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Chapter 21
Ensuring a Future for Benjamin. 1 [a]The men of Israel took an oath at Mizpah: “None of us will give his daughter in marriage to anyone from Benjamin.” 2 So the people went to Bethel and remained there before God until evening, raising their voices in bitter weeping.(A) 3 They said, “Lord, God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel that today one tribe of Israel should be lacking?” 4 Early the next day the people built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and communion offerings. 5 Then the Israelites asked, “Are there any among all the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord for the assembly?” For there was a solemn oath that anyone who did not go up to the Lord at Mizpah should be put to death.(B)
6 The Israelites were disconsolate over their brother Benjamin and said, “Today one tribe has been cut off from Israel. 7 What can we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them any of our daughters in marriage?” 8 And when they asked, “Is there one among the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord in Mizpah?” they found that none of the men of Jabesh-gilead had come to the encampment for the assembly. 9 A roll call of the people was taken, and none of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead(C) was present. 10 So the assembly sent twelve thousand warriors there with orders, “Go put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword. 11 This is what you are to do: Every male and every woman who has had relations with a male you shall put under the ban.”[b](D) 12 Finding among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgin women, who had not had relations with a man, they brought them to the camp at Shiloh, in the land of Canaan.(E) 13 Then the whole assembly sent word to the Benjaminites at the crag of Rimmon,(F) offering them peace. 14 [c]So Benjamin returned at that time, and they were given as wives the women of Jabesh-gilead who had been spared; but these proved to be not enough for them.
15 The people had regrets about Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach among the tribes of Israel.(G) 16 The elders of the assembly said, “What shall we do for wives for the survivors? For the women of Benjamin have been annihilated.”(H) 17 They said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel. 18 Yet we cannot give them any of our daughters in marriage.” For the Israelites had taken an oath, “Cursed be he who gives a wife to Benjamin!” 19 Then they thought of the yearly feast of the Lord at Shiloh,(I) north of Bethel, east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah. 20 And they instructed the Benjaminites, “Go and set an ambush in the vineyards. 21 When you see the women of Shiloh come out to join in the dances, come out of the vineyards and catch a wife for each of you from the women of Shiloh; then go on to the land of Benjamin. 22 When their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, ‘Release them to us as a kindness, since we did not take a woman for every man in battle. Nor did you yourselves give your daughters to them, thus incurring guilt.’”[d]
23 The Benjaminites did this; they carried off wives for each of them from the dancers they had seized, and they went back each to his own heritage, where they rebuilt the cities and settled them. 24 At that time the Israelites dispersed from there for their own tribes and clans; they set out from there each to his own heritage.
25 [e]In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in their own sight.(J)
Chapter 1
Naomi in Moab. 1 Once back in the time of the judges[f] there was a famine in the land; so a man from Bethlehem of Judah left home with his wife and two sons to reside on the plateau of Moab. 2 The man was named Elimelech, his wife Naomi, and his sons Mahlon and Chilion; they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem of Judah. Some time after their arrival on the plateau of Moab, 3 Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 They married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion died also, and the woman was left with neither her two boys[g] nor her husband.
6 She and her daughters-in-law then prepared to go back from the plateau of Moab because word had reached her there that the Lord had seen to his people’s needs[h] and given them food. 7 She and her two daughters-in-law left the place where they had been living. On the road back to the land of Judah, 8 Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s house.[i] May the Lord show you the same kindness as you have shown to the deceased and to me. 9 (K)May the Lord guide each of you to find a husband and a home in which you will be at rest.” She kissed them good-bye, but they wept aloud, 10 crying, “No! We will go back with you, to your people.” 11 Naomi replied, “Go back, my daughters. Why come with me? Have I other sons in my womb who could become your husbands?[j] 12 Go, my daughters, for I am too old to marry again. Even if I had any such hope, or if tonight I had a husband and were to bear sons, 13 would you wait for them and deprive yourselves of husbands until those sons grew up? No, my daughters, my lot is too bitter for you, because the Lord has extended his hand against me.” 14 Again they wept aloud; then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 “See now,” she said, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!” 16 [k]But Ruth said, “Do not press me to go back and abandon you!
Wherever you go I will go,
wherever you lodge I will lodge.
Your people shall be my people
and your God, my God.
17 Where you die I will die,
and there be buried.
May the Lord do thus to me, and more, if even death separates me from you!” 18 Naomi then ceased to urge her, for she saw she was determined to go with her.
The Return to Bethlehem. 19 So they went on together until they reached Bethlehem. On their arrival there, the whole town was excited about them, and the women asked: “Can this be Naomi?” 20 (L)But she said to them, “Do not call me Naomi [‘Sweet’]. Call me Mara [‘Bitter’], for the Almighty has made my life very bitter. 21 [l](M)I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why should you call me ‘Sweet,’ since the Lord has brought me to trial, and the Almighty has pronounced evil sentence on me.” 22 Thus it was that Naomi came back with her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who accompanied her back from the plateau of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.[m]
The Samaritan Woman. 4 He had to[a] pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar,[b] near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.(A) 6 Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon.
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 His disciples had gone into the town to buy food. 9 [c]The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?”(B) (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) 10 [d]Jesus answered and said to her,(C) “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” 11 [The woman] said to him, “Sir,[e] you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”(D) 13 Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”(E) 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” 17 The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ 18 For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true.”(F) 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.(G) 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain;[f] but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.”(H) 21 Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews.(I) 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth;[g] and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. 24 God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”(J) 25 [h]The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming,(K) the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he,[i] the one who is speaking with you.”(L)
27 At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman,[j] but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?” 28 The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, 29 “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” 30 They went out of the town and came to him. 31 Meanwhile, the disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Could someone have brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to finish his work.(M) 35 Do you not say, ‘In four months[k] the harvest will be here’? I tell you, look up and see the fields ripe for the harvest.(N) 36 The reaper is already[l] receiving his payment and gathering crops for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper can rejoice together.(O) 37 For here the saying is verified that ‘One sows and another reaps.’(P) 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the work, and you are sharing the fruits of their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman[m] who testified, “He told me everything I have done.” 40 When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. 41 Many more began to believe in him because of his word, 42 and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”(Q)
Psalm 105[a]
God’s Fidelity to the Promise
I
1 Give thanks to the Lord, invoke his name;(A)
make known among the peoples his deeds!(B)
2 Sing praise to him, play music;
proclaim all his wondrous deeds!
3 Glory in his holy name;
let hearts that seek the Lord rejoice!
4 Seek out the Lord and his might;
constantly seek his face.(C)
5 Recall the wondrous deeds he has done,
his wonders and words of judgment,
6 You descendants of Abraham his servant,
offspring of Jacob the chosen one!
II
7 He the Lord, is our God
whose judgments reach through all the earth.
8 He remembers forever his covenant,
the word he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 Which he made with Abraham,
and swore to Isaac,(D)
10 And ratified in a statute for Jacob,
an everlasting covenant for Israel:
11 “To you I give the land of Canaan,
your own allotted inheritance.”(E)
III
24 The crown of the wise is wealth;
the diadem of fools is folly.
25 The truthful witness saves lives,
but whoever utters lies is a betrayer.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.