⁷ Now there was a young man from ^(A)Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah; he was a Levite, and ^(B)was staying there.

Wise Men from the East

2 Now after ^(A)Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, ^[a]wise men ^(B)from the East came to Jerusalem,

The Coming Messiah

Elimelech’s Family Goes to Moab

1 Now it came to pass, in the days when ^(A)the judges ^[a]ruled, that there was ^(B)a famine in the land. And a certain man of ^(C)Bethlehem, Judah, went to ^[b]dwell in the country of ^(D)Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelech, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion—^(E)Ephrathites of Bethlehem, Judah. And they went ^(F)to the country of Moab and remained there.

⁵ So they said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for thus it is written by the prophet:

The Levite’s Concubine

19 And it came to pass in those days, ^(A)when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote mountains of Ephraim. He took for himself a concubine from ^(B)Bethlehem in Judah. ² But his concubine played the harlot against him, and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there four whole months.

¹⁵ Included were Kattath, Nahallal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities with their villages.

¹⁹ So ^(A)Rachel died and was buried on the way to ^(B)Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem).