Bible in 90 Days

¹³ The men from Judah said, “We agree. We will just tie you up and give you to the Philistines. We will not kill you.” So they tied Samson with two new ropes and led him up from the cave in the rock. ¹⁴ When Samson came to the place named Lehi, the Philistines came to meet him, shouting for joy. Then the Spirit of the Lord entered Samson and gave him great power. The ropes on him weakened like burned strings and fell off his hands! ¹⁵ Samson found the jawbone of a dead donkey, took it, and killed a thousand men with it!

¹⁶ Then Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone. So that place was named Ramath Lehi.^[a]

¹⁸ Samson was very thirsty, so he cried out to the Lord, “You gave me, your servant, this great victory. Do I have to die of thirst now? Do I have to be captured by people who are not circumcised?” ¹⁹ Then God opened up a hole in the ground at Lehi, and water came out. When Samson drank, he felt better; he felt strong again. So he named that spring Caller’s Spring, which is still in Lehi.

²⁰ Samson judged Israel for twenty years in the days of the Philistines.

Samson Goes to the City of Gaza

16 One day Samson went to Gaza and saw a prostitute there. He went in to spend the night with her. ² When the people of Gaza heard, “Samson has come here!” they surrounded the place and waited for him near the city gate all night. They whispered to each other, “When dawn comes, we will kill Samson!”

³ But Samson only stayed with the prostitute until midnight. Then he got up and took hold of the doors and the two posts of the city gate and tore them loose, along with the bar. He put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces the city of Hebron.

Samson and Delilah

⁴ After this, Samson fell in love with a woman named Delilah, who lived in the Valley of Sorek. ⁵ The Philistine rulers went to Delilah and said, “Find out what makes Samson so strong. Trick him into telling you how we can overpower him and capture him and tie him up. If you do this, each one of us will give you twenty-eight pounds of silver.”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Tell me why you are so strong. How can someone tie you up and capture you?”

⁷ Samson answered, “Someone would have to tie me up with seven new bowstrings that have not been dried. Then I would be as weak as any other man.”

⁸ The Philistine rulers brought Delilah seven new bowstrings that had not been dried, and she tied Samson with them. ⁹ Some men were hiding in another room. Delilah said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But Samson broke the bowstrings like pieces of burned string. So the Philistines did not find out the secret of Samson’s strength.

¹⁰ Then Delilah said to Samson, “You made a fool of me. You lied to me. Now tell me how someone can tie you up.”

¹¹ Samson said, “They would have to tie me with new ropes that have not been used before. Then I would become as weak as any other man.”

¹² So Delilah took new ropes and tied Samson. Some men were hiding in another room. She called out to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” But he broke the ropes as easily as if they were threads.

¹³ Then Delilah said to Samson, “Again you have made a fool of me. You lied to me. Tell me how someone can tie you up.”

He said, “Using the loom,^[b] weave the seven braids of my hair into the cloth, and tighten it with a pin. Then I will be as weak as any other man.”

While Samson slept, Delilah wove the seven braids of his hair into the cloth. ¹⁴ Then she fastened it with a pin.

Again she said to him, “Samson, the Philistines are here!” Samson woke up and pulled out the pin and the loom with the cloth.

¹⁵ Then Delilah said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when you don’t even trust me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me. You haven’t told me the secret of your great strength.” ¹⁶ She kept bothering Samson about his secret day after day until he felt he was going to die!

¹⁷ So he told her everything. He said, “I have never had my hair cut, because I have been set apart to God as a Nazirite since I was born. If someone shaved my head, I would lose my strength and be as weak as any other man.”

¹⁸ When Delilah saw that he had told her everything sincerely, she sent a message to the Philistine rulers. She said, “Come back one more time, because he has told me everything.” So the Philistine rulers came back to Delilah and brought the silver with them. ¹⁹ Delilah got Samson to sleep, lying in her lap. Then she called in a man to shave off the seven braids of Samson’s hair. In this way she began to make him weak, and his strength left him.

²⁰ Then she said, “Samson, the Philistines are here!”

He woke up and thought, “I’ll leave as I did before and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.

²¹ Then the Philistines captured Samson and tore out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza, where they put bronze chains on him and made him grind grain in the prison. ²² But his hair began to grow again.

Samson Dies

²³ The Philistine rulers gathered to celebrate and to offer a great sacrifice to their god Dagon. They said, “Our god has handed Samson our enemy over to us.” ²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god, saying,

²⁵ While the people were enjoying the celebration, they said, “Bring Samson out to perform for us.” So they brought Samson from the prison, and he performed for them. They made him stand between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson said to the servant holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars that hold up the temple so I can lean against them.” ²⁷ Now the temple was full of men and women. All the Philistine rulers were there, and about three thousand men and women were on the roof^[c]watching Samson perform. ²⁸ Then Samson prayed to the Lord, “Lord God, remember me. God, please give me strength one more time so I can pay these Philistines back for putting out my two eyes!” ²⁹ Then Samson turned to the two center pillars that supported the whole temple. He braced himself between the two pillars, with his right hand on one and his left hand on the other. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with these Philistines!” Then he pushed as hard as he could, causing the temple to fall on the rulers and all the people in it. So Samson killed more of the Philistines when he died than when he was alive.

³¹ Samson’s brothers and his whole family went down to get his body. They brought him back and buried him in the tomb of Manoah, his father, between the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol. Samson was a judge for the people of Israel for twenty years.

Micah’s Idols

17 There was a man named Micah who lived in the mountains of Ephraim. ² He said to his mother, “I heard you speak a curse about the twenty-eight pounds of silver that were taken from you. I have the silver with me; I took it.”

His mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son!”

³ Micah gave the twenty-eight pounds of silver to his mother. Then she said, “I will give this silver to the Lord. I will have my son make an idol and a statue. So I will give the silver back to you.”

⁴ When he gave the silver back to his mother, she took about five pounds and gave it to a silversmith. With it he made an idol and a statue, which stood in Micah’s house. ⁵ Micah had a special holy place, and he made a holy vest and some household idols. Then Micah chose one of his sons to be his priest. ⁶ At that time Israel did not have a king, so everyone did what seemed right.

⁷ There was a young man who was a Levite^[d] from the city of Bethlehem in Judah who was from the people of Judah. ⁸ He left Bethlehem to look for another place to live, and on his way he came to Micah’s house in the mountains of Ephraim. ⁹ Micah asked him, “Where are you from?”

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

¹⁰ Micah said to him, “Live with me and be my father and my priest. I will give you four ounces of silver each year and clothes and food.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ He agreed to live with Micah and became like one of Micah’s own sons. ¹² Micah made him a priest, and he lived in Micah’s house. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know the Lord will be good to me, because I have a Levite as my priest.”

Dan’s Family Captures Laish

18 At that time Israel did not have a king. And at that time the tribe of Dan was still looking for a land where they could live, a land of their own. The Danites had not yet been given their own land among the tribes of Israel. ² So, from their family groups, they chose five soldiers from the cities of Zorah and Eshtaol to spy out and explore the land. They were told, “Go, explore the land.”

They came to the mountains of Ephraim, to Micah’s house, where they spent the night. ³ When they came near Micah’s house, they recognized the voice of the young Levite.^[e] So they stopped there and asked him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing here? Why are you here?”

⁴ He told them what Micah had done for him, saying, “He hired me. I am his priest.”

⁵ They said to him, “Please ask God if our journey will be successful.”

⁶ The priest said to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is pleased with your journey.”

⁷ So the five men left. When they came to the city of Laish, they saw that the people there lived in safety, like the people of Sidon. They thought they were safe and had plenty of everything. They lived a long way from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else.

⁸ When the five men returned to Zorah and Eshtaol, their relatives asked them, “What did you find?”

⁹ They answered, “We have seen the land, and it is very good. We should attack them. Aren’t you going to do something? Don’t wait! Let’s go and take that land! ¹⁰ When you go, you will see there is plenty of land—plenty of everything! The people are not expecting an attack. Surely God has handed that land over to us!”

¹¹ So six hundred Danites left Zorah and Eshtaol ready for war. ¹² On their way they set up camp near the city of Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is why the place west of Kiriath Jearim is named Mahaneh Dan^[f] to this day. ¹³ From there they traveled on to the mountains of Ephraim. Then they came to Micah’s house.

¹⁴ The five men who had explored the land around Laish said to their relatives, “Do you know in one of these houses there are a holy vest, household gods, an idol, and a statue? You know what to do.” ¹⁵ So they stopped at the Levite’s house, which was also Micah’s house, and greeted the Levite. ¹⁶ The six hundred Danites stood at the entrance gate, wearing their weapons of war. ¹⁷ The five spies went into the house and took the idol, the holy vest, the household idols, and the statue. The priest and the six hundred men armed for war stood by the entrance gate.

¹⁸ When the spies went into Micah’s house and took the image, the holy vest, the household idols, and the statue, the priest asked them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ They answered, “Be quiet! Don’t say a word. Come with us and be our father and priest. Is it better for you to be a priest for one man’s house or for a tribe and family group in Israel?” ²⁰ This made the priest happy. So he took the holy vest, the household idols, and the idol and went with the Danites. ²¹ They left Micah’s house, putting their little children, their animals, and everything they owned in front of them.

²² When they had gone a little way from Micah’s house, the men who lived near Micah were called out and caught up with them. ²³ The men with Micah shouted at the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “What’s the matter with you? Why have you been called out to fight?”

²⁴ Micah answered, “You took my gods that I made and my priest. What do I have left? How can you ask me, ‘What’s the matter?’”

²⁵ The Danites answered, “You should not argue with us. Some of our angry men might attack you, killing you and your family.” ²⁶ Then the Danites went on their way. Micah knew they were too strong for him, so he turned and went back home.

²⁷ Then the Danites took what Micah had made and his priest and went on to Laish. They attacked those peaceful people and killed them with their swords and then burned the city. ²⁸ There was no one to save the people of Laish. They lived too far from Sidon, and they had no dealings with anyone else. Laish was in a valley near Beth Rehob.

The people of Dan rebuilt the city and lived there. ²⁹ They changed the name of Laish to Dan, naming it for their ancestor Dan, one of the sons of Israel.

³⁰ The people of Dan set up the idols in the city of Dan. Jonathan son of Gershom, Moses’ son, and his sons served as priests for the tribe of Dan until the land was captured. ³¹ The people of Dan set up the idols Micah had made as long as the Holy Tent of God was in Shiloh.

A Levite and His Servant

19 At that time Israel did not have a king.

There was a Levite who lived in the faraway mountains of Ephraim. He had taken a slave woman from the city of Bethlehem in the land of Judah to live with him, ² but she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah and stayed there for four months. ³ Then her husband went to ask her to come back to him, taking with him his servant and two donkeys. When the Levite came to her father’s house, she invited him to come in, and her father was happy to see him. ⁴ The father-in-law, the young woman’s father, asked him to stay. So he stayed for three days and ate, drank, and slept there.

⁵ On the fourth day they got up early in the morning. The Levite was getting ready to leave, but the woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself by eating something. Then go.” ⁶ So the two men sat down to eat and drink together. After that, the father said to him, “Please stay tonight. Relax and enjoy yourself.” ⁷ When the man got up to go, his father-in-law asked him to stay. So he stayed again that night. ⁸ On the fifth day the man got up early in the morning to leave. The woman’s father said, “Refresh yourself. Wait until this afternoon.” So the two men ate together.

⁹ When the Levite, his slave woman, and his servant got up to leave, the father-in-law, the young woman’s father, said, “It’s almost night. The day is almost gone. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow morning you can get up early and go home.” ¹⁰ But the Levite did not want to stay another night. So he took his two saddled donkeys and his slave woman and traveled toward the city of Jebus (also called Jerusalem).

¹¹ As the day was almost over, they came near Jebus. So the servant said to his master, “Let’s stop at this city of the Jebusites, and spend the night here.”

¹² But his master said, “No. We won’t go inside a foreign city. Those people are not Israelites. We will go on to the city of Gibeah.” ¹³ He said, “Come on. Let’s try to make it to Gibeah or Ramah so we can spend the night in one of those cities.” ¹⁴ So they went on. The sun went down as they came near Gibeah, which belongs to the tribe of Benjamin. ¹⁵ They stopped there to spend the night. They came to the public square of the city and sat down, but no one invited them home to spend the night.

¹⁶ Finally, in the evening an old man came in from his work in the fields. His home was in the mountains of Ephraim, but now he was living in Gibeah. (The people of Gibeah were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷ He saw the traveler in the public square and asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”

¹⁸ The Levite answered, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to my home in the mountains of Ephraim. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah, but now I am going to the Holy Tent of the Lord. No one has invited me to stay in his house. ¹⁹ We already have straw and food for our donkeys and bread and wine for me, the young woman, and my servant. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰ The old man said, “You are welcome to stay at my house. Let me give you anything you need, but don’t spend the night in the public square.” ²¹ So the old man took the Levite into his house, and he fed their donkeys. They washed their feet and had something to eat and drink.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, some wicked men of the city surrounded the house and beat on the door. They shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house. We want to have sexual relations with him.”

²³ The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends. Don’t be so evil. This man is a guest in my house. Don’t do this terrible thing! ²⁴ Look, here are my daughter, who has never had sexual relations before, and the man’s slave woman. I will bring them out to you now. Do anything you want with them, but don’t do such a terrible thing to this man.”

²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his slave woman and sent her outside to them. They forced her to have sexual relations with them, and they abused her all night long. Then, at dawn, they let her go. ²⁶ She came back to the house where her master was staying and fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

²⁷ In the morning when the Levite got up, he opened the door of the house and went outside to go on his way. But his slave woman was lying at the doorway of the house, with her hands on the doorsill. ²⁸ The Levite said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But she did not answer. So he put her on his donkey and went home.

²⁹ When the Levite got home, he took a knife and cut his slave woman into twelve parts, limb by limb. Then he sent a part to each area of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw this said, “Nothing like this has ever happened before, not since the people of Israel came out of Egypt. Think about it. Tell us what to do.”

The War Between Israel and Benjamin

20 So all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba,^[g] including the land of Gilead, joined together before the Lord in the city of Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the tribes of Israel took their places in the meeting of the people of God. There were 400,000 soldiers with swords. ³ (The people of Benjamin heard that the Israelites had gone up to Mizpah.) Then the Israelites said to the Levite, “Tell us how this evil thing happened.”

⁴ So the husband of the murdered woman answered, “My slave woman and I came to Gibeah in Benjamin to spend the night. ⁵ During the night the men of Gibeah came after me. They surrounded the house and wanted to kill me. They forced my slave woman to have sexual relations and she died. ⁶ I took her and cut her into parts and sent one part to each area of Israel because the people of Benjamin did this wicked and terrible thing in Israel. ⁷ Now, all you Israelites, speak up. What is your decision?”

⁸ Then all the people stood up at the same time, saying, “None of us will go home. Not one of us will go back to his house! ⁹ Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will throw lots. ¹⁰ That way we will choose ten men from every hundred men from all the tribes of Israel, and we will choose a hundred men from every thousand, and a thousand men from every ten thousand. These will find supplies for the army. Then the army will go to the city of Gibeah of Benjamin to repay them for the terrible thing they have done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men of Israel were united and gathered against the city.

¹² The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the tribe of Benjamin demanding, “What is this evil thing some of your men have done? ¹³ Hand over the wicked men in Gibeah so that we can put them to death. We must remove this evil from Israel.”

But the Benjaminites would not listen to their fellow Israelites. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites left their own cities and met at Gibeah to fight the Israelites. ¹⁵ In only one day the Benjaminites got 26,000 soldiers together who were trained with swords. They also had 700 chosen men from Gibeah. ¹⁶ Seven hundred of these trained soldiers were left-handed, each of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss!

¹⁷ The Israelites, except for the Benjaminites, gathered 400,000 soldiers with swords.

¹⁸ The Israelites went up to the city of Bethel and asked God, “Which tribe shall be first to attack the Benjaminites?”

The Lord answered, “Judah shall go first.”

¹⁹ The next morning the Israelites got up and made a camp near Gibeah. ²⁰ The men of Israel went out to fight the Benjaminites and took their battle position at Gibeah. ²¹ Then the Benjaminites came out of Gibeah and killed 22,000 Israelites during the battle that day. ^22-23 The Israelites went before the Lord and cried until evening. They asked the Lord, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again?”

The Lord answered, “Go up and fight them.” The men of Israel encouraged each other. So they took the same battle positions they had taken the first day.

²⁴ The Israelites came to fight the Benjaminites the second day. ²⁵ The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah to attack the Israelites. This time, the Benjaminites killed 18,000 Israelites, all of whom carried swords.

²⁶ Then the Israelites went up to Bethel. There they sat down and cried to the Lord and fasted all day until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to the Lord. ²⁷ The Israelites asked the Lord a question. (In those days the Ark of the Agreement with God was there at Bethel. ²⁸ A priest named Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, served before the Ark of the Agreement.) They asked, “Shall we go to fight our relatives, the Benjaminites, again, or shall we stop fighting?”

The Lord answered, “Go, because tomorrow I will hand them over to you.”

²⁹ Then the Israelites set up ambushes all around Gibeah. ³⁰ They went to fight against the Benjaminites at Gibeah on the third day, getting into position for battle as they had done before. ³¹ When the Benjaminites came out to fight them, the Israelites backed up and led the Benjaminites away from the city. The Benjaminites began to kill some of the Israelites as they had done before. About thirty Israelites were killed—some in the fields and some on the roads leading to Bethel and to Gibeah.

³² The Benjaminites said, “We are winning as before!”

But the Israelites said, “Let’s run. Let’s trick them into going farther away from their city and onto the roads.”

³³ All the Israelites moved from their places and got into battle positions at a place named Baal Tamar. Then the Israelites ran out from their hiding places west of Gibeah. ³⁴ Ten thousand of the best trained soldiers from all of Israel attacked Gibeah. The battle was very hard. The Benjaminites did not know disaster was about to come to them. ³⁵ The Lord used the Israelites to defeat the Benjaminites. On that day the Israelites killed 25,100 Benjaminites, all armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.

The Israelites had moved back because they were depending on the surprise attack they had set up near Gibeah. ³⁷ The men in hiding rushed into Gibeah, spread out, and killed everyone in the city with their swords. ³⁸ Now the Israelites had set up a signal with the men in hiding. The men in the surprise attack were to send up a cloud of smoke from the city. ³⁹ Then the army of Israel turned around in the battle.

The Benjaminites had killed about thirty Israelites. They were saying, “We are winning, as in the first battle!” ⁴⁰ But then a cloud of smoke began to rise from the city. The Benjaminites turned around and saw that the whole city was going up in smoke. ⁴¹ Then the Israelites turned and began to fight. The Benjaminites were terrified because they knew that disaster was coming to them. ⁴² So the Benjaminites ran away from the Israelites toward the desert, but they could not escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities killed them. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjaminites and chased them and caught them in the area east of Gibeah. ⁴⁴ So 18,000 brave Benjaminite fighters were killed. ⁴⁵ The Benjaminites ran toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, but the Israelites killed 5,000 Benjaminites along the roads. They chased them as far as Gidom and killed 2,000 more Benjaminites there.

⁴⁶ On that day 25,000 Benjaminites were killed, all of whom had fought bravely with swords. ⁴⁷ But 600 Benjaminites ran to the rock of Rimmon in the desert, where they stayed for four months. ⁴⁸ Then the Israelites went back to the land of Benjamin and killed the people in every city and also the animals and everything they could find. And they burned every city they found.

Wives for the Men of Benjamin

21 At Mizpah the men of Israel had sworn, “Not one of us will let his daughter marry a man from the tribe of Benjamin.”

² The people went to the city of Bethel and sat before God until evening, crying loudly. ³ They said, “Lord, God of Israel, why has this terrible thing happened to us so that one tribe of Israel is missing today?”

⁴ Early the next day the people built an altar and put burnt offerings and fellowship offerings to God on it.

⁵ Then the Israelites asked, “Did any tribe of Israel not come here to meet with us in the presence of the Lord?” They asked this question because they had sworn that anyone who did not meet with them at Mizpah would be killed.

⁶ The Israelites felt sorry for their relatives, the Benjaminites. They said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. ⁷ We swore before the Lord that we would not allow our daughters to marry a Benjaminite. How can we make sure that the remaining men of Benjamin will have wives?” ⁸ Then they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel did not come here to Mizpah?” They found that no one from the city of Jabesh Gilead had come. ⁹ The people of Israel counted everyone, but there was no one from Jabesh Gilead.

¹⁰ So the whole group of Israelites sent twelve thousand soldiers to Jabesh Gilead to kill the people with their swords, even the women and children.

¹¹ “This is what you must do: Kill every man in Jabesh Gilead and every married woman.” ¹² The soldiers found four hundred young unmarried women in Jabesh Gilead, so they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole group of Israelites sent a message to the men of Benjamin, who were at the rock of Rimmon, offering to make peace with them. ¹⁴ So the men of Benjamin came back at that time. The Israelites gave them the women from Jabesh Gilead who had not been killed, but there were not enough women.

¹⁵ The people of Israel felt sorry for the Benjaminites because the Lord had separated the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ The elders of the Israelites said, “The women of Benjamin have been killed. Where can we get wives for the men of Benjamin who are still alive? ¹⁷ These men must have children to continue their families so a tribe in Israel will not die out. ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them, because we swore, ‘Anyone who gives a wife to a man of Benjamin is cursed.’ ¹⁹ We have an idea! There is a yearly festival of the Lord at Shiloh, which is north of the city of Bethel, east of the road that goes from Bethel to Shechem, and south of the city of Lebonah.”

²⁰ So the elders told the men of Benjamin, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch for the young women from Shiloh to come out to join the dancing. Then run out from the vineyards and take one of the young Shiloh women and return to the land of Benjamin. ²² If their fathers or brothers come to us and complain, we will say: ‘Be kind to the men of Benjamin. We did not get wives for Benjamin during the war, and you did not give the women to the men from Benjamin. So you are not guilty.’”

²³ So that is what the Benjaminites did. While the young women were dancing, each man caught one of them, took her away, and married her. Then they went back to the land God had given them and rebuilt their cities and lived there.

²⁴ Then the Israelites went home to their own tribes and family groups, to their own land that God had given them.

²⁵ In those days Israel did not have a king. All the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes.

1 Long ago when the judges^[h] ruled Israel, there was a shortage of food in the land. ² So a man named Elimelech left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live in the country of Moab with his wife and his two sons. His wife was named Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathahites from Bethlehem in Judah. When they came to Moab, they settled there.

³ Then Naomi’s husband, Elimelech, died, and she was left with her two sons. ⁴ These sons married women from Moab. One was named Orpah, and the other was named Ruth. Naomi and her sons had lived in Moab about ten years ⁵ when Mahlon and Kilion also died. So Naomi was left alone without her husband or her two sons.

⁶ While Naomi was in Moab, she heard that the Lord had come to help his people and had given them food again. So she and her daughters-in-law got ready to leave Moab and return home. ⁷ Naomi and her daughters-in-law left the place where they had lived and started back to the land of Judah. ⁸ But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back home, each of you to your own mother’s house. May the Lord be as kind to you as you have been to me and my sons who are now dead. ⁹ May the Lord give you another happy home and a new husband.”

When Naomi kissed the women good-bye, they began to cry out loud. ¹⁰ They said to her, “No, we want to go with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “My daughters, return to your own homes. Why do you want to go with me? I cannot give birth to more sons to give you new husbands; ¹² go back, my daughters, to your own homes. I am too old to have another husband. Even if I told myself, ‘I still have hope’ and had another husband tonight, and even if I had more sons, ¹³ should you wait until they were grown into men? Should you live for so many years without husbands? Don’t do that, my daughters. My life is much too sad for you to share, because the Lord has been against me!”

¹⁴ The women cried together out loud again. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law Naomi good-bye, but Ruth held on to her tightly.

¹⁵ Naomi said to Ruth, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and her own gods. Go back with her.”

Ruth Stays with Naomi

¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Don’t beg me to leave you or to stop following you. Where you go, I will go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. ¹⁷ And where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. I ask the Lord to punish me terribly if I do not keep this promise: Not even death will separate us.”

¹⁸ When Naomi saw that Ruth had firmly made up her mind to go with her, she stopped arguing with her. ¹⁹ So Naomi and Ruth went on until they came to the town of Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, all the people became very excited. The women of the town said, “Is this really Naomi?”

²⁰ Naomi answered the people, “Don’t call me Naomi.^[i] Call me Mara,^[j] because the Almighty has made my life very sad. ²¹ When I left, I had all I wanted, but now, the Lord has brought me home with nothing. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has spoken against me and the Almighty has given me so much trouble?”

²² So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth, the Moabite, returned from Moab and arrived at Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a rich relative named Boaz, from Elimelech’s family.

² One day Ruth, the Moabite, said to Naomi, “I am going to the fields. Maybe someone will be kind enough to let me gather the grain he leaves behind.”

Naomi said, “Go, my daughter.”

³ So Ruth went to the fields and gathered the grain that the workers cutting the grain had left behind. It just so happened that the field belonged to Boaz, from Elimelech’s family.

⁴ Soon Boaz came from Bethlehem and greeted his workers, “The Lord be with you!”

And the workers answered, “May the Lord bless you!”

⁵ Then Boaz asked his servant in charge of the workers, “Whose girl is that?”

⁶ The servant answered, “She is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me follow the workers cutting grain and gather what they leave behind.’ She came and has remained here, from morning until just now. She has stopped only a few moments to rest in the shelter.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Don’t go to gather grain for yourself in another field. Don’t even leave this field at all, but continue following closely behind my women workers. ⁹ Watch to see into which fields they go to cut grain and follow them. I have warned the young men not to bother you. When you are thirsty, you may go and drink from the water jugs that the young men have filled.”

¹⁰ Then Ruth bowed low with her face to the ground and said to him, “I am not an Israelite. Why have you been so kind to notice me?”

¹¹ Boaz answered her, “I know about all the help you have given your mother-in-law after your husband died. You left your father and mother and your own country to come to a nation where you did not know anyone. ¹² May the Lord reward you for all you have done. May your wages be paid in full by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for shelter.”

¹³ Then Ruth said, “I hope I can continue to please you, sir. You have said kind and encouraging words to me, your servant, though I am not one of your servants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz told Ruth, “Come here. Eat some of our bread and dip it in our sauce.”

So Ruth sat down beside the workers. Boaz handed her some roasted grain, and she ate until she was full; she even had some food left over. ¹⁵ When Ruth rose and went back to work, Boaz commanded his workers, “Let her gather even around the piles of cut grain. Don’t tell her to go away. ¹⁶ In fact, drop some full heads of grain for her from what you have in your hands, and let her gather them. Don’t tell her to stop.”

¹⁷ So Ruth gathered grain in the field until evening. Then she separated the grain from the chaff, and there was about one-half bushel of barley. ¹⁸ Ruth carried the grain into town, and her mother-in-law saw how much she had gathered. Ruth also took out the food that was left over from lunch and gave it to Naomi.

¹⁹ Naomi asked her, “Where did you gather all this grain today? Where did you work? Blessed be whoever noticed you!”

Ruth told her mother-in-law whose field she had worked in. She said, “The man I worked with today is named Boaz.”

²⁰ Naomi told her daughter-in-law, “The Lord bless him! He continues to be kind to us—both the living and the dead!” Then Naomi told Ruth, “Boaz is one of our close relatives,^[k] one who should take care of us.”

²¹ Then Ruth, the Moabite, said, “Boaz also told me, ‘Keep close to my workers until they have finished my whole harvest.’”

²² But Naomi said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is better for you to continue working with his women workers. If you work in another field, someone might hurt you.” ²³ So Ruth continued working closely with the workers of Boaz, gathering grain until the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were finished. And she continued to live with Naomi, her mother-in-law.

Naomi’s Plan

3 Then Naomi, Ruth’s mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, I must find a suitable home for you, one that will be good for you. ² Now Boaz, whose young women you worked with, is our close relative.^[l] Tonight he will be working at the threshing floor. ³ Wash yourself, put on perfume, change your clothes, and go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let him know you’re there until he has finished his dinner. ⁴ Watch him so you will know where he lies down to sleep. When he lies down, go and lift the cover off his feet^[m] and lie down. He will tell you what you should do.”

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

⁶ So Ruth went down to the threshing floor and did all her mother-in-law told her to do. ⁷ After his evening meal, Boaz felt good and went to sleep lying beside the pile of grain. Ruth went to him quietly and lifted the cover from his feet and lay down.

⁸ About midnight Boaz was startled and rolled over. There was a woman lying near his feet! ⁹ Boaz asked, “Who are you?”

She said, “I am Ruth, your servant girl. Spread your cover over me, because you are a relative who is supposed to take care of me.”^[n]

¹⁰ Then Boaz said, “The Lord bless you, my daughter. This act of kindness is greater than the kindness you showed to Naomi in the beginning. You didn’t look for a young man to marry, either rich or poor. ¹¹ Now, my daughter, don’t be afraid. I will do everything you ask, because all the people in our town know you are a good woman. ¹² It is true that I am a relative who is to take care of you, but you have a closer relative than I. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning we will see if he will take care of you. If he decides to take care of you, that is fine. But if he refuses, I will take care of you myself, as surely as the Lord lives. So stay here until morning.”

¹⁴ So Ruth stayed near his feet until morning but got up while it was still too dark to recognize anyone. Boaz thought, “People in town must not know that the woman came here to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ So Boaz said to Ruth, “Bring me your shawl and hold it open.”

So Ruth held her shawl open, and Boaz poured six portions of barley into it. Boaz then put it on her head and went back to the city.

¹⁶ When Ruth went back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did you do, my daughter?”

Ruth told Naomi everything that Boaz did for her. ¹⁷ She said, “Boaz gave me these six portions of barley, saying, ‘You must not go home without a gift for your mother-in-law.’”

¹⁸ Naomi answered, “Ruth, my daughter, wait here until you see what happens. Boaz will not rest until he has finished doing what he should do today.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 Boaz went to the city gate and sat there until the close relative he had mentioned passed by. Boaz called to him, “Come here, friend, and sit down.” So the man came over and sat down. ² Boaz gathered ten of the elders of the city and told them, “Sit down here!” So they sat down.

³ Then Boaz said to the close relative, “Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, wants to sell the piece of land that belonged to our relative Elimelech. ⁴ So I decided to tell you about it: If you want to buy back the land, then buy it in front of the people who are sitting here and in front of the elders of my people. But if you don’t want to buy it, tell me, because you are the only one who can buy it, and I am next after you.”

The close relative answered, “I will buy back the land.”

⁵ Then Boaz explained, “When you buy the land from Naomi, you must also marry Ruth, the Moabite, the dead man’s wife. That way, the land will stay in the dead man’s name.”

⁶ The close relative answered, “I can’t buy back the land. If I did, I might harm what I can pass on to my own sons. I cannot buy the land back, so buy it yourself.”

⁷ Long ago in Israel when people traded or bought back something, one person took off his sandal and gave it to the other person. This was the proof of ownership in Israel.

⁸ So the close relative said to Boaz, “Buy the land yourself,” and he took off his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, “You are witnesses today. I am buying from Naomi everything that belonged to Elimelech and Kilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I am also taking Ruth, the Moabite who was the wife of Mahlon, as my wife. I am doing this so her dead husband’s property will stay in his name and his name will not be separated from his family and his hometown. You are witnesses today.”

¹¹ So all the people and elders who were at the city gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who is coming into your home, like Rachel and Leah, who had many children and built up the people of Israel. May you become powerful in the district of Ephrathah and famous in Bethlehem. ¹² As Tamar gave birth to Judah’s son Perez,^[o] may the Lord give you many children through Ruth. May your family be great like his.”

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth home as his wife and had sexual relations with her. The Lord let her become pregnant, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The women told Naomi, “Praise the Lord who gave you this grandson. May he become famous in Israel. ¹⁵ He will give you new life and will take care of you in your old age because of your daughter-in-law who loves you. She is better for you than seven sons, because she has given birth to your grandson.”

¹⁶ Naomi took the boy, held him in her arms, and cared for him. ¹⁷ The neighbors gave the boy his name, saying, “This boy was born for Naomi.” They named him Obed. Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

¹⁸ This is the family history of Perez, the father of Hezron. ¹⁹ Hezron was the father of Ram, who was the father of Amminadab. ²⁰ Amminadab was the father of Nahshon, who was the father of Salmon. ²¹ Salmon was the father of Boaz, who was the father of Obed. ²² Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

Samuel’s Birth

1 There was a man named Elkanah son of Jeroham from Ramathaim in the mountains of Ephraim. Elkanah was from the family of Zuph. (Jeroham was Elihu’s son. Elihu was Tohu’s son, and Tohu was the son of Zuph from the family group of Ephraim.) ² Elkanah had two wives named Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.

³ Every year Elkanah left his town of Ramah and went up to Shiloh to worship the Lord All-Powerful and to offer sacrifices to him. Shiloh was where Hophni and Phinehas, the sons of Eli, served as priests of the Lord. ⁴ When Elkanah offered sacrifices, he always gave a share of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to her sons and daughters. ⁵ But Elkanah always gave a special share of the meat to Hannah, because he loved Hannah and because the Lord had kept her from having children. ⁶ Peninnah would tease Hannah and upset her, because the Lord had made her unable to have children. ⁷ This happened every year when they went up to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. Peninnah would upset Hannah until Hannah would cry and not eat anything. ⁸ Her husband Elkanah would say to her, “Hannah, why are you crying and why won’t you eat? Why are you sad? Don’t I mean more to you than ten sons?”

⁹ Once, after they had eaten their meal in Shiloh, Hannah got up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair near the entrance to the Lord’s house. ¹⁰ Hannah was so sad that she cried and prayed to the Lord. ¹¹ She made a promise, saying, “Lord All-Powerful, see how sad I am. Remember me and don’t forget me. If you will give me a son, I will give him back to you all his life, and no one will ever cut his hair with a razor.”^[p]

¹² While Hannah kept praying, Eli watched her mouth. ¹³ She was praying in her heart so her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk ¹⁴ and said to her, “Stop getting drunk! Throw away your wine!”

¹⁵ Hannah answered, “No, sir, I have not drunk any wine or beer. I am a deeply troubled woman, and I was telling the Lord about all my problems. ¹⁶ Don’t think I am an evil woman. I have been praying because I have many troubles and am very sad.”

¹⁷ Eli answered, “Go! I wish you well. May the God of Israel give you what you asked of him.”

¹⁸ Hannah said, “May I always please you.” When she left and ate something, she was not sad anymore.

¹⁹ Early the next morning Elkanah’s family got up and worshiped the Lord. Then they went back home to Ramah. Elkanah had sexual relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ So Hannah became pregnant, and in time she gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,^[q] saying, “His name is Samuel because I asked the Lord for him.”

Hannah Gives Samuel to God

²¹ Every year Elkanah went with his whole family to Shiloh to offer sacrifices and to keep the promise he had made to God. ²² But one time Hannah did not go with him. She told him, “When the boy is old enough to eat solid food, I will take him to Shiloh. Then I will give him to the Lord, and he will always live there.”

²³ Elkanah, Hannah’s husband, said to her, “Do what you think is best. You may stay home until the boy is old enough to eat. May the Lord do what you have said.” So Hannah stayed at home to nurse her son until he was old enough to eat.

²⁴ When Samuel was old enough to eat, Hannah took him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull, one-half bushel of flour, and a leather bag filled with wine. ²⁵ After they had killed the bull for the sacrifice, Hannah brought Samuel to Eli. ²⁶ She said to Eli, “As surely as you live, sir, I am the same woman who stood near you praying to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed for this child, and the Lord answered my prayer and gave him to me. ²⁸ Now I give him back to the Lord. He will belong to the Lord all his life.” And he worshiped the Lord there.

Hannah Gives Thanks

2 Hannah prayed:

Eli’s Evil Sons

¹¹ Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, but the boy continued to serve the Lord under Eli the priest.

¹² Now Eli’s sons were evil men; they did not care about the Lord. ¹³ This is what the priests would normally do to the people: Every time someone brought a sacrifice, the meat would be cooked in a pot. The priest’s servant would then come carrying a fork that had three prongs. ¹⁴ He would plunge the fork into the pot or the kettle. Whatever the fork brought out of the pot belonged to the priest. But this is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh to offer sacrifices. ¹⁵ Even before the fat was burned, the priest’s servant would come to the person offering sacrifices and say, “Give the priest some meat to roast. He won’t accept boiled meat from you, only raw meat.”

¹⁶ If the one who offered the sacrifice said, “Let the fat be burned up first as usual, and then take anything you want,” the priest’s servant would answer, “No, give me the meat now. If you don’t, I’ll take it by force.”

¹⁷ The Lord saw that the sin of the servants was very great because they did not show respect for the offerings made to the Lord.

Samuel Grows Up

¹⁸ But Samuel obeyed the Lord. As a boy he wore a linen holy vest. ¹⁹ Every year Samuel’s mother made a little coat for him and took it to him when she went with her husband to Shiloh for the sacrifice. ²⁰ When Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, he would say, “May the Lord repay you with children through Hannah to take the place of the boy Hannah prayed for and gave back to the Lord.” Then Elkanah and Hannah would go home. ²¹ The Lord was kind to Hannah, so she became the mother of three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew up serving the Lord.

²² Now Eli was very old. He heard about everything his sons were doing to all the Israelites and how his sons had sexual relations with the women who served at the entrance to the Meeting Tent. ²³ Eli said to his sons, “Why do you do these evil things that the people tell me about? ²⁴ No, my sons. The Lord’s people are spreading a bad report about you. ²⁵ If you sin against someone, God can help you. But if you sin against the Lord himself, no one can help you!” But Eli’s sons would not listen to him, because the Lord had decided to put them to death.

²⁶ The boy Samuel grew physically. He pleased the Lord and the people.

²⁷ A man of God came to Eli and said, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I clearly showed myself to the family of your ancestor Aaron when they were slaves to the king of Egypt. ²⁸ I chose them from all the tribes of Israel to be my priests. I wanted them to go up to my altar, to burn incense, and to wear the holy vest. I also let the family of your ancestor have part of all the offerings sacrificed by the Israelites. ²⁹ So why don’t you respect the sacrifices and gifts? You honor your sons more than me. You grow fat on the best parts of the meat the Israelites bring to me.’