Study Desk

But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside to the city of foreigners, who are not from the Israelites; we will cross over up to Gibeah."

And he said to his servant, "Come, let us approach one of these places; we will spend the night in Gibeah or in Ramah."

Then behold, an old man was coming from his work from the field in the evening, and the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was dwelling as a foreigner in Gibeah. (The people of the place were descendants of Benjamin.)

And the old man raised his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city, and he said, "Where are you going, and from where do you come?"

So he brought him to his house, and he fed the donkeys; they washed their feet, ate, and drank.

Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please, let me bring them out; do violence to them, and do to them whatever you please. Do not do this disgraceful thing to this man."

But the men were not willing to listen to him, and the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them; and they had intercourse with her, and they abused her all night until the morning; they let her go at the approach of dawn.

In the morning her master got up, and he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his journey, and behold, his concubine was falling at the entrance of the house, with her hand on the threshold.

And he said to her, "Get up, let us go," but there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, and the man got up and went to his place.

When he entered his house he took a knife, and he grasped his concubine and cut her into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout the whole territory of Israel.

All the people got up as one body, saying, "Not one of us will go to his tent, or will any of us return to his house.

The men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, saying, "None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife."

In those days there was no king in Israel; each one did what was right in his own eyes.

And it happened in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem of Judah went to reside in the countryside of Moab—he and his wife and his two sons.

And the name of the man was Elimelech, and the name of his wife was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were Ephraimites from Bethlehem in Judah. And they went to the countryside of Moab and remained there.

And she got up, she and her daughters-in-law, and returned from the countryside of Moab, because she had heard in the countryside of Moab that Yahweh had come to the aid of his people to give food to them.

And Boaz said to his servant in charge of the reapers, "To whom does this young woman belong?"

And she got up to glean, and Boaz instructed his servants saying, "Let her also glean between the sheaves and do not reproach her.

And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidservants so that you will not be bothered in another field."

And when he lies, take notice of the place where he lies. And you shall go and uncover his feet and lie down, and he shall tell you what to do."