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Rebuilding the Tribe of Benjamin
21 Previously the men of Israel had taken an oath at Mizpah: “Not a man from among us will give his daughter to a Benjaminite as his wife.”
2 The people came to Bethel and remained there before God until evening. They lifted up their voices and wept bitterly. 3 They said, “Why, Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel, that today one tribe has been removed from Israel?”
4 The next day, when the people rose early, they built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and fellowship offerings.
5 Then the Israelites said, “From all the tribes of Israel, was there anyone who did not come up to the assembly of Israel before the Lord?” For they had taken this solemn oath against anyone who did not come up to the Lord at Mizpah: “He will certainly be put to death.”
6 Then the people of Israel felt compassion toward Benjamin, their brother, and they said, “One tribe of Israel is cut off today. 7 What can be done to provide wives for those who remain? We have sworn by the Lord not to give any of our daughters to them as wives.”
8 So then they asked, “Was there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah?” They found that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the assembly at the camp. 9 In fact, when the roll call had been taken, not a man was there from the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead.
10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand powerful warriors and commanded them, “Go and strike down the people who live at Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, including the women and children. 11 This is what you are to do: Every male and every woman who has known the bed of a male, you shall devote to destruction.”
12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young women who were virgins, who had never known a man by lying down with a male. They brought the four hundred women to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.
13 Then the entire assembly sent a message to the Benjaminites who were at the Rock of Rimmon. They extended an offer of peace to them. 14 The Benjaminites then returned, and the Israelites gave them the women that they had kept alive from Jabesh Gilead.
But they did not find enough wives for all of them. 15 Once more the people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had left an empty spot among the tribes of the Lord. 16 So the elders of the assembly asked, “What shall we do to get wives for those who were spared, since the women from Benjamin have been wiped out?” 17 They said, “There must be a way to provide an inheritance for the surviving remnant of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel! 18 But we cannot give them wives from our daughters, because the people of Israel have sworn, ‘Cursed is anyone who gives a woman to Benjamin.’”
19 But then someone said, “Look! There is an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes from Bethel toward Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”
20 So they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards 21 and watch. Then when the daughters of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, come out from the vineyards, and each man should seize a wife for himself from the daughters of Shiloh. Then return to the land of Benjamin. 22 If it happens that their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we will say to them, ‘Be gracious to them, because we failed to capture a woman for each man during the battle, and you did not break your oath that you would not give your daughters, so you will not incur guilt.’”
23 So that is what the Benjaminites did. They grabbed and carried off as many women as they needed from among the dancers. Then they went and returned to their family property, rebuilt their cities, and lived in them.
24 At the same time the Israelites returned from there. Each man returned to the territory of his tribe and clan, each man to his own family property.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did whatever was right in his own eyes.
Ruth and Naomi Come to Bethlehem
1 During the days of the judges,[a] a famine occurred in the land. So a man left Bethlehem in Judah to stay awhile[b] in the territory[c] of Moab—he, his wife, and his two sons. 2 The man’s name was Elimelek, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were from the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah. They entered the territory of Moab and remained there.
3 But Elimelek, Naomi’s husband, died, so she was left with her two sons. 4 They then married Moabite wives. The name of the first was Orpah, and the name of the second was Ruth. They lived there for about ten years. 5 But Naomi’s sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left without her two children and without her husband.
6 Then Naomi set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the territory of Moab, because while she was in the territory of Moab, she had heard that the Lord had graciously visited[d] his people by providing them with food. 7 So she left the place where she had been, and her two daughters-in-law left with her. They set out on the road to return to the land of Judah.
8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back. Both of you return to your mother’s house. May the Lord show you kindness[e] as you have shown kindness to the dead and to me. 9 May the Lord grant that each of you finds security[f] in the house of a husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept loudly.
10 But they said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.”
11 Then Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Am I going to give birth to any more sons[g] who could become your husbands? 12 Turn back, my daughters. Go! For I am too old to be married to another husband. Suppose I say, ‘I have hope, and I will be married to another husband tonight, and I will even give birth to sons.’ 13 Would you wait for them until they grow up? On the basis of that hope would you give up the chance to marry another husband? No, my daughters. It is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has reached out against me.”
14 They once again wept loudly. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth would not let her go.
15 Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Go back! Follow your sister-in-law.”
16 But Ruth said, “Do not urge me to abandon you or to turn back from following you. Because wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you make your home, I will make my home. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. 17 Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely and double it[h] if anything but death[i] separates me from you.”
18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped urging her.
19 Then the two of them traveled until they arrived at Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town became excited over them. The women said, “Is this Naomi?”
20 But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara,[j] because the Almighty has made me very bitter. 21 I went away full, but the Lord brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi? For the Lord has testified against me,[k] and the Almighty has treated me badly.”
22 So Naomi returned with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the territory of Moab. When they entered Bethlehem, it was the beginning of the barley harvest.[l]
4 He had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the piece of land Jacob gave to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there. Then Jesus, being tired from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.[a]
7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)
10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
11 “Sir,” she said, “you don’t even have a bucket, and the well is deep. So where do you get this living water? 12 You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you? He gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his animals.”
13 Jesus answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks the water I will give him will never be thirsty ever again. Rather, the water I will give him will become in him a spring of water, bubbling up to eternal life.”
15 “Sir, give me this water,” the woman said to him, “so I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband, and come back here.”
17 “I have no husband,” the woman answered.
Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say, ‘I have no husband.’ 18 In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
19 “Sir,” the woman replied, “I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshipped on this mountain, but you Jews insist that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”
21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will not worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know. We worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews. 23 But a time is coming and now is here when the real worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for those are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.”
25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”
26 Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”
27 Just then his disciples returned and were surprised that he was talking to a woman. Yet no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking to her?”
28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back into town. She said to the people, 29 “Come, see the man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30 They left the town and came to him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples kept urging him, “Rabbi, eat.”
32 But Jesus said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.”
33 Then the disciples said to each other, “Did anyone bring him something to eat?”
34 Jesus told them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘Four more months and the harvest will be here’? Pay attention to what I am telling you. Open your eyes and look at the fields, because they are already[b] ripe for harvest. 36 The reaper is getting paid and is gathering grain for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37 Indeed in this case the saying is true, ‘One sows, and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap a harvest for which you did no hard work. Others have done the hard work, and you have benefitted from their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony: “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them. And he stayed there two days. 41 Many more believed because of his message. 42 They told the woman, “We no longer believe because of what you said. Now we have heard for ourselves. And we know that this really is the Savior of the world.”
Psalm 105
The Lord Remembers His Covenant
Opening Praise
1 Give thanks to the Lord.
Proclaim[a] his name.
Make his deeds known among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, make music to him.
Meditate on all his wonders.
3 Take pride in his holy name.
Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice.
4 Search for the Lord and his strength.
Seek his face always.
5 Remember the wonders which he has done,
his signs, and the judgments from his mouth,
6 you descendants of Abraham his servant,
you sons of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God.
His judgments are in all the earth.
The Promise of the Covenant
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant which he made with Abraham,
and his oath to Isaac.
10 Yes, he confirmed it to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant.
11 He said, “To you I will give the land of Canaan,
the territory you will possess.”
The Lord Is Faithful in Canaan:
His Protection of the Patriarchs
12 While they were few in number,
just a little group and aliens in the land,
13 they moved around from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people.
14 He did not allow anyone to oppress them,
and he rebuked kings because of them:
15 “Do not touch my anointed ones,
and do not harm my prophets.”
24 Their wealth is a crown for the wise,
but the stupidity of fools is just stupidity.
25 A truthful witness saves lives,
but a liar breathes deceit.
The Holy Bible, Evangelical Heritage Version®, EHV®, © 2019 Wartburg Project, Inc. All rights reserved.