Study Desk

When Rachel died, she was buried beside the road to Ephrath, now known as Bethlehem.

I am doing this because of your mother Rachel. To my great sorrow she died in the land of Canaan, not far from Ephrath, as I was returning from Mesopotamia. I buried her there beside the road to Ephrath." (Ephrath is now known as Bethlehem.)

It included Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah, and Bethlehem: twelve cities, along with the towns around them.

After Jephthah, Ibzan from Bethlehem led Israel.

then he died and was buried at Bethlehem.

At that same time there was a young Levite who had been living in the town of Bethlehem in Judah.

He left Bethlehem to find another place to live. While he was traveling, he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.

Micah asked him, "Where do you come from?" He answered, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah. I am looking for a place to live."

In those days before Israel had a king, there was a Levite living far back in the hill country of Ephraim. He took a young woman from Bethlehem in Judah to be his concubine.

But she became angry with him, went back to her father's house in Bethlehem, and stayed there four months.

The Levite answered, "We have been in Bethlehem in Judah, and now we are on our way home deep in the hill country of Ephraim. No one will put us up for the night,

Long ago, in the days before Israel had a king, there was a famine in the land. So a man named Elimelech, who belonged to the clan of Ephrath and who lived in Bethlehem in Judah, went with his wife Naomi and their two sons Mahlon and Chilion to live for a while in the country of Moab. While they were living there,

They went on until they came to Bethlehem. When they arrived, the whole town became excited, and the women there exclaimed, "Is this really Naomi?"

This, then, was how Naomi came back from Moab with Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law. When they arrived in Bethlehem, the barley harvest was just beginning.

Some time later Boaz himself arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the workers. "The Lord be with you!" he said. "The Lord bless you!" they answered.

The leaders and the others said, "Yes, we are witnesses. May the Lord make your wife become like Rachel and Leah, who bore many children to Jacob. May you become rich in the clan of Ephrath and famous in Bethlehem.

The Lord said to Samuel, "How long will you go on grieving over Saul? I have rejected him as king of Israel. But now get some olive oil and go to Bethlehem, to a man named Jesse, because I have chosen one of his sons to be king."

Samuel did what the Lord told him to do and went to Bethlehem, where the city leaders came trembling to meet him and asked, "Is this a peaceful visit, seer?"

One of his attendants said, "Jesse of the town of Bethlehem has a son who is a good musician. He is also a brave and handsome man, a good soldier, and an able speaker. The Lord is with him."

David was the son of Jesse, who was an Ephrathite from Bethlehem in Judah. Jesse had eight sons, and at the time Saul was king, he was already a very old man.