Bible in 90 Days

¹⁴ As Samson and his captors arrived at Lehi, the Philistines shouted with glee; but then the strength of the Lord came upon Samson, and the ropes with which he was tied snapped like thread and fell from his wrists! ¹⁵ Then he picked up a donkey’s jawbone that was lying on the ground and killed a thousand Philistines with it. ^16-17 Tossing away the jawbone, he remarked,

(The place has been called “Jawbone Hill” ever since.)

¹⁸ But now he was very thirsty and he prayed to the Lord and said, “You have given Israel such a wonderful deliverance through me today! Must I now die of thirst and fall to the mercy of these heathen?” ¹⁹ So the Lord caused water to gush out from a hollow in the ground, and Samson’s spirit was revived as he drank. Then he named the place “The Spring of the Man Who Prayed,” and the spring is still there today.

²⁰ Samson was Israel’s leader for the next twenty years, but the Philistines still controlled the land.

16 One day Samson went to the Philistine city of Gaza and spent the night with a prostitute. ² Word soon spread that he had been seen in the city, so the police were alerted and many men of the city lay in wait all night at the city gate to capture him if he tried to leave.

“In the morning,” they thought, “when there is enough light, we’ll find him and kill him.”

³ Samson stayed in bed with the girl until midnight, then went out to the city gates and lifted them, with the two gateposts, right out of the ground. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the mountain across from Hebron!

⁴ Later on he fell in love with a girl named Delilah over in the valley of Sorek. ⁵ The five heads of the Philistine nation went personally to her and demanded that she find out from Samson what made him so strong, so that they would know how to overpower and subdue him and put him in chains.

“Each of us will give you a thousand dollars for this job,” they promised.

⁶ So Delilah begged Samson to tell her his secret. “Please tell me, Samson, why you are so strong,” she pleaded. “I don’t think anyone could ever capture you!”

⁷ “Well,” Samson replied, “if I were tied with seven raw-leather bowstrings, I would become as weak as anyone else.”

⁸ So they brought her the seven bowstrings, and while he slept^[a] she tied him with them. ⁹ Some men were hiding in the next room, so as soon as she had tied him up she exclaimed, “Samson! The Philistines are here!”

Then he snapped the bowstrings like cotton thread,^[b] and so his secret was not discovered.

¹⁰ Afterward Delilah said to him, “You are making fun of me! You told me a lie! Please tell me how you can be captured!”

¹¹ “Well,” he said, “if I am tied with brand new ropes which have never been used, I will be as weak as other men.”

¹² So that time, as he slept,^[c] Delilah took new ropes and tied him with them. The men were hiding in the next room, as before. Again Delilah exclaimed, “Samson! The Philistines have come to capture you!”

But he broke the ropes from his arms like spiderwebs!

¹³ “You have mocked me again and told me more lies!” Delilah complained. “Now tell me how you can really be captured.”

“Well,” he said, “if you weave my hair into your loom . . . !”

¹⁴ So while he slept, she did just that and then screamed, “The Philistines have come, Samson!” And he woke up and yanked his hair away, breaking the loom.

¹⁵ “How can you say you love me when you don’t confide in me?” she whined. “You’ve made fun of me three times now, and you still haven’t told me what makes you so strong!”

^16-17 She nagged at him every day until he couldn’t stand it any longer and finally told her his secret.

“My hair has never been cut,” he confessed, “for I’ve been a Nazirite to God since before my birth. If my hair were cut, my strength would leave me, and I would become as weak as anyone else.”

¹⁸ Delilah realized that he had finally told her the truth, so she sent for the five Philistine leaders.

“Come just this once more,” she said, “for this time he has told me everything.”

So they brought the money with them. ¹⁹ She lulled him to sleep with his head in her lap, and they brought in a barber and cut off his hair. Delilah began to hit him, but she could see that his strength was leaving him.

²⁰ Then she screamed, “The Philistines are here to capture you, Samson!” And he woke up and thought, “I will do as before; I’ll just shake myself free.” But he didn’t realize that the Lord had left him. ²¹ So the Philistines captured him and gouged out his eyes and took him to Gaza, where he was bound with bronze chains and made to grind grain in the prison. ²² But before long his hair began to grow again.

^23-24 The Philistine leaders declared a great festival to celebrate the capture of Samson. The people made sacrifices to their god Dagon and excitedly praised him.

“Our god has delivered our enemy Samson to us!” they gloated as they saw him there in chains. “The scourge of our nation who killed so many of us is now in our power!” ^25-26 Half drunk by now, the people demanded, “Bring out Samson so we can have some fun with him!”

So he was brought from the prison and made to stand at the center of the temple, between the two pillars supporting the roof. Samson said to the boy who was leading him by the hand, “Place my hands against the two pillars. I want to rest against them.”

²⁷ By then the temple was completely filled with people. The five Philistine leaders were there as well as three thousand people in the balconies^[d] who were watching Samson and making fun of him.

²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord Jehovah, remember me again—please strengthen me one more time, so that I may pay back the Philistines for the loss of at least one of my eyes.”

²⁹ Then Samson pushed against the pillars with all his might.

³⁰ “Let me die with the Philistines,” he prayed.

And the temple crashed down upon the Philistine leaders and all the people. So those he killed at the moment of his death were more than those he had killed during his entire lifetime. ³¹ Later, his brothers and other relatives came down to get his body, and they brought him back home and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol, where his father, Manoah, was buried. He had led Israel for twenty years.

17 In the hill country of Ephraim lived a man named Micah.

² One day he said to his mother, “That thousand dollars you thought was stolen from you, and you were cursing about—well, I stole it!”

“God bless you for confessing it,” his mother replied. ³ So he returned the money to her.

“I am going to give it to the Lord as a credit for your account,” she declared. “I’ll have an idol carved for you and plate it with the silver.”

^4-5 So his mother took a fifth of it to a silversmith, and the idol he made from it was placed in Micah’s shrine. Micah had many idols in his collection, also an ephod and some teraphim, and he installed one of his sons as the priest. ⁶ (For in those days Israel had no king, so everyone did whatever he wanted to—whatever seemed right in his own eyes.)

^7-8 One day a young priest^[e] from the town of Bethlehem, in Judah, arrived in that area of Ephraim, looking for a good place to live. He happened to stop at Micah’s house as he was traveling through.

⁹ “Where are you from?” Micah asked him.

And he replied, “I am a priest from Bethlehem, in Judah, and I am looking for a place to live.”

^10-11 “Well, stay here with me,” Micah said, “and you can be my priest. I will give you one hundred dollars a year plus a new suit and your board and room.” The young man agreed to this and became as one of Micah’s sons. ¹² So Micah consecrated him as his personal priest.

¹³ “I know the Lord will really bless me now,” Micah exclaimed, “because now I have a genuine priest working for me!”^[f]

18 As has already been stated, there was no king in Israel at that time. The tribe of Dan was trying to find a place to settle, for they had not yet driven out the people living in the land assigned to them. ² So the men of Dan chose five army heroes from the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol as scouts to go and spy out the land they were supposed to settle in. Arriving in the hill country of Ephraim, they stayed at Micah’s home. ³ Noticing the young Levite’s accent, they took him aside and asked him, “What are you doing here? Why did you come?” ⁴ He told them about his contract with Micah, and that he was his personal priest.

⁵ “Well, then,” they said, “ask God whether or not our trip will be successful.”

⁶ “Yes,” the priest replied, “all is well. The Lord is taking care of you.”

⁷ So the five men went on to the town of Laish and noticed how secure everyone felt. Their manner of life was Phoenician, and they were wealthy. They lived quietly and were unprepared for an attack, for there were no tribes in the area strong enough to try it. They lived a great distance from their relatives in Sidon, and had little or no contact with the nearby villages. ⁸ So the spies returned to their people in Zorah and Eshtaol.

“What about it?” they were asked. “What did you find?”

^9-10 And the men replied, “Let’s attack! We have seen the land and it is ours for the taking—a broad, fertile, wonderful place—a real paradise. The people aren’t even prepared to defend themselves! Come on, let’s go! For God has given it to us!”

¹¹ So six hundred armed troops of the tribe of Dan set out from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹² They camped first at a place west of Kiriath-jearim in Judah (which is still called “The Camp of Dan”), ¹³ then they went on up into the hill country of Ephraim.

As they passed the home of Micah, ¹⁴ the five spies told the others. “There is a shrine in there with an ephod, some teraphim, and many plated idols. It’s obvious what we ought to do!”

^15-16 So the five men went over to the house and with all of the armed men standing just outside the gate, they talked to the young priest and asked him how he was getting along. ¹⁷ Then the five spies entered the shrine and took the idols, the ephod, and the teraphim.

¹⁸ “What are you doing?” the young priest demanded when he saw them carrying them out.

¹⁹ “Be quiet and come with us,” they said. “Be a priest to all of us. Isn’t it better for you to be a priest to a whole tribe in Israel instead of just to one man in his private home?”

²⁰ The young priest was then quite happy to go with them, and he took along the ephod, the teraphim, and the idols. ²¹ They started on their way again, placing their children, cattle, and household goods at the front of the column. ²² When they were quite a distance from Micah’s home, Micah and some of his neighbors came chasing after them, ²³ yelling at them to stop.

“What do you want, chasing after us like this?” the men of Dan demanded.

²⁴ “What do you mean, ‘What do I want’!” Micah retorted. “You’ve taken away all my gods and my priest, and I have nothing left!”

²⁵ “Be careful how you talk, mister,” the men of Dan replied. “Somebody’s apt to get angry and kill every one of you.”

²⁶ So the men of Dan kept going. When Micah saw that there were too many of them for him to handle, he turned back home.

²⁷ Then, with Micah’s idols and the priest, the men of Dan arrived at the city of Laish. There weren’t even any guards, so they went in and slaughtered all the people and burned the city to the ground. ²⁸ There was no one to help the inhabitants, for they were too far away from Sidon, and they had no local allies, for they had no dealings with anyone. This happened in the valley next to Beth-rehob. Then the people of the tribe of Dan rebuilt the city and lived there. ²⁹ The city was named “Dan” after their ancestor, Israel’s son, but it had originally been called Laish.

³⁰ Then they set up the idols and appointed a man named Jonathan (son of Gershom and grandson of Moses!) and his sons as their priests. This family continued as priests until the city was finally conquered by its enemies. ³¹ So Micah’s idols were worshiped by the tribe of Dan as long as the Tabernacle remained at Shiloh.

19 At this time before Israel had a king, there was a man of the tribe of Levi living on the far side of the hill country of Ephraim, who brought home a girl from Bethlehem in Judah to be his concubine. ² But she became angry with him and ran away, and returned to her father’s home in Bethlehem, and was there about four months. ³ Then her husband, taking along a servant and an extra donkey, went to see her to try to win her back again. When he arrived at her home, she let him in and introduced him to her father, who was delighted to meet him. ⁴ Her father urged him to stay awhile, so he stayed three days, and they all had a very pleasant time.

⁵ On the fourth day they were up early, ready to leave, but the girl’s father insisted on their having breakfast first. ⁶ Then he pleaded with him to stay one more day, as they were having such a good time. ⁷ At first the man refused, but his father-in-law kept urging him until finally he gave in. ⁸ The next morning they were up early again, and again the girl’s father pleaded, “Stay just today and leave sometime this evening.” So they had another day of feasting.

⁹ That afternoon as he and his wife and servant were preparing to leave, his father-in-law said, “Look, it’s getting late. Stay just tonight, and we will have a pleasant evening together and tomorrow you can get up early and be on your way.”

¹⁰ But this time the man was adamant, so they left, getting as far as Jerusalem (also called Jebus) before dark.

¹¹ His servant said to him, “It’s getting too late to travel; let’s stay here tonight.”

^12-13 “No,” his master said, “we can’t stay in this heathen city where there are no Israelites—we will go on to Gibeah, or possibly Ramah.”

¹⁴ So they went on. The sun was setting just as they came to Gibeah, a village of the tribe of Benjamin, ¹⁵ so they went there for the night. But as no one invited them in, they camped in the village square. ¹⁶ Just then an old man came by on his way home from his work in the fields. (He was originally from the hill country of Ephraim, but was living now in Gibeah, even though it was in the territory of Benjamin.) ¹⁷ When he saw the travelers camped in the square, he asked them where they were from and where they were going.

¹⁸ “We’re on the way home from Bethlehem, in Judah,” the man replied. “I live on the far edge of the Ephraim hill country, near Shiloh. But no one has taken us in for the night, ¹⁹ even though we have fodder for our donkeys and plenty of food and wine for ourselves.”

²⁰ “Don’t worry,” the old man said, “be my guests; for you mustn’t stay here in the square. It’s too dangerous.”

²¹ So he took them home with him. He fed their donkeys while they rested, and afterward they had supper together. ²² Just as they were beginning to warm to the occasion, a gang of sex perverts gathered around the house and began beating at the door and yelling at the old man to bring out the man who was staying with him, so they could rape him. ²³ The old man stepped outside to talk to them.

“No, my brothers, don’t do such a dastardly act,” he begged, “for he is my guest. ²⁴ Here, take my virgin daughter and this man’s wife. I’ll bring them out and you can do whatever you like to them—but don’t do such a thing to this man.”

²⁵ But they wouldn’t listen to him. Then the girl’s husband pushed her out to them, and they abused her all night, taking turns raping her until morning. Finally, just at dawn, they let her go. ²⁶ She fell down at the door of the house and lay there until it was light. ²⁷ When her husband opened the door to be on his way, he found her there, fallen down in front of the door with her hands digging into the threshold.

²⁸ “Well, come on,” he said. “Let’s get going.”

But there was no answer, for she was dead; so he threw her across the donkey’s back and took her home. ²⁹ When he got there he took a knife and cut her body into twelve parts and sent one piece to each tribe of Israel. ³⁰ Then the entire nation was roused to action against the men of Benjamin because of this awful deed.

“There hasn’t been such a horrible crime since Israel left Egypt,” everyone said. “We’ve got to do something about it.”

20 ^1-2 Then the entire nation of Israel sent their leaders and 450,000 troops to assemble with one mind before the Lord at Mizpah. They came from as far away as Dan and Beersheba, and everywhere between, and from across the Jordan in the land of Gilead. ³ (Word of the mobilization of the Israeli forces at Mizpah soon reached the land of Benjamin.) The chiefs of Israel now called for the murdered woman’s husband and asked him just what had happened.

⁴ “We arrived one evening at Gibeah, a village in Benjamin,” he began. ⁵ “That night the men of Gibeah surrounded the house, planning to kill me, and they raped my wife until she was dead. ⁶ So I cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout the land of Israel, for these men have committed a terrible crime. ⁷ Now then, sons of Israel, express your mind and give me your counsel!”

^8-10 And as one man they replied, “Not one of us will return home until we have punished the village of Gibeah. A tenth of the army will be selected by lot as a supply line to bring us food, and the rest of us will destroy Gibeah for this horrible deed.”

¹¹ So the whole nation united in this task.

¹² Then messengers were sent to the tribe of Benjamin, asking, “Did you know about the terrible thing that was done among you? ¹³ Give up these evil men from the city of Gibeah so that we can execute them and purge Israel of her evil.” But the people of Benjamin wouldn’t listen. ^14-15 Instead, 26,000 of them arrived in Gibeah to join the 700 local men in their defense against the rest of Israel. ¹⁶ (Among all these there were 700 men who were left-handed sharpshooters. They could hit a target within a hair’s breadth, never missing!) ¹⁷ The army of Israel, not counting the men of Benjamin, numbered 400,000 men.

¹⁸ Before the battle the Israeli army went to Bethel first to ask counsel from God. “Which tribe shall lead us against the people of Benjamin?” they asked.

And the Lord replied, “Judah shall go first.”

^19-20 So the entire army left early the next morning to go to Gibeah, to attack the men of Benjamin. ²¹ But the men defending the village stormed out and killed 22,000 Israelis that day. ^22-24 Then the Israeli army wept before the Lord until evening and asked him, “Shall we fight further against our brother Benjamin?”

And the Lord said, “Yes.” So the men of Israel took courage and went out again the next day to fight at the same place. ²⁵ And that day they lost another 18,000 men, all experienced swordsmen.

²⁶ Then the entire army went up to Bethel and wept before the Lord and fasted until evening, offering burnt sacrifices and peace offerings. ^27-28 (The Ark of God was in Bethel in those days. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, was the priest.)

The men of Israel asked the Lord, “Shall we go out again and fight against our brother Benjamin, or shall we stop?”

And the Lord said, “Go, for tomorrow I will see to it that you defeat the men of Benjamin.”

²⁹ So the Israeli army set an ambush all around the village, ³⁰ and went out again on the third day and set themselves in their usual battle formation. ³¹ When the army of Benjamin came out of the town to attack, the Israeli forces retreated and Benjamin was drawn away from the town as they chased after Israel. And as they had done previously, Benjamin began to kill the men of Israel along the roadway running between Bethel and Gibeah, so that about thirty of them died.

³² Then the army of Benjamin shouted, “We’re defeating them again!” But the armies of Israel had agreed in advance to run away so that the army of Benjamin would chase them and be drawn away from the town. ³³ But when the main army of Israel reached Baal-tamar, it turned and attacked, and the 10,000 men in ambush west of Geba jumped up from where they were ³⁴ and advanced against the rear of the army of Benjamin, who still didn’t realize the impending disaster. ^35-39 So the Lord helped Israel defeat Benjamin, and the Israeli army killed 25,100 men of Benjamin that day, leaving but a tiny remnant of their forces.

Summary of the Battle: The army of Israel retreated from the men of Benjamin in order to give the ambush more room for maneuvering. When the men of Benjamin had killed about thirty of the Israelis, they were confident of a massive slaughter just as on the previous days. But then the men in ambush rushed into the village and slaughtered everyone in it, and set it on fire. The great cloud of smoke pouring into the sky was the signal for the Israeli army to turn around and attack the army of Benjamin, ^40-41 who now looked behind them and were terrified to discover that their city was on fire, and that they were in serious trouble. ⁴² So they ran toward the wilderness, but the Israelis chased after them, and the men who had set the ambush came out and joined the slaughter from the rear. ⁴³ They encircled the army of Benjamin east of Gibeah, and killed most of them there. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand of the Benjamin troops died in that day’s battle. ⁴⁵ The rest of the army fled into the wilderness toward the rock of Rimmon, but 5,000 were killed along the way, and 2,000 more near Gidom.

^46-47 So the tribe of Benjamin lost 25,000 brave warriors that day, leaving only 600 men who escaped to the rock of Rimmon, where they lived for four months. ⁴⁸ Then the Israeli army returned and slaughtered the entire population of the tribe of Benjamin—men, women, children, and cattle—and burned down every city and village in the entire land.

21 The leaders of Israel had vowed at Mizpah never to let their daughters marry a man from the tribe of Benjamin. ² And now the Israeli leaders met at Bethel and sat before God until evening, weeping bitterly.

³ “O Lord God of Israel,” they cried out, “why has this happened, that now one of our tribes is missing?”

⁴ The next morning they were up early and built an altar, and offered sacrifices and peace offerings on it. ⁵ And they said among themselves, “Was any tribe of Israel not represented when we held our council before the Lord at Mizpah?” For at that time it was agreed by solemn oath that anyone who refused to come must die. ⁶ There was deep sadness throughout all Israel for the loss of their brother tribe, Benjamin.

“Gone,” they kept saying to themselves, “gone—an entire tribe of Israel has been cut off and is gone. ⁷ And how shall we get wives for the few who remain, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them our daughters?”

^8-9 Then they thought again of their oath to kill anyone who refused to come to Mizpah and discovered that no one had attended from Jabesh-gilead. ^10-12 So they sent 12,000 of their best soldiers to destroy the people of Jabesh-gilead. All the men, married women, and children were slain, but the young virgins of marriageable age were saved. There were 400 of these, and they were brought to the camp at Shiloh.

¹³ Then Israel sent a peace delegation to the little remnant of the men of Benjamin at Rimmon Rock. ¹⁴ The 400 girls were given to them as wives, and they returned to their homes; but there were not enough of these girls for all of them. ¹⁵ (What a sad time it was in Israel in those days because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.)

¹⁶ “What shall we do for wives for the others, since all the women of the tribe of Benjamin are dead?” the leaders of Israel asked. ¹⁷ “There must be some way to get wives for them, so that an entire tribe of Israel will not be lost forever. ¹⁸ But we can’t give them our own daughters. We have sworn with a solemn oath that anyone who does this shall be cursed of God.”

¹⁹ Suddenly someone thought of the annual religious festival held in the fields of Shiloh, between Lebonah and Bethel, along the east side of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem.

²⁰ They told the men of Benjamin who still needed wives, “Go and hide in the vineyards, ²¹ and when the girls of Shiloh come out for their dances, rush out and catch them and take them home with you to be your wives! ²² And when their fathers and brothers come to us in protest, we will tell them, ‘Please be understanding and let them have your daughters, for we didn’t find enough wives for them when we destroyed Jabesh-gilead, and you couldn’t have given your daughters to them without being guilty.’”

²³ So the men of Benjamin did as they were told and kidnapped the girls who took part in the celebration, and carried them off to their own land. Then they rebuilt their cities and lived in them. ²⁴ So the people of Israel returned to their homes.

²⁵ (There was no king in Israel in those days, and every man did whatever he thought was right.)

1 ^1-2 Long ago when judges ruled in Israel, a man named Elimelech, from Bethlehem,^[g] left the country because of a famine and moved to the land of Moab. With him were his wife, Naomi, and his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. ³ During the time of their residence there, Elimelech died and Naomi was left with her two sons.

^4-5 These young men, Mahlon and Chilion, married girls of Moab, Orpah and Ruth. But later, both men died, so that Naomi was left alone, without her husband or sons. ^6-7 She decided to return to Israel with her daughters-in-law, for she had heard that the Lord had blessed his people by giving them good crops again.

⁸ But after they had begun their homeward journey, she changed her mind and said to her two daughters-in-law, “Why don’t you return to your parents’ homes instead of coming with me? And may the Lord reward you for your faithfulness to your husbands and to me. ⁹ And may he bless you with another happy marriage.” Then she kissed them, and they all broke down and cried.

¹⁰ “No,” they said. “We want to go with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi replied, “It is better for you to return to your own people. Do I have younger sons who could grow up to be your husbands?^{[h] 12} No, my daughters, return to your parents’ homes, for I am too old to have a husband. And even if that were possible, and I became pregnant tonight, and bore sons ¹³ would you wait for them to grow up? No, of course not, my daughters; oh, how I grieve for you that the Lord has punished me in a way that injures you.”

¹⁴ And again they cried together, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, and returned to her childhood home; but Ruth insisted on staying with Naomi.

¹⁵ “See,” Naomi said to her, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; you should do the same.”

¹⁶ But Ruth replied, “Don’t make me leave you, for I want to go wherever you go and to live wherever you live; your people shall be my people, and your God shall be my God; ¹⁷ I want to die where you die and be buried there. May the Lord do terrible things to me if I allow anything but death to separate us.”

¹⁸ And when Naomi saw that Ruth had made up her mind and could not be persuaded otherwise, she stopped urging her. ¹⁹ So they both came to Bethlehem, and the entire village was stirred by their arrival.

“Is it really Naomi?” the women asked.

²⁰ But she told them, “Don’t call me Naomi. Call me Mara,” (Naomi means “pleasant”; Mara means “bitter”) “for Almighty God has dealt me bitter blows. ²¹ I went out full and the Lord has brought me home empty; why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has turned his back on me and sent such calamity!”

²² (Their return from Moab and arrival in Bethlehem was at the beginning of the barley harvest.)

2 Now Naomi had an in-law there in Bethlehem who was a very wealthy man. His name was Boaz.

² One day Ruth said to Naomi, “Perhaps I can go out into the fields of some kind man to glean the free grain^[i] behind his reapers.”

And Naomi said, “All right, dear daughter. Go ahead.”

³ So she did. And as it happened, the field where she found herself belonged to Boaz, this relative of Naomi’s husband.

^4-5 Boaz arrived from the city while she was there. After exchanging greetings with the reapers he said to his foreman, “Hey, who’s that girl over there?”

⁶ And the foreman replied, “It’s that girl from the land of Moab who came back with Naomi. ⁷ She asked me this morning if she could pick up the grains dropped by the reapers, and she has been at it ever since except for a few minutes’ rest over there in the shade.”

^8-9 Boaz went over and talked to her. “Listen, my child,” he said to her. “Stay right here with us to glean; don’t think of going to any other fields. Stay right behind my women workers; I have warned the young men not to bother you; when you are thirsty, go and help yourself to the water.”

^10-11 She thanked him warmly. “How can you be so kind to me?” she asked. “You must know I am only a foreigner.”

“Yes, I know,” Boaz replied, “and I also know about all the love and kindness you have shown your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother in your own land and have come here to live among strangers. ¹² May the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge, bless you for it.”

¹³ “Oh, thank you, sir,” she replied. “You are so good to me, and I’m not even one of your workers!”

¹⁴ At lunchtime Boaz called to her, “Come and eat with us.”

So she sat with his reapers and he gave her food,^[j] more than she could eat. ¹⁵ And when she went back to work again, Boaz told his young men to let her glean right among the sheaves without stopping her, ¹⁶ and to snap off some heads of barley and drop them on purpose for her to glean, and not to make any remarks. ¹⁷ So she worked there all day, and in the evening when she had beaten out the barley she had gleaned, it came to a whole bushel! ¹⁸ She carried it back into the city and gave it to her mother-in-law, with what was left of her lunch.

¹⁹ “So much!” Naomi exclaimed. “Where in the world did you glean today? Praise the Lord for whoever was so kind to you.” So Ruth told her mother-in-law all about it and mentioned that the owner of the field was Boaz.

²⁰ “Praise the Lord for a man like that! God has continued his kindness to us as well as to your dead husband!” Naomi cried excitedly. “Why, that man is one of our closest relatives!”^[k]

²¹ “Well,” Ruth told her, “he said to come back and stay close behind his reapers until the entire field is harvested.”

²² “This is wonderful!” Naomi exclaimed. “Do as he has said. Stay with his girls right through the whole harvest; you will be safer there than in any other field!”

²³ So Ruth did and gleaned with them until the end of the barley harvest, and then the wheat harvest too.

3 One day Naomi said to Ruth, “My dear, isn’t it time that I try to find a husband for you and get you happily married again? ² The man I’m thinking of is Boaz! He has been so kind to us and is a close relative. I happen to know that he will be winnowing barley tonight out on the threshing floor. ³ Now do what I tell you—bathe and put on some perfume and some nice clothes and go on down to the threshing floor, but don’t let him see you until he has finished his supper. ⁴ Notice where he lies down to sleep; then go and lift the cover off his feet and lie down there, and he will tell you what to do concerning marriage.”

⁵ And Ruth replied, “All right. I’ll do whatever you say.”

^6-7 So she went down to the threshing floor that night and followed her mother-in-law’s instructions. After Boaz had finished a good meal, he lay down very contentedly beside a heap of grain and went to sleep. Then Ruth came quietly and lifted the covering off his feet and lay there. ⁸ Suddenly, around midnight, he wakened and sat up, startled. There was a woman lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he demanded.

“It’s I, sir—Ruth,” she replied. “Make me your wife according to God’s law, for you are my close relative.”

¹⁰ “Thank God for a girl like you!” he exclaimed. “For you are being even kinder to Naomi now than before. Naturally you’d prefer a younger man, even though poor. But you have put aside your personal desires. ¹¹ Now don’t worry about a thing, my child; I’ll handle all the details, for everyone knows what a wonderful person you are. ¹² But there is one problem. It’s true that I am a close relative, but there is someone else who is more closely related to you than I am. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning I’ll talk to him, and if he will marry you, fine; let him do his duty; but if he won’t, then I will, I swear by Jehovah; lie down until the morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until the morning and was up early, before daybreak, for he had said to her, “Don’t let it be known that a woman was here at the threshing floor.”

^15-18 “Bring your shawl,” he told her. Then he tied up a bushel and a half of barley in it as a present for her mother-in-law and laid it on her back. Then she returned to the city.

“Well, what happened, dear?” Naomi asked her when she arrived home. She told Naomi everything and gave her the barley from Boaz, and mentioned his remark that she mustn’t go home without a present.

Then Naomi said to her, “Just be patient until we hear what happens, for Boaz won’t rest until he has followed through on this. He’ll settle it today.”

4 So Boaz went down to the marketplace^[l] and found the relative he had mentioned.

“Say, come over here,” he called to him. “I want to talk to you a minute.”

So they sat down together. ² Then Boaz called for ten of the chief men of the village and asked them to sit as witnesses.

³ Boaz said to his relative, “You know Naomi, who came back to us from Moab. She is selling our brother Elimelech’s property. ⁴ I felt that I should speak to you about it so that you can buy it if you wish, with these respected men as witnesses. If you want it,^[m] let me know right away, for if you don’t take it, I will. You have the first right to purchase it and I am next.”

The man replied, “All right, I’ll buy it.”

⁵ Then Boaz told him, “Your purchase of the land from Naomi requires your marriage to Ruth so that she can have children to carry on her husband’s name and to inherit the land.”

⁶ “Then I can’t do it,” the man replied. “For her son would become an heir to my property too;^[n] you buy it.”

⁷ In those days it was the custom in Israel for a man transferring a right of purchase to pull off his sandal and hand it to the other party; this publicly validated the transaction. ⁸ So, as the man said to Boaz, “You buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz said to the witnesses and to the crowd standing around, “You have seen that today I have bought all the property of Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon, from Naomi, ¹⁰ and that with it I have purchased Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife, so that she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband.”

¹¹ And all the people standing there and the witnesses replied, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who has now come into your home, as fertile as Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you be a great and successful man in Bethlehem, ¹² and may the descendants the Lord will give you from this young woman be as numerous and honorable as those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”

¹³ So Boaz married Ruth, and when he slept with her, the Lord gave her a son.

¹⁴ And the women of the city said to Naomi, “Bless the Lord who has given you this little grandson; may he be famous in Israel. ¹⁵ May he restore your youth and take care of you in your old age; for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you so much, and who has been kinder to you than seven sons!”

^16-17 Naomi took care of the baby, and the neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!”

And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.

^18-22 This is the family tree of Boaz, beginning with his ancestor Perez: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nashon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.

1 This is the story of Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim who lived in Ramathaim-zophim, in the hills of Ephraim.

² He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had some children, but Hannah didn’t.

³ Each year Elkanah and his families journeyed to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship the Lord of the heavens and to sacrifice to him. (The priests on duty at that time were the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas.) ⁴ On the day he presented his sacrifice, Elkanah would celebrate the happy occasion by giving presents to Peninnah and her children; ⁵ but although he loved Hannah very much, he could give her only one present, for the Lord had sealed her womb; so she had no children to give presents to. ⁶ Peninnah made matters worse by taunting Hannah because of her barrenness. ⁷ Every year it was the same—Peninnah scoffing and laughing at her as they went to Shiloh, making her cry so much she couldn’t eat.

⁸ “What’s the matter, Hannah?” Elkanah would exclaim. “Why aren’t you eating? Why make such a fuss over having no children? Isn’t having me better than having ten sons?”

⁹ One evening after supper, when they were at Shiloh, Hannah went over to the Tabernacle. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance. ¹⁰ She was in deep anguish and was crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.

¹¹ And she made this vow: “O Lord of heaven, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he’ll be yours for his entire lifetime, and his hair shall never be cut.”^[o]

^12-13 Eli noticed her mouth moving as she was praying silently and, hearing no sound, thought she had been drinking.

¹⁴ “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your bottle.”

^15-16 “Oh no, sir!” she replied, “I’m not drunk! But I am very sad and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don’t think that I am just some drunken bum!”

¹⁷ “In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the Lord of Israel grant you your petition, whatever it is!”

¹⁸ “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed, and went happily back, and began to take her meals again.

^19-20 The entire family was up early the next morning and went to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah, and when Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her petition; in the process of time, a baby boy was born to her. She named him Samuel (meaning “asked of God”)^[p] because, as she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”

^21-22 The next year Elkanah and Peninnah and her children went on the annual trip to the Tabernacle without Hannah, for she told her husband, “Wait until the baby is weaned, and then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there.”

²³ “Well, whatever you think best,” Elkanah agreed. “May the Lord’s will be done.”

So she stayed home until the baby was weaned. ²⁴ Then, though he was still so small, they took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice, and a bushel of flour and some wine. ²⁵ After the sacrifice they took the child to Eli.

²⁶ “Sir, do you remember me?” Hannah asked him. “I am the woman who stood here that time praying to the Lord! ²⁷ I asked him to give me this child, and he has given me my request; ²⁸ and now I am giving him to the Lord for as long as he lives.” So she left him there at the Tabernacle for the Lord to use.

2 This was Hannah’s prayer:

¹¹ So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.

¹² Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord. ^13-14 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship. ¹⁵ Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.

¹⁶ If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,^[q]” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.

¹⁸ Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.^{[r] 19} Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice. ²⁰ Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord. ²¹ And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.

²² Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

^23-25 “I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord’s people about what you are doing,” Eli told his sons. “It is an awful thing to make the Lord’s people sin. Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!” But they wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.

²⁶ Little Samuel was growing in two ways—he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone’s favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord’s, too!).

²⁷ One day a prophet^[s] came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: “Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt? ²⁸ Didn’t I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe^[t] as he served me? And didn’t I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests? ²⁹ Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me—for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!