Study Desk

although we have both straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me, your female servant, and the young man with your servant. There is nothing we lack."

"Get up," he told her. "Let's go." But there was no response. So the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

We will take 10 men out of every 100 from all the tribes of Israel, and 100 out of every 1,000, and 1,000 out of every 10,000 to get provisions for the people when they go to Gibeah in Benjamin to punish them for all the horror they did in Israel."

They set out, went to Bethel, and inquired of God. The Israelites asked, "Who is to go first to fight for us against the Benjaminites?" And the Lord answered, "Judah will be first."

The Israelites asked, "Who of all the tribes of Israel didn't come to the Lord with the assembly?" For a great oath had been taken that anyone who had not come to the Lord at Mizpah would certainly be put to death.

What should we do about wives for the survivors? We've sworn to the Lord not to give them any of our daughters as wives."

For when the people were counted, no one was there from the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead.

Benjamin returned at that time, and Israel gave them the women they had kept alive from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough for them.

The elders of the congregation said, "What should we do about wives for those who are left, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?"

They said, "There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out.

But we can't give them our daughters as wives." For the Israelites had sworn, "Anyone who gives a wife to a Benjaminite is cursed."

Watch, and when you see the young women of Shiloh come out to perform the dances, each of you leave the vineyards and catch a wife for yourself from the young women of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

When their fathers or brothers come to us and protest, we will tell them, ‘Show favor to them, since we did not get enough wives for each of them in the battle. You didn't actually give the women to them, so you are not guilty of breaking your oath.'"

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.

Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was still hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons,

would you be willing to wait for them to grow up? Would you restrain yourselves from remarrying? No, my daughters, my life is much too bitter for you to share, because the Lord 's hand has turned against me."

But Ruth replied: Do not persuade me to leave you or go back and not follow you. For wherever you go, I will go, and wherever you live, I will live; your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.

"Don't call me Naomi. Call me Mara," she answered, "for the Almighty has made me very bitter.

Boaz answered her, "Everything you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband's death has been fully reported to me: how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and how you came to a people you didn't previously know.

May the Lord reward you for what you have done, and may you receive a full reward from the Lord God of Israel, under whose wings you have come for refuge."