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The Benjaminites Saved from Extinction
21 Now the Israelites had sworn at Mizpah, “No one of us shall give his daughter in marriage to Benjamin.”(A) 2 And the people came to Bethel and sat there until evening before God, and they lifted up their voices and wept bitterly.(B) 3 They said, “O Lord, the God of Israel, why has it come to pass that today there should be one tribe lacking in Israel?” 4 On the next day, the people got up early and built an altar there and offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being.(C) 5 Then the Israelites said, “Who out of all the tribes of Israel did not come up in the assembly to the Lord?” For a solemn oath had been taken concerning whoever did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah, saying, “That one shall be put to death.” 6 But the Israelites had compassion for Benjamin their kin and said, “One tribe is cut off from Israel this day. 7 What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters as wives?”(D)
8 Then they said, “Is there anyone from the tribes of Israel who did not come up to the Lord to Mizpah?” It turned out that no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp, to the assembly. 9 For when the roll was called among the people, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there. 10 So the congregation sent twelve thousand soldiers there and commanded them, “Go, put the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead to the sword, including the women and the little ones. 11 This is what you shall do; every male and every woman who has lain with a male you shall devote to destruction.”(E) 12 And they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man and brought them to the camp at Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.
13 Then the whole congregation sent word to the Benjaminites who were at the rock of Rimmon and proclaimed peace to them.(F) 14 Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh-gilead, but they did not suffice for them.
15 The people had compassion on Benjamin because the Lord had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.(G) 16 So the elders of the congregation said, “What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since there are no women left in Benjamin?” 17 And they said, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, in order that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel. 18 Yet we cannot give any of our daughters to them as wives.” For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed be anyone who gives a wife to Benjamin.”(H) 19 So they said, “Look, the yearly festival of the Lord is taking place at Shiloh, which is north of Bethel, on the east of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem and south of Lebonah.”(I) 20 And they instructed the Benjaminites, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards 21 and watch; when the young women of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards and each of you carry off a wife for himself from the young women of Shiloh and go to the land of Benjamin.(J) 22 Then if their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we will say to them, ‘Be generous and allow us to have them, because we did not capture in battle a wife for each man. But neither did you incur guilt by giving your daughters to them.’ ”(K) 23 The Benjaminites did so; they took wives for each of them from the dancers whom they abducted. Then they went and returned to their territory and rebuilt the towns and lived in them.(L) 24 So the Israelites departed from there at that time by tribes and families, and they went out from there to their own territories.
25 In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.(M)
Elimelech’s Family Goes to Moab
1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a certain man of Bethlehem in Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he and his wife and two sons.(N) 2 The name of the man was Elimelech and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon[a] and Chilion;[b] they were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. They went into the country of Moab and remained there.(O) 3 But Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons. 4 These took Moabite wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, 5 both Mahlon and Chilion also died, so that the woman was left without her two sons and her husband.
Naomi and Her Moabite Daughters-in-Law
6 Then she started to return with her daughters-in-law from the country of Moab, for she had heard in the country of Moab that the Lord had considered his people and given them food.(P) 7 So she set out from the place where she had been living, she and her two daughters-in-law, and they went on their way to go back to the land of Judah. 8 But Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back each of you to your mother’s house. May the Lord deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead and with me.(Q) 9 The Lord grant that you may find security, each of you in the house of your husband.” Then she kissed them, and they wept aloud.(R) 10 They said to her, “No, we will return with you to your people.” 11 But Naomi said, “Turn back, my daughters. Why will you go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb that they may become your husbands?(S) 12 Turn back, my daughters, go your way, for I am too old to have a husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me, even if I should have a husband tonight and bear sons, 13 would you then wait until they were grown? Would you then refrain from marrying? No, my daughters, it has been far more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has turned against me.”(T) 14 Then they wept aloud again. Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.
15 So she said, “Look, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and to her gods; return after your sister-in-law.” 16 But Ruth said,
“Do not press me to leave you,
to turn back from following you!
Where you go, I will go;
where you lodge, I will lodge;
your people shall be my people
and your God my God.(U)
17 Where you die, I will die,
and there will I be buried.
May the Lord do thus to me,
and more as well,
if even death parts me from you!”
18 When Naomi saw that she was determined to go with her, she said no more to her.(V)
19 So the two of them went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they came to Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women said, “Is this Naomi?” 20 She said to them,
“Call me no longer Naomi;[c]
call me Mara,[d]
for the Almighty[e] has dealt bitterly with me.(W)
21 I went away full,
but the Lord has brought me back empty;
why call me Naomi
when the Lord has dealt harshly with[f] me
and the Almighty[g] has brought calamity upon me?”(X)
22 So Naomi returned together with Ruth the Moabite, her daughter-in-law, who came back with her from the country of Moab. They came to Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.(Y)
4 But he had to go through Samaria. 5 So he came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.(A) 6 Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.
7 A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.)[a](B) 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.”(C) 11 The woman said to him, “Sir,[b] you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.”(D) 15 The woman said to him, “Sir,[c] give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”(E)
16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband,’ 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir,[d] I see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you[e] say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.”(F) 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you[f] will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.(G) 22 You[g] worship what you[h] do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.(H) 23 But the hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him.(I) 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”(J) 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.”(K) 26 Jesus said to her, “I am he,[i] the one who is speaking to you.”(L)
27 Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” 28 Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, 29 “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah,[j] can he?”(M) 30 They left the city and were on their way to him.
31 Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work.(N) 35 Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting.(O) 36 The reaper is already receiving[k] wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together.(P) 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’(Q) 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”
39 Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.”(R) 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41 And many more believed because of his word. 42 They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”(S)
Psalm 105
God’s Faithfulness to Israel
1 O give thanks to the Lord; call on his name;
make known his deeds among the peoples.(A)
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him;
tell of all his wonderful works.(B)
3 Glory in his holy name;
let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice.(C)
4 Seek the Lord and his strength;
seek his presence continually.(D)
5 Remember the wonderful works he has done,
his miracles and the judgments he has uttered,(E)
6 O offspring of his servant Abraham,[a]
children of Jacob, his chosen ones.
7 He is the Lord our God;
his judgments are in all the earth.(F)
8 He is mindful of his covenant forever,
of the word that he commanded for a thousand generations,
9 the covenant that he made with Abraham,
his sworn promise to Isaac,(G)
10 which he confirmed to Jacob as a statute,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,(H)
11 saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan
as your portion for an inheritance.”(I)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.