the women who worked at the entrance to the Tent of the Lord's presence. ²³ So he said to them, “Why are you doing these things? Everybody tells me about the evil you are doing. ²⁴ Stop it, my sons! This is an awful thing the people of the Lord are talking about! ²⁵ If anyone sins against someone else, God can defend the one who is wrong; but who can defend someone who sins against the Lord?”

But they would not listen to their father, for the Lord had decided to kill them.

^26 (O)The boy Samuel continued to grow and to gain favor both with the Lord and with people.

The Prophecy against Eli's Family

²⁷ A prophet came to Eli with this message from the Lord: “When your ancestor Aaron and his family were slaves of the king of Egypt, I revealed myself to Aaron. ^28 (P)From all the tribes of Israel I chose his family to be my priests, to serve at the altar, to burn the incense, and to wear the ephod^[al] to consult me. And I gave them the right to keep a share of the sacrifices burned on the altar. ²⁹ Why, then, do you look with greed^[am] at the sacrifices and offerings which I require from my people? Why, Eli, do you honor your sons more than me by letting them fatten themselves on the best parts of all the sacrifices my people offer to me?