The Daily Audio Bible

Wives for the men of Benjamin's tribe

21 The Israelites had made a promise to the Lord at Mizpah. They agreed together, ‘None of us will allow our daughters to marry a man of Benjamin's tribe.’

² After the war against Benjamin's army, the people went to Bethel to meet with God. They sat there until evening. They could not stop weeping loudly. ³ They said, ‘Lord, Israel's God, why has this terrible thing happened in Israel? We have lost one whole tribe of Israel.’

⁴ The next morning, the people got up early. They built an altar. They offered burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord there.

⁵ Then the Israelites asked, ‘Which people from Israel's tribes did not join us when we all met together at Mizpah?’ They asked this because they had made a serious promise at Mizpah. They had said, ‘We must punish with death anyone who does not join us here to meet with the Lord.’

⁶ The Israelites were very upset about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. They said, ‘We have destroyed a whole tribe of Israel. They were our relatives. ⁷ How can we find women to marry the few men who are left? We all made a serious promise to the Lord that we would not let them marry our daughters.’

⁸ So they asked, ‘When we met with the Lord at Mizpah, which people from all Israel's tribes did not come with us?’ They realized that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the meeting. ⁹ When they had counted the people, there had been no men from Jabesh Gilead among them.

¹⁰ So all the Israelites decided to send an army of 12,000 soldiers to attack Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, ‘Use your swords to kill everyone there, including the women and children. ¹¹ This is what you must do: Kill every male and every woman who has slept with a man. But do not kill the women who have never had sex.’

¹² The Israelite army attacked Jabesh Gilead. They found 400 young women who had not had sex with anyone. They took the women back to their camp at Shiloh in Canaan.

¹³ Then all the Israelites sent a message of peace to the men of Benjamin who were still at the rock of Rimmon. ¹⁴ So the men returned from the rock at that time. The Israelites gave the women of Jabesh Gilead that they had not killed to them. But there were not enough women for all the men of Benjamin.

¹⁵ The Israelite people were very sad about what had happened to Benjamin's tribe. The Lord had caused their tribe to become very weak. ¹⁶ The Israelite leaders asked, ‘How can we find wives for the other men of Benjamin? We killed all their own women. ¹⁷ Benjamin's people who are still alive must have children. If they do not, their whole tribe will disappear. ¹⁸ But we cannot allow our daughters to marry them. We promised that we would never do that. We said, “God himself will punish anyone who allows his daughter to marry a man of Benjamin.” ¹⁹ But every year there is a big feast at Shiloh to give honour to the Lord. That will happen soon.’

Shiloh is north of Bethel and south of Lebonah. It is on the east side of the road from Bethel to Shechem. ²⁰ The Israelites told the men of Benjamin, ‘Go there and hide in the vineyards. ²¹ Watch carefully. When the young women of Shiloh come out to dance at the feast, run out from the vineyards. Each of you should catch one of the young women of Shiloh. Take them home to the land of Benjamin to be your wives. ²² Their fathers or their brothers may come to us and complain. If they do, we will say, “Please agree to help the men of Benjamin. We could not find a wife for each of them in the war. You did not choose to give your daughters to them, so you will not be guilty. The men of Benjamin caught them and took them away.” ’

²³ So that is what the 200 men of Benjamin did. Each of them caught a young woman as she was dancing at the feast. They took them home to their own land to be their wives. They built their towns again and they lived in them.

²⁴ After that, the Israelites left there. They went back home to the places where their tribes and their clans lived.

²⁵ At that time, Israel had no king to rule over them. Everyone did what they thought was right.

Naomi and Ruth

1 ^1-2 There was a time when judges ruled Israel. During that time there was a famine in Judah. A man who lived in Bethlehem, in Judah, had a wife and two sons. His name was Elimelech. Elimelech's wife was called Naomi, and his sons were called Mahlon and Kilion. They were from Ephrathah's clan. Because there was not enough food in Judah, Elimelech and his family left Bethlehem. They went to live as strangers in Moab.^[a]

³ Elimelech died while they were living in Moab. Naomi and her two sons remained there alone. ⁴ Then Naomi's sons married women from Moab. Mahlon married a woman called Ruth. Kilion married a woman called Orpah. ⁵ After they had all lived in Moab for about ten years, both Mahlon and Kilion died. Now Naomi was completely alone, without her husband or her sons.^[b]

⁶ Naomi received news from Judah that the Lord had helped his people.^[c] There was now enough food in Judah again. So Naomi decided to leave Moab and return to Judah with Ruth and Orpah.

⁷ Naomi and her sons' wives left their home in Moab. They began to travel together on the way back to Judah. ⁸ On the way, Naomi said to Ruth and Orpah, ‘Listen! You should return to your mothers' homes in Moab and stay there. Your husbands are dead now. You have been kind to them and to me. I pray that the Lord will be as kind to you. ⁹ I also pray that God will give to each of you another husband and a new home.’ Naomi kissed them and said ‘goodbye’. Ruth and Orpah began to weep loudly. ¹⁰ They said to Naomi, ‘No! We will go with you to live with your people.’

¹¹ But Naomi said, ‘My daughters, you should return to your own country. You should not choose to come back to Judah with me. I will not give birth to any more sons for you to marry them. ¹² Return to your own country, my daughters. I am too old to marry another husband. Even if I did marry a man immediately, when might I give birth to sons? ¹³ I am sure that you do not want to wait until they are old enough for you to marry them! Would you wait all that time and not marry anyone else? So, my daughters, you must not return to Judah with me. You should not have to share my pain. The Lord has turned against me.’

¹⁴ Ruth and Orpah wept loudly again. Orpah kissed Naomi and she said ‘goodbye’. But Ruth would not leave Naomi. She held on to her. ¹⁵ Naomi said to Ruth, ‘Look! Orpah has returned to her family. She has returned to serve the gods of Moab. Go back home with her.’

¹⁶ Ruth said to Naomi, ‘Do not say that I must leave you. I will go with you, wherever you go. I will live wherever you live. You belong to Israel's people. I will belong to them too. Your God will be my God. ¹⁷ I will die in the same place that you die. That is where people will bury me. I will stay beside you until death makes us separate. If I ever leave you, the Lord should punish me.’

¹⁸ Then Naomi understood that Ruth would not agree to return to her own country. So she stopped saying that Ruth should leave her.

Naomi and Ruth arrive in Bethlehem

¹⁹ Naomi and Ruth travelled together to Bethlehem. When they arrived there, the people were very surprised. The women from the town said, ‘Is this really Naomi?’

²⁰ Naomi said to them, ‘Do not call me Naomi. Call me Mara, instead.^[d] The Almighty God has made my life very sad. ²¹ I left here with everything that I needed. Now the Lord has brought me back here with nothing. The Almighty Lord has turned against me, so that I have suffered. It is not right for you to call me Naomi.’

²² That is how Naomi returned from Moab with Ruth. Ruth was from Moab. She was the wife of Naomi's son Mahlon. Naomi and Ruth arrived in Bethlehem when the harvest of barley was beginning.

⁴ On his way, he had to go through Samaria.

⁵ He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar. It was near to the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son, Joseph, many years earlier. ^6-8 Jacob's well was there. Jesus was tired after his journey and he sat down by the well. It was about midday. His disciples had gone to buy food in the town. A woman from Samaria came to the well to get some water. Jesus said to her, ‘Please give a drink to me.’ ⁹ The woman from Samaria said to him, ‘You are a Jew and I am a woman from Samaria. Why would you ask me to give you a drink?’ (The Jews usually do not talk to people who come from Samaria.)^[a]

¹⁰ Jesus answered the woman, ‘You do not know what God could give to you. I asked you to give a drink to me. But you do not know who I am. If you did know, you would have asked me to give a drink to you. Then I would have given to you water that gives life.’ ¹¹ The woman said, ‘Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where can you get this water that gives life? ¹² Jacob, our ancestor, gave this well to us. He, his sons and his sheep, goats and cows all drank its water. Are you saying that you are greater than Jacob?’ ¹³ Jesus answered, ‘Everyone who drinks water from this well will get thirsty again. ¹⁴ But I can give people a different kind of water. Everyone who drinks that kind of water will never get thirsty again. The water that I give them will become like a well inside them. That well will continue to provide water that gives them life for ever with God.’ ¹⁵ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give this water to me. Then I will never get thirsty again. And I will not have to continue to come here so that I can get water.’

¹⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘Go and fetch your husband. Then return here.’ ¹⁷ The woman replied, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right when you say, “I have no husband.” ¹⁸ It is true that you have had five husbands. And now you live with a man who is not your husband. What you have said is completely true.’ ¹⁹ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshipped God on this mountain. But you Jews say that Jerusalem is the right place to worship.’^[b]

²¹ Jesus said to her, ‘Believe me, woman. Soon you will not worship the Father either on this mountain or at Jerusalem. ²² You people from Samaria do not know the one that you worship. But we Jews do know him, because God's salvation comes from among the Jewish people. ²³ But people will soon have a new way to worship the Father. Yes, that time has already come. Those people who really want to worship the Father will worship him in their spirits, in a true way. The Father looks for people who will worship him like that. ²⁴ God is spirit. People who worship him must worship from their spirits in a true way.’

²⁵ The woman said to Jesus, ‘I know that the Messiah will come. He is called Christ. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ ²⁶ Jesus said to her, ‘I, who am speaking to you, am he.’

The disciples return

²⁷ At this moment, Jesus' disciples returned. They were surprised to see that Jesus was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, ‘What do you want?’ or, ‘Why are you talking to her?’ ²⁸ Then the woman left her water pot and she returned to the town. She said to the people there, ²⁹ ‘Come and see a man who has told me everything about myself. He told me all the things that I have ever done! He must be the Messiah!’ ³⁰ So they left the town and they went to find Jesus.

³¹ While that was happening, the disciples said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, eat something.’ ³² But he said to them, ‘I have food that I can eat. But you do not know about it.’ ³³ So the disciples asked each other, ‘Could someone have brought food to him?’ ³⁴ Jesus said to them, ‘My Father has sent me. I must do the things he wants me to do. I must finish the work that he has given to me to do. That is my food. ³⁵ You often say, “It is still four more months until the plants in the farmers' fields will be ready for the harvest.” But I say that you should open your eyes. Look at the fields. The plants are ready for the harvest now. ³⁶ The workers are already bringing in the fruit and their master is paying them. As a result, people are receiving life for ever with God. So the person who plants the seeds will be very happy. And the person who brings in the fruit will also be very happy. Both of them will be happy together. ³⁷ You also say, “One person plants the seeds and another person brings in the fruit.” Now you can see that this is true. ³⁸ I have sent you to bring people to me like a harvest of fruit. You did not do the work to prepare that fruit. Other people did that hard work. Now you have brought in the fruit that they worked for. That makes you happy.’

³⁹ Many of the people who lived in that town in Samaria heard the woman's story. She had said to them, ‘He told me all the things that I have ever done!’ Because of this, they believed in Jesus. ⁴⁰ So when these people came to Jesus, they asked him to stay with them. So he stayed there for two days. ⁴¹ Many more people believed in Jesus when they listened to his own words. ⁴² The people said to the woman, ‘Now we believe in him because we ourselves have heard him. We do not believe only because of what you told us. He really is the man that God has sent to save the world. We know that now.’

God takes care of his people^[a]