1 Now the men of Israel had sworn an oath at Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite.”

2 So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, lifting up their voices and weeping bitterly. 3“Why, O LORD God of Israel,” they cried out, “has this happened in Israel? Today in Israel one tribe is missing!”

4 The next day the people got up early, built an altar there, and presented burnt offerings and peace offerings. 5The Israelites asked, “Who among all the tribes of Israel did not come to the assembly before the Lord?” For they had taken a solemn oath that anyone who failed to come up before the Lord at Mizpah would surely be put to death.

6 And the Israelites grieved for their brothers, the Benjamites, and said, “Today a tribe is cut off from Israel. 7What should we do about wives for the survivors, since we have sworn by the Lord not to give them our daughters in marriage?”

8 So they asked, “Which one of the tribes of Israel failed to come up before the Lord at Mizpah?” And, in fact, no one from Jabesh-gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. 9For when the people were counted, none of the residents of Jabesh-gilead were there.

10 So the congregation sent 12,000 of their most valiant men and commanded them: “Go and put to the sword those living in Jabesh-gilead, including women and children. 11This is what you are to do: Devote to destruction every male, as well as every female who has had relations with a man.”

12 So they found among the inhabitants of Jabesh-gilead four hundred young women who had not had relations with a man, and they brought them to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

13 Then the whole congregation sent a message of peace to the Benjamites who were at the rock of Rimmon. 14And at that time the Benjamites returned and were given the women who were spared from Jabesh-gilead. But there were not enough women for all of them.

15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because the Lord had made a void in the tribes of Israel.

16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “What should we do about wives for those who remain, since the women of Benjamin have been destroyed?” 17They added, “There must be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, so that a tribe of Israel will not be wiped out. 18But we cannot give them our daughters as wives.”

For the Israelites had sworn, “Cursed is he who gives a wife to a Benjamite.”

19“But look,” they said, “there is a yearly feast to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel east of the road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and south of Lebonah.”

20 So they commanded the Benjamites: “Go, hide in the vineyards 21and watch. When you see the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, each of you is to come out of the vineyards, catch for himself a wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin. 22When their fathers or brothers come to us to complain, we will tell them, ‘Do us a favor by helping them, since we did not get wives for each of them in the war. Since you did not actually give them your daughters, you have no guilt.’”

23 The Benjamites did as instructed and carried away the number of women they needed from the dancers they caught. They went back to their own inheritance, rebuilt their cities, and settled in them. 24And at that time, each of the Israelites returned from there to his own tribe and clan, each to his own inheritance.

25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

1 In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land. And a certain man from Bethlehem in Judah, with his wife and two sons, went to reside in the land of Moab. 2The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and the names of his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah, and they entered the land of Moab and settled there.

3 Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, and she was left with her two sons, 4who took Moabite women as their wives, one named Orpah and the other named Ruth.

And after they had lived in Moab about ten years, 5both Mahlon and Chilion also died, and Naomi was left without her two sons and without her husband.

6 When Naomi heard in Moab that the Lord had attended to His people by providing them with food, she and her daughters-in-law prepared to leave the land of Moab. 7Accompanied by her two daughters-in-law, she left the place where she had been living and set out on the road leading back to the land of Judah.

8 Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you to your mother’s home. May the Lord show you loving devotion, as you have shown to your dead and to me. 9May the Lord enable each of you to find rest in the home of your new husband.”

And she kissed them as they wept aloud 10and said, “Surely we will return with you to your people.”

11 But Naomi replied, “Return home, my daughters. Why would you go with me? Are there still sons in my womb to become your husbands? 12Return home, my daughters. Go on, for I am too old to have another husband. Even if I thought there was hope for me to have a husband tonight and to bear sons, 13would you wait for them to grow up? Would you refrain from having husbands? No, my daughters, it is much more bitter for me than for you, because the hand of the Lord has gone out against me.”

14 Again they wept aloud, and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung to her.

15“Look,” said Naomi, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her gods; follow her back home.”

16 But Ruth replied:

18 When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to persuade her.

19 So Naomi and Ruth traveled until they came to Bethlehem. When they entered Bethlehem, the whole town was stirred because of them, and the women of the town exclaimed, “Can this be Naomi?”

20“Do not call me Naomi,” she replied. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has dealt quite bitterly with me. 21I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? After all, the Lord has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me.”

22 So Naomi returned from the land of Moab with her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess. And they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

4 Now He had to pass through Samaria. 5So He came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6Since Jacob’s well was there, Jesus, weary from His journey, sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Give Me a drink.” 8(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

9“You are a Jew,” said the woman. “How can You ask for a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

10 Jesus answered, “If you knew the gift of God and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”

11“Sir,” the woman replied, “You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then will You get this living water? 12Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again. 14But whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a fount of water springing up to eternal life.”

15 The woman said to Him, “Sir, give me this water so that I will not get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

16 Jesus told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

17“I have no husband,” the woman replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are correct to say that you have no husband. 18In fact, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. You have spoken truthfully.”

19“Sir,” the woman said, “I see that You are a prophet. 20Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews say that the place where one must worship is in Jerusalem.”

21 “Believe Me, woman,” Jesus replied, “a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22You worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23But a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father is seeking such as these to worship Him. 24God is Spirit, and His worshipers must worship Him in spirit and in truth.”

25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah”(called Christ) “is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.”

26 Jesus answered, “I who speak to you am He.”

27 Just then His disciples returned and were surprised that He was speaking with a woman. But no one asked Him, “What do You want from her?” or “Why are You talking with her?”

28 Then the woman left her water jar, went back into the town, and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30So they left the town and made their way toward Jesus.

31 Meanwhile the disciples urged Him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32 But He told them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33 So the disciples asked one another, “Could someone have brought Him food?”

34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work. 35Do you not say, ‘There are still four months until the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are ripe for harvest.

36 Already the reaper draws his wages and gathers a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may rejoice together. 37For in this case the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38I sent you to reap what you have not worked for; others have done the hard work, and now you have taken up their labor.”

39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in Jesus because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to Him, they asked Him to stay with them, and He stayed two days.

41 And many more believed because of His message. 42They said to the woman, “We now believe not only because of your words; we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man truly is the Savior of the world.”