And they pass over, and go on, and the sun goeth in upon them near Gibeah, which is to Benjamin;

and they turn aside there to go in to lodge in Gibeah, and he goeth in and sitteth in a broad place of the city, and there is no man gathering them into the house to lodge.

And lo, a man, an aged one, hath come from his work from the field in the evening, and the man is of the hill-country of Ephraim, and he is a sojourner in Gibeah, and the men of the place are Benjamites.

As the old man looked up and saw the traveling man in the public square of the city, he asked, "Now then, where are you headed? And where are you from?"

And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehemjudah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Bethlehemjudah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.

Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no want of any thing.

And the old man saith, 'Peace to thee; only, all thy lack is on me, only in the broad place lodge not.'

Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him.

And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly.

Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them; and they knew her, and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.

And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, till it was light.

And her lord riseth in the morning, and openeth the doors of the house, and goeth out to go on his way, and lo, the woman, his concubine, is fallen at the opening of the house, and her hands are on the threshold,

And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place.

And he gave orders to the men whom he sent, saying, This is what you are to say to all the men of Israel, Has ever an act like this been done from the day when the children of Israel came out of Egypt to this day? Give thought to it, turning it over in your minds, and give your opinion of it.

Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel were gone up to Mizpeh.) Then said the children of Israel, Tell us, how was this wickedness?

And the man, the Levite, husband of the woman who hath been murdered, answereth and saith, 'Into Gibeah (which is to Benjamin) I have come, I and my concubine, to lodge;

And the men of Gibeah rose against me, and beset the house round about upon me by night, and thought to have slain me: and my concubine have they forced, that she is dead.

Here you all are, you children of Israel; give now your suggestions about what is to be done.

And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.

But now this is the thing which we will do to Gibeah: we will go up against it by lot;

So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

Now therefore deliver us the men, the children of Belial, which are in Gibeah, that we may put them to death, and put away evil from Israel. But the children of Benjamin would not hearken to the voice of their brethren the children of Israel:

And the children of Israel arose, and went up to the house of God, and asked counsel of God, and said, Which of us shall go up first to the battle against the children of Benjamin? And the LORD said, Judah shall go up first.

But the people, the men of Israel, taking heart again, put their forces in order and took up the same position as on the first day.

And the sons of Israel ask of Jehovah, -- and there is the ark of the covenant of God in those days,

and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, is standing before it in those days -- saying, 'Do I add again to go out to battle with the sons of Benjamin, my brother, or do I cease?' And Jehovah saith, 'Go up, for to-morrow I give him into thy hand.'

And the children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and put themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite of the people, and kill, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to the house of God, and the other to Gibeah in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

And the children of Benjamin said, They are smitten down before us, as at the first. But the children of Israel said, Let us flee, and draw them from the city unto the highways.

And all the men of Israel have risen from their place, and arrange themselves at Baal-Tamar, and the ambush of Israel is coming forth out of its place, out of the meadow of Gibeah.

And they come in over against Gibeah -- ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel -- and the battle is grievous, and they have not known that the evil is striking against them.

The LORD struck Benjamin in the full view of Israel. As a result, the Israelis destroyed 25,100 soldiers of Benjamin that day, all expert swordsmen.

And when the men of Israel retired in the battle, Benjamin began to smite and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons: for they said, Surely they are smitten down before us, as in the first battle.

At that point, as the army of Israel turned back to face the army of Benjamin, the army of Benjamin was filled with terror, because they realized that disaster was about to overtake them.

And, when they turned before the men of Israel unto the way of the desert, the battle, over took them, - while, as for them that came out of the cities, they began to destroy them in their midst: -

They inclosed the Benjamites round about, and chased them, and trod them down at their resting-place, as far as over against Gibeah toward the sunrising.

And, when they turned and fled towards the desert unto the cliff Rimmon, then gleaned they of them, in the highways, five thousand men, - and they followed hard after them as far as Gidom, and smote of them, two thousand men.

However, 600 soldiers ran into the wilderness in the direction of the rock of Rimmon, where they remained as fugitives for four months.

And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpeh, saying, There shall not any of us give his daughter unto Benjamin to wife.

And said, O LORD God of Israel, why is this come to pass in Israel, that there should be to day one tribe lacking in Israel?

And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

And the children of Israel repented them for Benjamin their brother, and said, There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day.

What shall we do for wives for those who are left, since we have sworn [an oath] by the Lord that we will not give them any of our daughters as wives?”

And they said, What one is there of the tribes of Israel that came not up to Mizpeh to the LORD? And, behold, there came none to the camp from Jabeshgilead to the assembly.

And the people numbered themselves, and lo, there is not there a man of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead.

And this is the thing that ye shall do, Ye shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman that hath lain by man.

And they found among the inhabitants of Jabeshgilead four hundred young virgins, that had known no man by lying with any male: and they brought them unto the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

And they say, 'A possession of an escaped party is to Benjamin, and a tribe is not blotted out from Israel;

and we -- we are not able to give to them wives out of our daughters, for the sons of Israel have sworn, saying, Cursed is he who is giving a wife to Benjamin.'

Then they said, Behold, there is a feast of the LORD in Shiloh yearly in a place which is on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.

The Benjaminites did as instructed. They abducted two hundred of the dancing girls to be their wives. They went home to their own territory, rebuilt their cities, and settled down.

In those days there is no king in Israel; each doth that which is right in his own eyes.

And it cometh to pass, in the days of the judging of the judges, that there is a famine in the land, and there goeth a man from Beth-Lehem-Judah to sojourn in the fields of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.

And the name of the man is Elimelech, and the name of his wife Naomi, and the name of his two sons Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from Beth-Lehem-Judah; and they come into the fields of Moab, and are there.

And Elimelech husband of Naomi dieth, and she is left, she and her two sons;

and they take to them wives, Moabitesses: the name of the one is Orpah, and the name of the second Ruth; and they dwell there about ten years.

And they die also, both of them -- Mahlon and Chilion -- and the woman is left of her two children and of her husband.

Now as she and her two daughters-in-law began to leave the place where she had been living to return to the land of Judah,

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

But Naomi responded, "Go back, my daughters. Why go with me? Are there still sons to be born to me as future husbands for you?

Turn back, my daughters, go, for I am too aged to be to a husband; though I had said, There is for me hope, also, I have been to-night to a husband, and also I have borne sons:

Would ye tarry for them till they were grown? would ye stay for them from having husbands? nay, my daughters; for it grieveth me much for your sakes that the hand of the LORD is gone out against me.

And she said, Behold, thy sister in law is gone back unto her people, and unto her gods: return thou after thy sister in law.

And Ruth saith, 'Urge me not to leave thee -- to turn back from after thee; for whither thou goest I go, and where thou lodgest I lodge; thy people is my people, and thy God my God.

And she seeth that she is strengthening herself to go with her, and she ceaseth to speak unto her;

So they two went until they came to Bethlehem. And it came to pass, when they were come to Bethlehem, that all the city was moved about them, and they said, Is this Naomi?

I left here full, but the LORD brought me back empty. So why call me "Naomi'? After all, the LORD is against me, and the Almighty has broken me."

And Naomi hath an acquaintance of her husband's, a man mighty in wealth, of the family of Elimelech, and his name is Boaz.

And Ruth the Moabitess said unto Naomi, Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace. And she said unto her, Go, my daughter.

And she goeth and cometh and gathereth in a field after the reapers, and her chance happeneth -- the portion of the field is Boaz's who is of the family of Elimelech.

And lo, Boaz hath come from Beth-Lehem, and saith to the reapers, 'Jehovah is with you;' and they say to him, 'Jehovah doth bless thee.'

Then said Boaz unto his servant that was set over the reapers, Whose damsel is this?

And the servant that was set over the reapers answered and said, It is the Moabitish damsel that came back with Naomi out of the country of Moab:

and she said, I pray you, let me glean and gather among the sheaves after the reapers. And she came, and has continued from the morning until now: her sitting in the house has been little as yet.

Let thine eyes be on the field which is being reaped, and go thou after them; have I not charged the young men not to touch thee? And when thou art athirst, go to the vessels and drink of what the young men draw.

At this she fell prostrate, bowing low to the ground, and asked him, "Why is it that you're showing me kindness by noticing me, since I'm a foreigner?"

Boaz replied to her, "I have been given a full report of all that you have done for your mother-in-law following the death of your husband -- how you left your father and your mother, as well as your homeland, and came to live among people you did not know previously.

The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust.

Then she said, Let me find favor in thy sight, my lord, for that thou hast comforted me, and for that thou hast spoken kindly unto thy handmaid, though I be not as one of thy handmaidens.

And Boaz saith to her, 'At meal-time come nigh hither, and thou hast eaten of the bread, and dipped thy morsel in the vinegar.' And she sitteth at the side of the reapers, and he reacheth to her roasted corn, and she eateth, and is satisfied, and leaveth.

And she gleaneth in the field till the evening, and beateth out that which she hath gleaned, and it is about an ephah of barley;

And her mother in law said unto her, Where hast thou gleaned to day? and where wroughtest thou? blessed be he that did take knowledge of thee. And she shewed her mother in law with whom she had wrought, and said, The man's name with whom I wrought to day is Boaz.

And Naomi said unto her daughter in law, Blessed be he of the LORD, who hath not left off his kindness to the living and to the dead. And Naomi said unto her, The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen.

And Ruth the Moabite said, "Also, he said to me, 'You shall stay close with the servants which are mine until they have finished all of the harvest which is mine.'"

And Naomi said unto Ruth her daughter in law, It is good, my daughter, that thou go out with his maidens, that they meet thee not in any other field.

So Ruth worked beside Boaz's female servants, gathering grain until the end of the barley harvest as well as the wheat harvest. After that she stayed home with her mother-in-law.

And now is not Boaz of our kindred, with whose maidens thou wast? Behold, he winnoweth barley to night in the threshingfloor.

But see to it, when he goes to rest, that you take note of the place where he is sleeping, and go in there, and, uncovering his feet, take your place by him; and he will say what you are to do.

So she went down to the threshing floor and did just as her mother-in-law had told her.

And Boaz eateth and drinketh, and his heart is glad; and he goeth in to lie down at the end of the heap; and she cometh in gently, and uncovereth his feet, and lieth down.

And it cometh to pass, at the middle of the night, that the man trembleth, and turneth himself, and lo, a woman is lying at his feet.

And he said, Who are you? And she answering said, I am your servant Ruth: take your servant as wife, for you are a near relation.

And he said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my daughter: for thou hast shewed more kindness in the latter end than at the beginning, inasmuch as thou followedst not young men, whether poor or rich.

And now, my daughter, have no fear; I will do for you whatever you say: for it is clear to all my townspeople that you are a woman of virtue.

And now it is true that I am thy near kinsman: howbeit there is a kinsman nearer than I.