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Chapter 3
Ruth and Boaz at the Threshing Floor
1One day Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter, should I not try to find a homeHebrew find rest (see Ruth 1:9) for you, where you will be well provided for?
2Is not Boaz, with whose servant girls you have been, a kinsman of ours? Tonight he will be winnowing barley on the threshing floor.
3Wash and perfume yourself, and put on your best clothes. Then go down to the threshing floor, but don't let him know you are there until he has finished eating and drinking.
4When he lies down, note the place where he is lying. Then go and uncover his feet and lie down. He will tell you what to do.”
5“I will do whatever you say,” Ruth answered.
6So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do.
7When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in good spirits, he went over to lie down at the far end of the grain pile. Ruth approached quietly, uncovered his feet and lay down.
8In the middle of the night something startled the man, and he turned and discovered a woman lying at his feet.
9“Who are you?” he asked.
“I am your servant Ruth,” she said. “Spread the corner of your garment over me, since you are a kinsman-redeemer.”
10“The LORD bless you, my daughter,” he replied. “This kindness is greater than that which you showed earlier: You have not run after the younger men, whether rich or poor.
11And now, my daughter, don't be afraid. I will do for you all you ask. All my fellow townsmen know that you are a woman of noble character.
12Although it is true that I am near of kin, there is a kinsman-redeemer nearer than I.
13Stay here for the night, and in the morning if he wants to redeem, good; let him redeem. But if he is not willing, as surely as the LORD lives I will do it. Lie here until morning.”
14So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before anyone could be recognized; and he said, “Don't let it be known that a woman came to the threshing floor.”
15He also said, “Bring me the shawl you are wearing and hold it out.” When she did so, he poured into it six measures of barley and put it on her. Then heMost Hebrew manuscripts; many Hebrew manuscripts, Vulgate and Syriac she went back to town.
16When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”
Then she told her everything Boaz had done for her
17and added, “He gave me these six measures of barley, saying, ‘Don't go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”
18Then Naomi said, “Wait, my daughter, until you find out what happens. For the man will not rest until the matter is settled today.”
Chapter 4
Boaz Marries Ruth
1Meanwhile Boaz went up to the town gate and sat there. When the kinsman-redeemer he had mentioned came along, Boaz said, “Come over here, my friend, and sit down.” So he went over and sat down.
2Boaz took ten of the elders of the town and said, “Sit here,” and they did so.
3Then he said to the kinsman-redeemer, “Naomi, who has come back from Moab, is selling the piece of land that belonged to our brother Elimelech.
4I thought I should bring the matter to your attention and suggest that you buy it in the presence of these seated here and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you will redeem it, do so. But if youMany Hebrew manuscripts, Septuagint, Vulgate and Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts he will not, tell me, so I will know. For no one has the right to do it except you, and I am next in line.”
“I will redeem it,” he said.
5Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the land from Naomi and from Ruth the Moabitess, you acquireHebrew; Vulgate and Syriac Naomi, you acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the dead man's widow, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property.”
6At this, the kinsman-redeemer said, “Then I cannot redeem it because I might endanger my own estate. You redeem it yourself. I cannot do it.”
7(Now in earlier times in Israel, for the redemption and transfer of property to become final, one party took off his sandal and gave it to the other. This was the method of legalizing transactions in Israel.)
8So the kinsman-redeemer said to Boaz, “Buy it yourself.” And he removed his sandal.
9Then Boaz announced to the elders and all the people, “Today you are witnesses that I have bought from Naomi all the property of Elimelech, Kilion and Mahlon.
10I have also acquired Ruth the Moabitess, Mahlon's widow, as my wife, in order to maintain the name of the dead with his property, so that his name will not disappear from among his family or from the town records. Today you are witnesses!”
11Then the elders and all those at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the house of Israel. May you have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.
12Through the offspring the LORD gives you by this young woman, may your family be like that of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.”
The Genealogy of David
13So Boaz took Ruth and she became his wife. Then he went to her, and the LORD enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son.
14The women said to Naomi: “Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer. May he become famous throughout Israel!
15He will renew your life and sustain you in your old age. For your daughter-in-law, who loves you and who is better to you than seven sons, has given him birth.”
16Then Naomi took the child, laid him in her lap and cared for him.
17The women living there said, “Naomi has a son.” And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18This, then, is the family line of Perez:
Perez was the father of Hezron,
19Hezron the father of Ram,
Ram the father of Amminadab,
20Amminadab the father of Nahshon,
Nahshon the father of Salmon,A few Hebrew manuscripts, some Septuagint manuscripts and Vulgate (see also verse 21 and Septuagint of 1 Chron. 2:11); most Hebrew manuscripts Salma
21Salmon the father of Boaz,
Boaz the father of Obed,
22Obed the father of Jesse,
and Jesse the father of David.
1 Samuel
Chapter 1
The Birth of Samuel
1There was a certain man from Ramathaim, a ZuphiteOr from Ramathaim Zuphim from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.
2He had two wives; one was called Hannah and the other Peninnah. Peninnah had children, but Hannah had none.
3Year after year this man went up from his town to worship and sacrifice to the LORD Almighty at Shiloh, where Hophni and Phinehas, the two sons of Eli, were priests of the LORD.
4Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he would give portions of the meat to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters.
5But to Hannah he gave a double portion because he loved her, and the LORD had closed her womb.
6And because the LORD had closed her womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her.
7This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the LORD, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.
8Elkanah her husband would say to her, “Hannah, why are you weeping? Why don't you eat? Why are you downhearted? Don't I mean more to you than ten sons?”
9Once when they had finished eating and drinking in Shiloh, Hannah stood up. Now Eli the priest was sitting on a chair by the doorpost of the LORD's temple.That is, tabernacle
10In bitterness of soul Hannah wept much and prayed to the LORD.
11And she made a vow, saying, “O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life, and no razor will ever be used on his head.”
12As she kept on praying to the LORD, Eli observed her mouth.
13Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk
14and said to her, “How long will you keep on getting drunk? Get rid of your wine.”
15“Not so, my lord,” Hannah replied, “I am a woman who is deeply troubled. I have not been drinking wine or beer; I was pouring out my soul to the LORD.
16Do not take your servant for a wicked woman; I have been praying here out of my great anguish and grief.”
17Eli answered, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him.”
18She said, “May your servant find favor in your eyes.” Then she went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.
19Early the next morning they arose and worshiped before the LORD and then went back to their home at Ramah. Elkanah lay with Hannah his wife, and the LORD remembered her.
20So in the course of time Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel,Samuel sounds like the Hebrew for heard of God. saying, “Because I asked the LORD for him.”
Hannah Dedicates Samuel
21When the man Elkanah went up with all his family to offer the annual sacrifice to the LORD and to fulfill his vow,
22Hannah did not go. She said to her husband, “After the boy is weaned, I will take him and present him before the LORD, and he will live there always.”
23“Do what seems best to you,” Elkanah her husband told her. “Stay here until you have weaned him; only may the LORD make good hisMasoretic Text; Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac your word.” So the woman stayed at home and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24After he was weaned, she took the boy with her, young as he was, along with a three-year-old bull,Dead Sea Scrolls, Septuagint and Syriac; Masoretic Text with three bulls an ephahThat is, probably about 3/5 bushel (about 22 liters) of flour and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD at Shiloh.
25When they had slaughtered the bull, they brought the boy to Eli,
26and she said to him, “As surely as you live, my lord, I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the LORD.
27I prayed for this child, and the LORD has granted me what I asked of him.
28So now I give him to the LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the LORD.” And he worshiped the LORD there.

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