The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.

The people grieved for Benjamin, because the LORD had made a gap in the tribes of Israel.

They said, "There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

They said, "Behold, there is a feast of the LORD from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah."

They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, "Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,

and watch. If the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.

It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, 'Grant them graciously to us, because we didn't take wives for each man in battle, neither did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.'"

The children of Benjamin did so, and took them wives, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them.

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

It happened in the days when the judges judged, that there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to sojourn in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

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

Then she arose with her daughters-in-law, that she might return from the country of Moab: for she had heard in the country of Moab how that the LORD had visited his people in giving them bread.

She went forth out of 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.

Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, "Go, return each of you to her mother's house: the LORD deal kindly with you, as you have dealt with the dead, and with me.

The LORD grant you that you may find rest, each of you in the house of her husband." Then she kissed them, and they lifted up their voice, and wept.

Naomi said, "Go back, my daughters. Why do you want to go with me? Do I still have sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

They lifted up their voice, and wept again: and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law, but Ruth joined with her.

She said, "Behold, your sister-in-law has gone back to her people, and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law.

When she saw that she was steadfastly minded to go with her, she left off speaking to her.

So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. It happened, when they had come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they asked, "Is this Naomi?"

So Naomi returned, and Ruth the Moabitess, her daughter-in-law, with her, who returned out of the country of Moab: and they came to Bethlehem at the beginning of barley harvest.

Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, "Let me now go to the field, and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor." She said to her, "Go, my daughter."

She went, and came and gleaned in the field after the reapers: and she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.

She said, 'Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves.' So she came, and has continued even from the morning until now, except that she stayed a little in the house."

Then Boaz said to Ruth, "Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field, and do not go from here, but stay here close to my maidens.

Let your eyes be on the field that they reap, and go after them. Haven't I commanded the young men not to touch you? When you are thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink from that which the young men have drawn."

Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your sight, that you should take knowledge of me, since I am a foreigner?"

Boaz answered her, "It has fully been shown to me, all that you have done to your mother-in-law since the death of your husband; and how you have left your father and your mother, and the land of your birth, and have come to a people that you didn't know before.

Then she said, "Let me find favor in your sight, my lord, because you have comforted me, and because you have spoken kindly to your handmaid, though I am not as one of your handmaidens."

At meal time Boaz said to her, "Come here, and eat of the bread, and dip your morsel in the vinegar." She sat beside the reapers, and they reached her parched grain, and she ate, and was satisfied, and left some of it.

When she had risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, "Let her glean even among the sheaves, and do not reproach her.

So she gleaned in the field until evening; and she beat out that which she had gleaned, and it was about an ephah of barley.

She took it up, and went into the city; and her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned: and she brought out and gave to her that which she had left after she was sufficed.

Her mother-in-law said to her, "Where have you gleaned today? And where have you worked? Blessed be he who noticed you." She showed her mother-in-law with whom she had worked, and said, "The man's name with whom I worked today is Boaz."

Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, "Blessed be he of the LORD, who has not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead." Naomi said to her, "The man is a close relative to us, one of our near kinsmen."

Naomi said to Ruth her daughter-in-law, "It is good, my daughter, that you go out with his maidens, and that they not meet you in any other field."

So she stayed close to the maidens of Boaz, to glean to the end of barley harvest and of wheat harvest; and she lived with her mother-in-law.

Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, "My daughter, shall I not seek rest for you, that it may be well with you?

It shall be, when he lies down, that you shall notice the place where he lies, and you shall go in, and uncover his feet, and lie down; then he will tell you what you shall do."

She went down to the threshing floor, and did according to all that her mother-in-law told her.

When Boaz had eaten and drank, and his heart was merry, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. She came quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down.

He said, "Blessed are you by the LORD, my daughter. You have shown more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as you didn't follow young men, whether poor or rich.

Stay this night, and it shall be in the morning, that if he will perform for you the part of a redeemer, well; let him do the redeemer's part. But if he will not do the part of a redeemer for you, then I will do the part of a redeemer for you, as the LORD lives. Lie down until the morning."

She lay at his feet until the morning. She rose up before one could discern another. For he said, "Let it not be known that the woman came to the threshing floor."

He said, "Bring the mantle that is on you, and hold it." She held it; and he measured six measures of barley, and laid it on her; and he went into the city.

When she came to her mother-in-law, she said, "How did it go, my daughter?" She told her all that the man had done to her.

She said, "He gave me these six measures of barley; for he said, 'Do not go empty to your mother-in-law.'"

I thought to disclose it to you, saying, 'Buy it before those who sit here, and before the elders of my people.' If you will redeem it, redeem it; but if you will not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know. For there is no one to redeem it besides you; and I am after you." He said, "I will redeem it."

Then Boaz said, "On the day you buy the field from the hand of Naomi, you must buy it also from Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance."

The near kinsman said, "I can't redeem it for myself, lest I mar my own inheritance. Take my right of redemption for yourself; for I can't redeem it."

Now this was the custom in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning exchanging, to confirm all things: a man took off his sandal, and gave it to his neighbor; and this was the way of attestation in Israel.

Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead may not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day."

All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, "We are witnesses. May the LORD make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.

So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and the LORD gave her conception, and she bore a son.

The women said to Naomi, "Blessed be the LORD, who has not left you this day without a redeemer; and let his name be famous in Israel.

He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him."

Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and looked after him.

Now there was a certain man of Ramathaim Zophim, of the hill country of Ephraim, and his name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite.

And he had two wives; the name of the one was Hannah, and the name of other Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

This man went up out of his city from year to year to worship and to sacrifice to the LORD of hosts in Shiloh. The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, priests of the LORD, were there.

When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and her daughters, portions:

As he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the LORD, so she taunted her; therefore she wept, and did not eat.

So Hannah rose after eating and drinking in Shiloh. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat by the doorpost of the temple of the LORD.

She was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the LORD, and wept bitterly.

She vowed a vow, and said, "LORD of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your handmaid, and remember me, and not forget your handmaid, but will give to your handmaid a boy, then I will give him to the LORD all the days of his life, and no razor shall come on his head."

And Hannah, she was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli thought she was drunk.

So Eli said to her, "How long will you make yourself drunk? Put away your wine from you."

And Hannah answered, "No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I poured out my soul before the LORD.

Then Eli answered, "Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him."

She said, "Let your handmaid find favor in your sight." So the woman went her way, and ate; and her facial expression wasn't sad any more.

They rose up in the morning early, and worshiped before the LORD, and returned, and came to their house to Ramah: and Elkanah knew Hannah his wife; and the LORD remembered her.

It happened, when the time had come, that Hannah conceived, and bore a son; and she named him Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked him of the LORD."

And Elkanah her husband said to her, "Do what seems good in your eyes. Wait until you have weaned him; only may the LORD establish his word." So the woman waited and nursed her son, until she weaned him.

And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with a three-year old bull, and one ephah of flour, and a skin of wine, and brought him to the house of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young.

Hannah prayed, and said: "My heart exults in the LORD. My horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.

There is no one as holy as the LORD, For there is no one besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.

He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, To make them sit with princes, and inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's. He has set the world on them.

He will keep the feet of his holy ones, but the wicked shall be put to silence in darkness. For no man shall prevail by strength.

Those who strive with the LORD shall be broken to pieces. He will thunder against them in the sky. "The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed."

The custom of the priests with the people was that when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was boiling, with a fork of three teeth in his hand;

and he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest took therewith. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there.

Moreover his mother made him a little robe, and brought it to him from year to year, when she came up with her husband to offer the yearly sacrifice.

Eli blessed Elkanah and his wife, and said, "The LORD give you seed of this woman for the petition which was asked of the LORD." They went to their own home.

If one man sin against another, God shall judge him; but if a man sin against the LORD, who shall entreat for him?" Notwithstanding, they did not listen to the voice of their father, because the LORD intended to kill them.

The child Samuel grew on, and increased in favor both with the LORD, and also with men.

A man of God came to Eli, and said to him, "Thus says the LORD, I plainly revealed myself to the house of your father, when they were slaves in Egypt to the house of Pharaoh.

And I chose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be my priest, to go up to my altar, to burn incense, to wear an ephod before me. And I gave to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire.

Why do you kick at my sacrifice and at my offering, which I have commanded in my habitation, and honor your sons above me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people?'

Behold, the days come, that I will cut off your arm, and the arm of your father's house, that there shall not be an old man in your house.

You shall see the affliction of my habitation, in all the wealth which I shall give Israel; and there shall not be an old man in your house forever.

The man of yours, whom I shall not cut off from my altar, shall consume your eyes, and grieve your heart; and all the increase of your house shall die in the flower of their age.

"'This shall be the sign to you, that shall come on your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall both die.

I will raise me up a faithful priest, that shall do according to that which is in my heart and in my mind. I will build him a sure house; and he shall walk before my anointed forever.

It shall happen, that everyone who is left in your house shall come and bow down to him for a piece of silver and a loaf of bread, and shall say, "Please put me into one of the priests' offices, that I may eat a morsel of bread."'"

The child Samuel ministered to the LORD before Eli. The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

It happened at that time, when Eli was laid down in his place (now his eyes had begun to grow dim, so that he could not see),

and the lamp of God hadn't yet gone out, and Samuel had lain down in the LORD's temple, where the ark of God was;

Therefore Eli said to Samuel, "Go, lie down: and it shall be, if he calls you, that you shall say, 'Speak, LORD; for your servant hears.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The LORD said to Samuel, "Behold, I will do a thing in Israel, at which both the ears of everyone who hears it shall tingle.

In that day I will perform against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from the beginning even to the end.