Bible in 90 Days

¹³ They said to him, “No, we will bind you securely and give you into their hands, but we will not kill you.” They bound him with two new ropes and took him away from the rock. ¹⁴ He came to Lehi, and the Philistines shouted as they approached him. Then the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him. The ropes on his arms became like burned flax and the ties on his hands dissolved. ¹⁵ Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached out his hand and took it, and with it struck down a thousand men.

¹⁶ Samson said,

¹⁷ When he finished speaking, he threw the jawbone away and called that place Ramath Lehi.

¹⁸ He was very thirsty, and he called out to the Lord, “You gave this great deliverance through Your servant, but now may I die of thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?” ¹⁹ So God split open the basin at Lehi, and water flowed out of it. He drank, was refreshed, and revived. Because of this he called the place En Hakkore, which is in Lehi to this day.

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

Samson and Delilah

16 Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and spent the night with her. ² The people of Gaza were told, “Samson has come here!” So they surrounded him and laid in wait for him all night at the city gate. They kept quiet all night, thinking, “In the morning light we will kill him.”

³ Samson lay until midnight, then at midnight he got up. He grabbed the doors of the city gate and the two gateposts and pulled them out along with the bar. He put them on his shoulder and brought them to the top of the mountain near Hebron.

⁴ After this Samson loved a woman in the Valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah. ⁵ The Philistine rulers came up to her and said, “Trick him! Find out about how his strength is so great and how we can overcome him, bind him, and humiliate him. Each one of us will give you eleven hundred silver coins.^[a]”

⁶ So Delilah said to Samson, “Please tell me how your strength is so great and how you could be bound in order to be subdued.”

⁷ Samson said to her, “If they bind me with seven fresh bowstrings that have not been dried, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”

⁸ So the Philistine rulers brought her seven fresh bowstrings that had not been dried, and she bound him with them. ⁹ They lay in wait in her inner room. She said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” Then he split apart the bowstrings like a single thread is split apart at the touch of fire. So the source of his strength did not become known.

¹⁰ Delilah said to Samson, “You have deceived me. You have told me lies. Now, please tell me how you can be bound.”

¹¹ He said to her, “If they bind me with new ropes that have never been used, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.”

¹² So Delilah took new ropes and bound him with them. Then she said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” For men were lying in wait, remaining in the room. But he split apart the ropes on his arms like a thread.

¹³ Delilah said to Samson, “Up to now you have deceived me. You have told me lies. Tell how you can be bound.”

He said to her, “If you weave seven locks of my hair into the fabric on the loom and fasten it with the pin, then I will become weak and be like an ordinary man.” ¹⁴ So Delilah lulled him to sleep and wove seven locks of his hair into the fabric on the loom. She fastened it with the pin and said to him, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.” He awakened from his sleep and tore away from the loom pin and the fabric.

¹⁵ She said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have deceived me these three times and have not told me how your strength is so great.” ¹⁶ Every day she nagged him with her words and pleaded with him until he was tired to death.

¹⁷ So he told her all his secrets and said to her, “No razor has touched my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I were shaven, my strength would leave me, and I would become weak and be like all other men.”

¹⁸ Delilah saw that he had told her all his secrets, so she sent for the Philistine rulers, saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his secrets.” So the Philistine rulers came up to her and brought the money in their hands. ¹⁹ Delilah lulled Samson to sleep on her knees and called for a man to shave off the seven locks of his hair. Then she began to humiliate him, and his strength left him.

²⁰ She said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson.”

Then he awakened from his sleep and thought, “I will go out as before and shake myself free of them.” He did not know that the Lord had left him.

²¹ The Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They took him down to Gaza, bound him with bronze chains, and he ground grain in prison. ²² Yet after it had been shaven, the hair on his head began to grow back.

The Death of Samson

²³ The Philistine rulers gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate. They said, “Our god has given Samson our enemy into our hands.”

²⁴ The people saw him and praised their god, for they said,

²⁵ When their hearts were merry, they said, “Call for Samson, so he can entertain us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he entertained them.

They placed him between the pillars. ²⁶ Samson said to the young man who held his hand, “Let me rest and touch the pillars on which the temple is set, then I can lean against them.” ²⁷ The temple was full of men and women, and all the Philistine rulers were there. There were about three thousand men and women on the roof watching Samson entertain. ²⁸ Samson called out to the Lord, “Lord God, remember me, I pray! Please strengthen me just this once, God, so that I may get full revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes!” ²⁹ Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the temple was set and leaned against them, one with his right hand and one with his left. ³⁰ Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He pushed with all his strength, and the temple fell upon the rulers and all the people who were in it. At his death he killed more than he had killed in his life.

³¹ Then his brothers and all his family came down, carried him, brought him up, and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the grave of his father Manoah. He had judged Israel for twenty years.

Micah’s Idols

17 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah. ² He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred shekels of silver^[b] that were taken from you, on which you put a curse, even speaking the curse in my ears—here is the silver with me. I took it.”

Then his mother said, “May the Lord bless my son!”

³ Then he returned the eleven hundred silver coins to his mother. His mother said, “I certainly consecrated the silver to the Lord, for my son to make a carved idol and a metal idol, so now I return it to you.”

⁴ When he returned the silver to his mother, she took two hundred shekels of silver^[c] and gave them to a silversmith to make a carved idol and a metal idol. And they were put in the house of Micah.

⁵ This man Micah owned a shrine. He made an ephod and household idols, and he hired one of his sons to be a priest for him. ⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his eyes.

⁷ There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah. He was a Levite from Judah, and he stayed as a resident foreigner there. ⁸ The man went from the city of Bethlehem in Judah to stay wherever he could find a place. He came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to do his work.

⁹ Micah said to him, “Where do you come from?”

He said to him, “I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I can find a place.”

¹⁰ Micah said to him, “Live with me, and be a father and a priest for me. I will give you ten silver coins^[d] a year, a set of clothes, and food.” So the Levite went in. ¹¹ The Levite decided to live with the man, and the young man became like one of his sons. ¹² Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest and lived in the house of Micah. ¹³ Then Micah said, “Now I know that the Lord will do good for me, for I have a Levite to be my priest.”

The Danites Settle in Laish

18 In those days there was no king in Israel.

And in those days the tribe of the Danites was looking for an inheritance in which to live, for no territory had come into their possession among the tribes of Israel up to that time. ² So the children of Dan sent out from their families five valorous men from Zorah and Eshtaol in order to spy out and explore the land. They said to them, “Go, explore the land.”

They came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and they spent the night there. ³ When they were at the house of Micah, they noticed the speech of the young Levite. They turned aside and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in this place? What is your business here?”

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

⁵ They said to him, “Please ask God if we may know whether our mission will be a success as we go to do it.”

⁶ The priest said to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is watching the way you are going.”

⁷ The five men went away and came to Laish. They saw the people who were there, living securely according to the culture of the Sidonians. There were no rulers in the land who might put them to shame for anything. They were far from the Sidonians and had no ties with anyone.

⁸ When they came back to their brothers in Zorah and Eshtaol, their brothers asked them, “What do you have to say?”

⁹ They said, “Get up! Let us go up against them, for we have seen the land. It is very good. You are silent, but do not hesitate to go to take the land. ¹⁰ When you go, you will come to a secure people and to an expansive land. For God has given it into your hands: a place where there is no lack of anything on the earth.”

¹¹ So six hundred fully armed men set out from the family of the Danites, from Zorah and Eshtaol. ¹² They went up and set up camp in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. Therefore they call that place Mahaneh Dan to this day. It is west of Kiriath Jearim. ¹³ From there they passed the hill country of Ephraim and came to the house of Micah.

¹⁴ The five men who went to spy out the land of Laish said to their brothers, “Did you know that in these houses are an ephod, household idols, a carved image, and a metal idol? Now think about what to do.” ¹⁵ So they turned aside there and came to the house of the young Levite, to the house of Micah, and greeted him. ¹⁶ The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war, who were the children of Dan, stood at the entrance to the gate. ¹⁷ The five men who went to spy out the land went in and took the carved idol, ephod, household idols, and the metal idol. The priest was standing at the entrance to the gate with the six hundred fully armed men.

¹⁸ When these men went into the house of Micah and took the carved idol, ephod, household idols, and the metal idol, the priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ They said to him, “Quiet! Put your hand over your mouth and go with us. Be a father and priest for us. Is it better to be a priest for one man’s house or for a tribe and a family in Israel?” ²⁰ So the priest’s heart was glad. He took the ephod, the household idols, and the carved image and went among the people. ²¹ So they turned and left, putting the children, livestock, and valuables in front of them.

²² They had gone far from the house of Micah, but the neighbors of Micah assembled and caught up to the children of Dan. ²³ They called out to the children of Dan. So they turned and said to Micah, “What is wrong that have you assembled together?”

²⁴ He said, “You took the gods that I made, and the priest, and then you left. What do I have left? So what is this that you say to me, ‘What is wrong?’ ”

²⁵ The children of Dan said to him, “Do not let us hear your voice again. Otherwise bitter men might meet you and you will forfeit your life and the lives of your family.” ²⁶ So the children of Dan went their way. And when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.

²⁷ They took what Micah had made and his priest, and came to Laish to a quiet and secure people. They struck them down with the edge of the sword and burned the city with fire. ²⁸ There was no one to save them because the city was far from Sidon and had no contact with anyone. It was in the valley by Beth Rehob.

They rebuilt the city and lived there. ²⁹ They called the city Dan, after their father Dan, who was born to Israel (Laish was the former name of the city). ³⁰ The children of Dan set up the carved idol for themselves. Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan until the time of exile from the land. ³¹ So they displayed Micah’s graven image that he had made, for the whole time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

A Levite and His Concubine

19 In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living as resident foreigner in a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim. He took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah. ² Yet his concubine became angry with him and went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah. She was there for four months. ³ Her husband got up and went after her in order to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. His servant and two donkeys were with him. When he came to her father’s house, the girl’s father saw him and was happy to meet with him. ⁴ His father-in-law, the girl’s father, prevailed upon him to stay with him for three days. So they ate and drank and spent the night there.

⁵ On the fourth day they woke up early in the morning. He got ready to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Strengthen yourself with a little food, and then you can go.” ⁶ So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Please spend the night and let your heart be merry.” ⁷ The man got up to go, but his father-in-law urged him until he turned back and spent the night there. ⁸ He got up early in the morning on the fifth day to go. The girl’s father said, “Please, strengthen yourself and wait until later in the day.” So the two of them ate.

⁹ Then the man got up to go: he, his concubine, and his servant. His father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! It is getting dark. Spend the night! Settle in and spend the night here, let your heart be merry. You can get up early tomorrow and go home.” ¹⁰ Yet the man did not want to spend the night, so he got up and left and approached Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). Two saddled donkeys and his concubine were with him.

¹¹ When they were near Jebus, it was getting very late. The servant said to his master, “Come, let us turn aside to this Jebusite city and spend the night in it.”

¹² His master said to him, “We must not turn aside to a city of foreigners, who are not children of Israel. We will continue on to Gibeah.” ¹³ He said to his servant, “Come, let us go to one of these places. We will spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.” ¹⁴ They continued and went on. The sun went down when they were near Gibeah in Benjamin. ¹⁵ So they turned aside there to go and spend the night in Gibeah. They went in and sat in the city square, but no one took them in to spend the night.

¹⁶ Just then, an old man came in at evening time from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim and lived as a resident foreigner in Gibeah, but the townspeople were Benjamites. ¹⁷ He looked up and saw the traveler in the city square. The old man said, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”

¹⁸ He said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote part of the hill country of Ephraim. I am from there. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of the Lord. No one has taken me into his home. ¹⁹ Yet there is enough straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me, your maidservant, and the young man who is with your servant. We do not lack anything.”

²⁰ The old man said, “Do not worry. I will take care of whatever you need. Just do not spend the night in the city square.” ²¹ So he brought him into his house and gave food to his donkeys. They washed their feet, ate, and drank.

²² While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, who were wicked men, surrounded the house and pounded on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house, so we can have relations with him.”

²³ The master of the house went out to them and said, “No, my brothers, do not commit this evil act, not after this man has come into my house. Do not commit this disgrace. ²⁴ Here are my virgin daughter and the man’s concubine. Let me bring them out to you. Ravish them and do to them what you please. But do not commit this vile act against this man.”

²⁵ The men were unwilling to listen to him, so the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them in the street. They knew her and abused her all night until morning. As the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ The woman came back at daybreak and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, lying there until it was light.

²⁷ Her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house. He went out to go on his way, but there was the woman, his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ He said to her, “Get up, let us be going,” but there was no answer. So the man put her on a donkey and went home.

²⁹ When he got home, he took a knife and seized his concubine, then cut her body into twelve pieces. Then he sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw this said, “Nothing like this has been done or seen since the day the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt until today. Consider it, take counsel, and speak up!”

The Children of Israel Punish the Benjamites

20 All the children of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and also from the land of Gilead, went out and gathered together in an assembly as one man before the Lord at Mizpah. ² The leaders of all the people from all the tribes of Israel presented themselves in an assembly of the people of God, who numbered four hundred thousand infantrymen bearing swords. ³ (The Benjamites heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, “Tell how this evil happened!”

⁴ So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “My concubine and I came to Gibeah, in Benjamin, to spend the night. ⁵ Then the leaders of Gibeah rose up against me. At night they surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead they ravished my concubine so that she died. ⁶ I seized my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel, because they committed an infamous and disgraceful act in Israel. ⁷ Now, all of you are children of Israel. Give your advice and counsel here.”

⁸ All the people arose as one man and said, “Not a man among us will go to his tent, and no one will turn aside to his house. ⁹ Now this is what we will do to Gibeah. We will go against it by lot. ¹⁰ We will take ten men out of every hundred, from every tribe of Israel, a hundred from every thousand, and a thousand from every ten thousand, to bring provisions for the troops. Then when they come to Gibeah in Benjamin, they may repay them for all the evil that they committed in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the men of Israel gathered at the city, united like one man.

¹² The tribes of Israel sent men throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What is this evil that has been committed among you? ¹³ Now hand over the wicked men in Gibeah, so that we can kill them and purge the evil from Israel.”

Yet the Benjamites were not willing to listen to their fellow children of Israel. ¹⁴ The Benjamites gathered from their cities at Gibeah in order to go out and wage war against the children of Israel. ¹⁵ That day, the Benjamites mustered twenty-six thousand armed men from the cities and seven hundred specially chosen men from Gibeah. ¹⁶ Out of all these people there were seven hundred specially chosen men who were left-handed, all of whom could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

¹⁷ The men of Israel, apart from Benjamin, gathered four hundred thousand armed men who drew the sword; all of them were men of war.

¹⁸ The children of Israel arose, went up to Bethel, and asked God, “Who should go up first to wage war against the Benjamites?”

The Lord said, “Judah first.”

¹⁹ The children of Israel got up in the morning and camped against Gibeah. ²⁰ The men of Israel went out for battle with Benjamin, and the men of Israel lined up for battle at Gibeah. ²¹ Then the Benjamites came out from Gibeah and struck twenty-two thousand Israelite men down to the ground. ²² The people, the men of Israel, rallied and lined up for battle again in the place where they had lined up on the first day. ²³ Then the children of Israel went up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we advance and fight our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites again?”

The Lord said, “Advance against them.”

²⁴ So the children of Israel advanced against the Benjamites for the second day. ²⁵ And on the second day, the Benjamites went out from Gibeah to meet them and again struck eighteen thousand men down to the ground, every one of them armed.

²⁶ Then all the children of Israel, all the people, went up to Bethel where they wept and sat before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. ²⁷ The children of Israel asked the Lord (because the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, ²⁸ and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it then), “Should we go out again to wage war with our brother-tribesmen the Benjamites, or should we not?”

The Lord said, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hands.”

²⁹ So Israel set an ambushing force around Gibeah. ³⁰ The children of Israel went up against the Benjamites on the third day and lined up at Gibeah as before. ³¹ The Benjamites went out to engage the people and were drawn away from the city. They began to strike the people down as before. On the main roads that go up to Bethel and Gibeah and in the field, they struck down about thirty children of Israel. ³² The Benjamites said, “They are struck down before us like at the beginning.” But the children of Israel said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city toward the main roads.”

³³ So all the men of Israel rose up out of their place and assumed their battle positions at Baal Tamar. Then the men of Israel in ambush charged out of their places, out of the meadows of Gibeah. ³⁴ Ten thousand specially chosen men from all of Israel came against Gibeah. The battle was fierce, and the Benjamites did not know that disaster was upon them. ³⁵ The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the children of Israel struck down twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjamites, every one of them armed. ³⁶ The Benjamites saw that they were defeated.

Now the men of Israel had withdrawn from Benjamin, because they relied on the men in ambush whom they had set against Gibeah. ³⁷ So the ambushing force rushed on and attacked Gibeah. They struck down the whole city with the edge of the sword. ³⁸ The men of Israel had made an agreement with the ambushing force that when they sent up a large amount of smoke from the city, ³⁹ the children of Israel would turn around in battle.

When the Benjamites had begun to strike the children of Israel down, about thirty men, they said, “Surely they are struck down before us like at the beginning.” ⁴⁰ Yet when the smoke began to rise up from the city in a column, the Benjamites looked behind them and suddenly noticed the whole city going up in smoke to the sky. ⁴¹ Then the men of Israel turned around, and the men of Benjamin were horrified because they saw that disaster had come on them. ⁴² So they fled from the men of Israel toward the direction of the wilderness, but the battle overtook them. Whoever came out of the cities destroyed them in their midst. ⁴³ They surrounded the Benjamites, chased them without rest, and trampled them down near Gibeah toward the east. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand men from Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor. ⁴⁵ The rest turned and fled toward the wilderness to Rimmon Rock, and they cut down five thousand men on the main roads. They pursued them relentlessly until they reached Gidom and killed two thousand of them.

⁴⁶ So the Benjamites who fell that day numbered twenty-five thousand, every one of them armed, valorous men. ⁴⁷ However, six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness, to Rimmon Rock. They dwelled at Rimmon Rock for four months. ⁴⁸ Yet the men of Israel turned back against the Benjamites and struck them with the edge of the sword—city inhabitants, animals, and everything that could be found. Indeed, they set on fire every city that could be found.

Wives for the Benjamites

21 In Mizpah the men of Israel had taken an oath: “No one among us will give his daughter to a Benjamite as his wife.”

² So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening. They raised their voices and wept, sobbing loudly. ³ They said, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today a tribe is missing from Israel?”

⁴ In the morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.

⁵ The children of Israel said, “Who from all the tribes of Israel did not go up with the assembly to the Lord?” For they vowed a solemn oath regarding whoever did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah stating, “He must be killed.”

⁶ The children of Israel lamented for Benjamin their brother, and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel today. ⁷ What can we do to find wives for those who are left? For we swore by the Lord not to give them our daughters as wives.” ⁸ So they said, “Is there anyone from among the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah?” Then they learned that no one from the camp of Jabesh Gilead had come to the assembly. ⁹ When the people were counted, indeed, there was not a man there from among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead.

¹⁰ So the assembly sent twelve thousand valorous men there and commanded them, “Go and strike down the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including women and children. ¹¹ This is what you will do: You will kill every man and every woman who has slept with a man.” ¹² So among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead they found four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³ Then the whole assembly sent someone to speak to the Benjamites who were at Rimmon Rock, and they declared peace. ¹⁴ So the Benjamites returned at that time, and they gave to them the women who were still alive from among the women of Jabesh Gilead. Yet they did not find enough for them.

¹⁵ The people felt sorry for Benjamin, for the Lord had made a gap among the tribes of Israel. ¹⁶ The elders of the assembly said, “What can we do to find wives for those who are left? The Benjamite women were destroyed.” ¹⁷ They said, “There must be an inheritance for the remnant of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel. ¹⁸ Yet we cannot give them our daughters for wives, for the children of Israel swore, ‘Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.’ ” ¹⁹ They said, “Wait! There is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

²⁰ So they commanded the Benjamites, “Go and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch, and then when the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, come out from the vineyards and have every man grab a wife for himself from among the daughters of Shiloh. Then go to the land of Benjamin. ²² When their fathers or their brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Be favorable to them for our sakes, because we did not take for each man a wife in the battle; for you have not given women to them at the time, thereby making yourselves guilty.’ ”

²³ So the Benjamites did this. They carried away wives for each man from among the dancers that they caught. Then they returned to their inheritance, rebuilt the cities, and lived in them.

²⁴ At that time, the children of Israel departed from there each man to his tribe and to his family. They went out from there to their own inheritance.

²⁵ In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Naomi Loses

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the land of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons. ² The name of the man was Elimelek, the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to Moab and lived there.

³ Now Elimelek, the husband of Naomi, died, so she was left alone with her two sons. ⁴ They took Moabite wives for themselves; the name of one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. They lived there about ten years. ⁵ Then Mahlon and Kilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and her husband.

⁶ So she got up with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for in the land of Moab, she had heard that the Lord had visited His people by giving them food. ⁷ She set out from the place where she had been, with her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each to her mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with your deceased husbands and with me. ⁹ May the Lord grant that you each find rest in the house of another husband.”

Then she kissed them, and they raised their voices and wept aloud. ¹⁰ They said to her, “We will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there sons in my womb, who could become your husbands? ¹² Turn back, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought that there was still hope for me, that I could have a husband tonight and give birth to sons, ¹³ would you wait until they were grown? Would you refrain from getting married? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, for the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”

¹⁴ Then they raised their voices and wept aloud once more. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth clung to her.

¹⁵ Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and her gods. Return with her!”

¹⁶ But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to leave you or to turn back from following you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people shall be my people and your God my God. ¹⁷ Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord do thus to me, and worse, if anything but death separates you and me!” ¹⁸ When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.

¹⁹ So they both went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰ But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, because the Almighty has brought great bitterness to me. ²¹ I was full when I left, but the Lord has caused me to return empty. Why should you call me Naomi when the Lord has opposed me? The Almighty has brought misfortune upon me!”

²² So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law. They came to Bethlehem at the start of the spring barley harvest.

Ruth Meets Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative of her husband, a man of prominence and means from the clan of Elimelek. His name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please let me go into the field and glean among the heads of grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go, my daughter.” ³ So she went to glean in the field behind the harvesters. She happened to come to a part of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelek.

⁴ Just then Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!”

And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ So the servant who was in charge of his harvesters answered, “She is the young Moabitess woman who came back with Naomi from the land of Moab. ⁷ She said, ‘Please let me glean and gather grain among the bundles behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has remained from morning until now, though she rested a little while in the house.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field and leave this one. Stay close to my young women. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field in which they reap and follow after them. I have commanded the men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, go to the vessels and drink from what the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should acknowledge me, a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz answered and said to her, “I have been told all that you have done for your mother-in-law after the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your homeland and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May the Lord reward your deeds. May you have a full reward from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ Then she said, “May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken kindly to your servant, though I am not like one of your servant girls.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here, and eat some bread, and dip your piece in the vinegar.”

So she sat down beside the harvesters, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate and was full and had some left over. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, “Let her glean even among the bundles, and do not harm her. ¹⁶ Also pull out some grain for her from the bundles and leave it so that she may glean it, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. Then she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah^[e] of barley. ¹⁸ She took it up and went into the city, and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. She drew it out and gave her what she had left, after she had been satisfied.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law said to her, “Where did you glean today, and where did you work? May he who took notice of you be blessed.”

So she told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.”

²⁰ Then Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed of the Lord who has not withdrawn His kindness to the living and to the dead.” Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours, one of our redeeming relatives.”

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even told me, ‘You should stay close to my servants until they have finished all my harvest.’ ”

²² Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, “It is better, my daughter, that you go with his young women, for in someone else’s field you might be harmed.”

²³ So she stayed close to the young women of Boaz to glean until the end of barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

Ruth’s Redemption

3 One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, why should I not find a home that will be good for you? ² Now is not Boaz our relative, with whose young women you have been working? Tonight he winnows barley on the threshing floor. ³ Now wash and anoint yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but do not let the man know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ When he lies down, notice the place where he is lying. Go in and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what you will do.”

⁵ She said to her, “All that you say to me I will do.” ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did all that her mother-in-law had instructed.

⁷ When Boaz had eaten and drunk and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth came softly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ At midnight, the man was startled and rolled over; and there, a woman was lying at his feet.

⁹ He said, “Who are you?”

And she answered, “I am Ruth, your maidservant. Spread your cloak over me, for you are a redeeming kinsman.”

¹⁰ He said, “May you be blessed of the Lord, my daughter. You have shown your last act of kindness to be greater than the first, because you have not pursued young men, whether poor or rich. ¹¹ So now, my daughter, do not worry. All that you ask me, I will do for you. All of my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character. ¹² Now it is true that I am a redeeming kinsman. Yet there is another redeemer closer than I am. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning if he wants to redeem you, very well. Let him do so. Yet if he does not want to redeem you, then I will redeem you. I will, as the Lord lives! Sleep here until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but she arose before one could recognize another. Then he said, “It must not be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”

¹⁵ He said, “Bring me the shawl you have on you, and hold it.” So she held it, and he poured six measures of barley into it and placed it on her. Then she went into the city.

¹⁶ When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi said, “How did it go, my daughter?”

Then she told her all that Boaz had done for her. ¹⁷ She said, “He gave me these six ephahs of barley, for he said to me, ‘Do not return to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’ ”

¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Wait here, my daughter, until you learn what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”

Boaz Marries Ruth

4 So Boaz went up to the gate and sat down there. And now the redeemer of whom he had spoken passed by, and Boaz said, “Come over, friend, and sit here.” So he went over and sat down.

² Then Boaz took ten men from among the elders of the town and said, “Sit here.” So they sat down. ³ He said to the redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from the land of Moab, must sell the plot of land belonging to our brother Elimelek. ⁴ I thought I should inform you and say, ‘Buy it in the presence of those sitting here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if you will not redeem it, tell me so that I know, for there is no one prior to you to redeem it, and I am next after you.’ ”

So he said, “I will redeem it.”

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased, to perpetuate the name of the deceased through his inheritance.”

⁶ The redeemer replied, “I am not able to redeem it for myself lest I ruin my own inheritance. Take my redemption rights for yourself, for I cannot do it.”

⁷ (Now this was the custom in ancient times in Israel for redeeming and exchanging: to confirm a transaction, a man would remove his sandal and give it to his neighbor. This was a binding act in Israel.)

⁸ Therefore the redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself,” and he removed his sandal.

⁹ Then Boaz said to the elders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have bought everything that belonged to Elimelek, Kilion, and Mahlon from Naomi. ¹⁰ Moreover I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, in order to preserve the name of the deceased man for his inheritance, so that his name will not be cut off from among his brothers or from his town. You are witnesses this day.”

¹¹ Then all the people who were at the gate, along with the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming to your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you do well in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem! ¹² May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, through the offspring that the Lord will give you by this young woman.”

The Genealogy of David

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When they came together, the Lord enabled her to conceive, and she bore a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be the Lord, who has not left you without a redeemer. May he become famous in Israel! ¹⁵ He will be a comfort for your soul and support you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶ Then Naomi took the child, laid him on her lap, and became his nurse. ¹⁷ The neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi!” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸ Now these are the descendants of Perez:

The Birth of Samuel

1 Now there was a certain man from Ramathaim Zuphim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² And he had two wives; the name of one was Hannah and the name of the second was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

³ This man went up out of his city annually to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of Hosts in Shiloh. And there the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the Lord. ⁴ When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters. ⁵ But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved Hannah, but the Lord had closed her womb. ⁶ Now her rival provoked her greatly, making her miserable because the Lord had closed her womb. ⁷ Thus it was yearly, when she went up to the house of the Lord, that she provoked her. So Hannah wept and did not eat. ⁸ Then said Elkanah her husband to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? And why do you not eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹ So Hannah arose after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a seat by the door of the tabernacle of the Lord. ¹⁰ And she was bitter, and prayed to the Lord, and wept severely. ¹¹ So she made a vow and said, “O Lord of Hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant, and remember me and not forget Your maidservant, but will give to Your maidservant a baby boy, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”^[f]

¹² And as she was praying before the Lord, Eli watched her mouth. ¹³ Now Hannah was speaking in her heart. Her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ So Eli said to her, “How long will you be drunk? Put away your wine from you.”

¹⁵ And Hannah answered and said, “No, my lord, I am a woman of sorrow. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. ¹⁶ Do not consider your handmaid to be a sinful woman, for out of the abundance of my concern and provocation I have spoken until now.”

¹⁷ Then Eli answered and said, “Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant you your request that you have asked of Him.”

¹⁸ And she said, “Let your handmaid find grace in your sight.” So the woman went her way and ate, and her face was not sad as before.

¹⁹ They rose up in the morning early and worshipped before the Lord. And they returned and came to their house to Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ And it came to pass that Hannah conceived and bore a son. And she called his name Samuel saying, “Because I have asked him of the Lord.”

The Dedication of Samuel

²¹ Then the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow. ²² But Hannah did not go, for she said to her husband, “I will not go up until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and live there forever.”

²³ So Elkanah her husband said to her, “Do what seems good to you. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the Lord establish His word.” So the woman remained, and nursed her son until she weaned him.

²⁴ When she had weaned him, she took him up with her with three bulls, one ephah^[g] of flour, and a bottle of wine. And she brought him to the house of the Lord in Shiloh, though the boy was young. ²⁵ Then they slaughtered a bull, and they brought the boy to Eli. ²⁶ And she said, “Oh, my lord! As you live, my lord, I am the woman that stood by you here praying to the Lord. ²⁷ For this boy I prayed, and the Lord has given me my petition which I asked of Him. ²⁸ Therefore also I have let the Lord have him. As long as he lives he will be dedicated to the Lord.” And he worshipped the Lord there.

The Prayer of Hannah

2 Hannah prayed, saying:

¹¹ Then Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the boy ministered to the Lord before Eli the priest.

Wicked Sons of Eli

¹² Now the sons of Eli were corrupt. They did not know the Lord. ¹³ The priest’s custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest’s servant came while the flesh was cooking with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or cauldron, or pot, and all that the fork brought up the priest took for himself. This they did in Shiloh to all the children of Israel who came there. ¹⁵ Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s servant would come and say to the man sacrificing, “Give meat for the priest to roast. For he will not take boiled meat from you, but only raw.”

¹⁶ If any man said to him, “Let them first burn the fat and then take as much as you wish,” then he would answer him, “No, but you will give it to me now, and if not, I will take it by force.”

¹⁷ Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord. For the men treated the offering of the Lord with contempt.

God Blesses Hannah

¹⁸ But Samuel ministered before the Lord, as a boy, wearing a linen ephod. ¹⁹ Now his mother would make him a little coat and brought it to him every year when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice. ²⁰ And Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife and say, “The Lord give you offspring from this woman for the sake of the request which was made to the Lord.” Then they would return to their home. ²¹ The Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters. And the boy Samuel grew before the Lord.

Eli Confronts Hophni and Phinehas

²² Now Eli was very old, and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, even that they lay with the women who served at the doorway of the tent of meeting. ²³ He said to them, “Why are you doing these things? For I am hearing of your evil dealings from all these people. ²⁴ No, my sons! Truly, it is not a good report that I hear the people of the Lord spreading. ²⁵ If one man sins against another, God will judge him, but if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?” But they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them.

²⁶ Now the boy Samuel was growing both in stature and favor with the Lord and also with men.

God’s Case Against the House of Eli

²⁷ A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Did I not plainly reveal Myself to the house of your father, when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh’s house? ²⁸ And choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before Me? And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings made by fire by the children of Israel? ²⁹ Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering, which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?’