Study Desk

And the sons of Israel went up and wept before the LORD until evening, and inquired of the LORD, saying, "Shall we again advance for battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin?" And the LORD said, "Go up against him."

And the sons of Israel inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days,

and Phinehas the son of Eleazar, Aaron's son, stood before it to minister in those days), saying, "Shall I yet again go out to battle against the sons of my brother Benjamin, or shall I stop?" And the LORD said, "Go up, for tomorrow I will hand them over to you."

Then the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel, for they said, "Undoubtedly they are defeated before us, as in the first battle."

Then the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were terrified; for they saw that disaster was close to them.

But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they remained at the rock of Rimmon for four months.

Then the sons of Israel said, "Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who did not go up to the LORD in the assembly?" For they had taken a solemn oath concerning anyone who did not go up to the LORD at Mizpah, saying, "He shall certainly be put to death."

And the sons of Israel were sorry for their brother Benjamin, and said, "Today one tribe is cut off from Israel!

"What are we to do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn by the LORD not to give them any of our daughters as wives?"

For when the people were counted, behold, not one of the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead was there.

And the tribe of Benjamin returned at that time, and they gave them the women whom they had allowed to live from the women of Jabesh-gilead; but they were not enough for them.

And the people were sorry for Benjamin, because the LORD had created a gap in the tribes of Israel.

Then the elders of the congregation said, "What are we to do for wives for those who are left, since the women have been eliminated from Benjamin?"

And they said, "There must be an inheritance for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be wiped out from Israel.

"But we cannot give them wives from our daughters." For the sons of Israel had sworn, saying, "Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin!"

"And when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, we shall say to them, 'Give them to us voluntarily, because we did not take for each man of Benjamin a wife in battle, nor did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.'"

And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah, and the name of the other, Ruth. And they lived there about ten years.

"Return, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to have a husband. If I said I have hope, if I were even to have a husband tonight and also give birth to sons,

would you therefore wait until they were grown? Would you therefore refrain from marrying? No, my daughters; for it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the LORD has come out against me."

But Ruth said, "Do not plead with me to leave you or to turn back from following you; for where you go, I will go, and where you sleep, I will sleep. Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God.