Study Desk

Behold, here is my daughter, a virgin, and his concubine; I will bring them out for you, and you may humble them, and do with them what seems good to you; but to this man you shall not do any shameful thing.

But the men would not listen to him; so the man took his concubine and brought her outside to them: and they raped her and abused her all the night until the morning; and when dawn began to break, they let her go.

And her master rose up in the morning and opened the door of the house and went out to go his way: and he saw his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands upon the threshold.

And he said to her, Get up, let us go. But she did not answer. Then he put her upon the ass, and the man rose up and went on to his own home.

And when he had come to his house, he took a knife and cut his concubine in pieces, and divided her into twelve portions, and distributed them throughout all the tribes of Israel.

And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to our tents, neither shall any one of us turn aside to go to his house.

NOW the men of Israel had sworn at Mizpeh, saying, None of us shall give his daughter in marriage to the Benjamites.

And when you shall see the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance with tambourines, then come out of the vineyards and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

And if their parents or their brothers should come to complain before us, we will say to them, Have compassion upon them, because they did not take each man his wife with him in the war; and it is not you who gave them to them, that you should be guilty.

And the children of Israel departed thence at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they went out from thence every man to his inheritance.

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which seemed right in his own eyes.

NOW it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Beth-lehem of Judah went to sojourn in the land of Moab, he and his wife and his two sons.

And the name of the man was Elimeleck, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the names of his two sons Malion and Calion, Ephrathites from Beth-lehem of Judah. And they came to the land of Moab to sojourn there.

Then she started with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab; for she had heard in the land of Moab that the LORD had visited his people in giving them food.

And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his servants, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not harm her;

And Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, Blessed is the LORD, because he has not caused his kindness to cease from the living nor from the dead. And Naomi said to her, The man is near of kin to us, he is one of our nearest kinsmen.

And Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, Happy are you, my daughter, for you have kept close to his maidens, and no man harmed you in the field, whose owner you did not know!

And it shall be, when he lies down, that you shall remember the place where he lies, and you shall draw near and lie down near his feet; and he will tell you what you shall do.

And when Boaz had eaten and drunk, and his heart was merry, he went and lay at the side of the threshing floor; and while he was in deep sleep in the threshing floor, she came secretly and lifted the end of his robe and lay down near his feet.

And it came to pass at midnight that the man woke up and was startled when he saw a woman lying at his feet.