But if she made a vow [in] her husband's house, or bound herself on a pledge with a sworn oath,

and her husband heard [it] but was silent to her, and he did not forbid her, all her vows will stand and every pledge that she bound on herself will stand.

If your relative who is a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman is sold to you, and [he or she] has served you six years, then in the seventh year you shall send that person [out] {free}.

[Do this] so that innocent blood will not be shed in the midst of your land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance and [thereby] bloodguilt would be on you.

And they shall declare, and they shall say, 'Our hands did not shed this blood, and our eyes did not see [what was done].

then you shall bring her into your household, and she shall shave her head, and she shall trim her nails.

And she shall remove the clothing of her captivity from her, and she shall remain in your house, and she shall mourn her father and her mother {a full month}, and after this {you may have sex with her}, and you may marry her, and she may {become your wife}.

And then if you do not take delight in her, then you shall let her go {to do whatever she wants}, but you shall not treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her.

and {he accuses her falsely}, and {he defames her}, and he says 'This woman I took and I lay with her and {I discovered that she was not a virgin},'

Then they shall fine him hundred [shekels of] silver, and they shall give [them] to the father of the young woman, for {he defamed an Israelite young woman}, and {she shall become his wife}; he will not be allowed {to divorce her} all his days.

and [then] they shall bring out the young woman to the doorway of the house of her father, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones, and she shall die, because she did a disgraceful thing in Israel {by playing the harlot} [in] the house of her father, and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

then you shall bring out {both of them} to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them with stones so that they shall die, the young woman because she did not cry out in the town, and the man because he violated his neighbor's wife; and so you shall purge the evil from your midst.

then {the man who lay with her} shall give to the father of the young woman fifty [shekels] of silver, and she shall become {his wife} {because} he violated her, and he is not allowed to divorce her {during his lifetime}.

"When a man takes a wife and he marries her {and then} {she does not please him}, because he found {something objectionable} and writes her a letter of divorce and puts [it] in her hand and sends her [away] from his house,

and she goes from his house, and she goes [out] and becomes [a wife] {for another man},

her first husband who sent her [away] is not allowed {to take her again} to become a wife to him after she has {been defiled}, for that [is] a detestable thing {before} Yahweh, and [so] you shall not mislead into sin the land that Yahweh your God [is] giving to you [as an] inheritance.

And then the firstborn that she bears {shall represent his dead brother}, so that his name is not blotted out from Israel.

But if the man [does] not want to take his sister-in-law, then his sister-in-law shall go up to the gate, to the elders, and she shall say, 'My brother-in-law refused {to perpetuate his brother's name} in Israel, [for] he is not willing {to marry me}.'

[then] his sister-in-law shall go near him before the eyes of the elders, and she shall pull off his sandal from his foot, and she shall spit in his face, and she shall {declare} and she shall say, 'This is how it is done to the man who does not build the house of his brother.'

"If a man and his brother fight each other and the wife of the one [man] comes near to rescue her husband from the hand of his attacker and she stretches [out] her hand and she seizes his genitals,

and [even] concerning her afterbirth {that goes out} from between her feet and [also] concerning her children that she bears, because she eats them for lack of anything in secret {during the siege and during the distress} that your enemy inflicts upon her in your {towns}.

But the woman took the two men and hid them. And she said, "Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they [were] from.

(But she had taken them to the roof and had hidden them {in the stalks of flax} that she {had spread out} on the roof.)

Before {they went to sleep}, she came up to them on the roof

Then she lowered them with a rope through the window, as her house [was] on the outer side of the wall, and she [was] residing in the wall.

And she said to them, "Go to the mountain, so that the pursuers will not find you, and hide yourselves there three days until the pursuers return, and afterward you may go {on your way}."

And she said, "According to your word it [will be]." Then she sent them away, and they went, and she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

The city and all that is in it will be devoted to Yahweh; only Rahab the prostitute and all who [are] with her in the house will live, because she hid the messengers whom we sent.

But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute {and her family} and all who [were] with her, and she has lived in the midst of Israel until this day, because she hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.

When she came [to him] she urged him to ask her father for a field. So she dismounted from the donkey, and Caleb said to her, "{What do you want}?"

And she said to him, "Give to me a gift; you have given me the land of the Negev, and you must give to me a spring of water." And he gave to her the upper and lower spring.

When she came [to him], she urged him to ask her father for a field. As she dismounted from the donkey, Caleb said to her, "{What do you want}?"

And she said to him, "Give me {a gift}; you have given me the land of the Negev, and give me also a spring of water." And Caleb gave to her the upper and lower spring.

And she used to sit under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim; and the {Israelites} went up to her for judgment.

She sent and called for Barak son of Abinoam from Kedesh Naphtali and said to him, "Has not Yahweh the God of Israel commanded you? 'Go, {march to} Mount Tabor, and take ten thousand men from the descendants of Naphtali and Zebulun.

She said, "Surely I will go with you; however, there will be no glory for you in {the path you are taking}, for Yahweh will sell Sisera into [the] hand of a woman." And Deborah stood up and went with Barak to Kedesh.

And Jael came out to meet Sisera, and she said to him, "Turn aside, my lord; turn aside to me and do not be afraid." So he turned aside into her tent, and she covered him {with a blanket}.

And he said to her, "Please, give me a drink of water, because I am thirsty." So she opened a skin vessel of milk and gave him a drink and covered him.

But Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite, took in her hand a tent peg and a hammer, and she went softly to him and drove the peg into his temple, and it went through into the ground; he [was] fast asleep since he was exhausted, and he died.

And behold, Barak [was] pursuing Sisera, and Jael went out to meet him, and she said to him, "Come, and I will show you the man whom you [are] seeking." And he came with her and saw that Sisera was lying dead with the peg in his temple.

"Most blessed of women is Jael, the wife of Heber the Kenite; most blessed is she of women among tent dwellers.

He asked for water, [and] she gave milk; in a drinking bowl for nobles, she brought curds.

She reached out her hand to the peg, and her right hand for the workman's hammer; and she struck Sisera, crushed his head, and she shattered and pierced his temple.

"Through the window she looked down; the mother of Sisera cried out through the lattice, 'Why is his chariot delayed in coming? Why do the hoof beats of his chariot tarry?'

The wisest of her ladies answer her; she also answers the question herself:

Jephthah came to Mizpah, to his house, and behold his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and dancing. She [was] his only child; he did not have a son or daughter except her.

She said to him, "My father, {you made an oath} to Yahweh. Do to me according to what has gone out from your mouth, since Yahweh gave vengeance to you against your enemies, the {Ammonites}."

And she said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: grant me two months so that I may go wander on the mountains and lament over my virginity, I and my companions.

And he said, "Go." He sent her away [for] two months, and she went with her friends, and she lamented over her virginity on the mountains.

At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her [according to] his vow; and {she did not sleep with a man}. And it became an annual custom in Israel

And God listened to the voice of Manoah, and an angel of God came again to the woman; she [was] sitting in the field, but Manoah her husband was not with her.

The woman quickly ran and told her husband, and she said to him, "Look! The man who came to me the [other] day appeared to me."

She should not eat of anything that comes from the vine, or drink wine or strong drink, or eat anything unclean; she should keep all that I commanded."

The woman bore a son, and she called him Samson; the boy grew big, and Yahweh blessed him.

But his father and mother said to him, "Is there not a wife among the daughters of your relatives, or among all our people, that you must take a wife from [the] uncircumcised Philistines?" But Samson said to his father, "Take her for me because {she pleases me}."

Then he went down and talked to the woman, and {she pleased Samson}.

And Samson's wife wept before him, and she said, "You must hate me; you do not love me. You told the riddle to {my people}, but you have not explained [it] to me." He said to her, "I have not explained [it] to my father and mother. [Why] should I explain it to you?"

She wept before him the seven days of their feast; and it happened, because she nagged him, on the seventh day he explained [it] to her, and she told the riddle to {her people}.

Her father said, "I really thought that you hated her, so I gave her to your companion. [Is] not her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please, {take her instead}."

So the rulers of [the] Philistines brought up to her seven fresh bowstrings that were not dried up, and she tied him up with them.

The ambush [was] sitting [in wait] for her in an inner room. And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you Samson!" And he snapped the bowstrings just as flax fiber snaps when it comes close to fire. And [the secret of] his strength remained unknown.

So Delilah took new ropes and tied him up with them, and she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" (The ambush [was] sitting in an inner room.) But he snapped them from his arms like thread.

She fastened [it] with the pin and said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And Samson woke up from his sleep and tore loose the loom pin of the web and the warp-threads.

And she said to him, "How can you say, 'I love you,' when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me these three times, and you have not told me how your strength is [so] great."

And because she nagged him day after day with her words, and pestered him, {his soul grew impatient to the point of death}.

Delilah realized that {he had confided in her}, so she sent and called the rulers of [the] Philistines, saying, "Come up one more time, for {he has confided in me}." And the rulers of [the] Philistines came up, and they brought the money {with them}.

And she put him to sleep on her lap; then she called the men and shaved off seven locks of his head. Then she began to subdue him, and his strength went away from him.

And she said to him, "[The] Philistines [are] upon you, Samson!" And he woke up from his sleep and said, "I will go out just like every other time and shake myself free," but he did not know that Yahweh had left him.

When he returned the pieces of silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and she gave it to the smith, and he made it [into] an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah.

But his concubine felt repugnance toward him, and she left him and went to her father's house, to Bethlehem in Judah; she was there some four months.

So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak {tenderly to her}, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him [to] her father's house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him.

And the woman came as the morning appeared, and she fell [at] the entrance of the man's house where her master was, until daylight.

The lords of Gibeah rose up against me and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine, and she died.

But Elimelech the husband of Naomi died and she was left behind [with] {her two sons}.

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.

So she set out from the place {where she was} and her two daughters-in-law with her, and they went on the way to return to the land of Judah.

May Yahweh {grant that you} find a resting place, each [in] the house of her husband." And she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice and cried.

And she said, "Look, your sister-in-law has returned to her people and to her gods. Return after your sister-in-law [too]."

[When Naomi] saw that she was determined to go with her, {she said no more}.

And she said to them, "You should not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for Shaddai has {caused me to be very bitter}.

And Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, "Please let me go [to] the field and glean among the ears of grain after [someone] in whose eyes I [may] find favor." And she said to her, "Go, my daughter."

So she went and came and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. And she happened [by] chance [upon] the tract of field {belonging to} Boaz, who [was] from the clan of Elimelech.

And {the servant in charge of the reapers} said, "She [is] a Moabite girl returning with Naomi from the countryside of Moab.

And she said, 'Please let me glean and let me gather among the sheaves behind the reapers.' So she came and remained from the morning up to now. {She is sitting for a little while in the house}."

And she fell on her face and bowed down to the ground and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your eyes by recognizing me--for I [am] a foreigner?"

And she said, "May I find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and have spoken {kindly to your servant}, and I am not one of your servants."

And Boaz said to her {at mealtime}, "Come here and eat from the bread and dip your morsel in the wine vinegar." So she sat beside the gleaners, and he offered to her roasted grain. And she ate and was satisfied, and she had some left over.

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 also pull out for her from your bundles and leave [it] so that she may glean--and do not rebuke her."

So she gleaned in the field until the evening and she beat out what she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah [of] barley.

And she picked [it] up and went [to] the town. Her mother-in-law saw how much she had gleaned. And she took [it] out and gave to her what she had left over {after being satisfied}.

And her mother-in-law said to her, "Where did you glean {today} and where did you work? May he [who] took notice of you be blessed." And she told her mother-in-law {with whom she had worked} and said, "The name of the man who I worked with today [is] Boaz."

So she stayed close with the maidservants [of] Boaz to glean until the end of the barley harvest and wheat harvest. And she lived with her mother-in-law.

And she said to her, "I will do all that you say."

And she went down to the threshing floor and did all that her mother-in-law had instructed her.

And Boaz ate and drank [until] his heart was {merry} [and then] he came to lie at the end of the grain heap. And she came in quietly and {uncovered} his feet and lay down.

And he said, "Who [are] you?" And she said, "I [am] Ruth, your servant. Spread {your garment} over your servant because you [are] a redeemer."

So she lay at his feet until morning and got up before {anyone could recognize each other}. And he said, "It must not be known that {you} came [to] the threshing floor."

And he said, "Bring the cloak that [is] on you and {hold it out}." And she held it out and he measured six [measures of] barley and put it on her [cloak]. Then she went [into] the city.

And she came to her mother-in-law, and she said, "{How did it go for you,} my daughter?" And she told her all that the man did for her.