Month: May 2019

Hannah Gives Birth to Samuel

1 There was a man from Ramathaim Zophim, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Elkanah. He was the son of Jeroham, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. ² He had two wives; the name of the first was Hannah and the name of the second was Peninnah. Now Peninnah had children, but Hannah was childless.

³ Year after year this man would go up from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh. It was there that the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phineas, served as the Lord’s priests. ⁴ Whenever the day came for Elkanah to sacrifice, he used to give meat portions to his wife Peninnah and to all her sons and daughters. ⁵ But he would give a double portion to Hannah, because he especially loved her. Now the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ⁶ Her rival wife used to upset her and make her worry, for the Lord had not enabled her to have children. ⁷ Peninnah would behave this way year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the Lord’s house, Peninnah would upset her so that she would weep and refuse to eat. ⁸ Finally her husband Elkanah said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep and not eat? Why are you so sad? Am I not better to you than ten sons?”

⁹ On one occasion in Shiloh, after they had finished eating and drinking, Hannah got up. (Now at the time Eli the priest was sitting in his chair by the doorpost of the Lord’s temple.) ¹⁰ She was very upset as she prayed to the Lord, and she was weeping uncontrollably. ¹¹ She made a vow saying, “O Lord of hosts, if you will look with compassion on the suffering of your female servant, remembering me and not forgetting your servant, and give a male child to your servant, then I will dedicate him to the Lord all the days of his life. His hair will never be cut.”

¹² As she continued praying to the Lord, Eli was watching her mouth. ¹³ Now Hannah was speaking from her heart. Although her lips were moving, her voice was inaudible. Eli therefore thought she was drunk. ¹⁴ So he said to her, “How often do you intend to get drunk? Put away your wine!”

¹⁵ But Hannah replied, “That’s not the way it is, my lord! I am under a great deal of stress. I have drunk neither wine nor beer. Rather, I have poured out my soul to the Lord. ¹⁶ Don’t consider your servant a wicked woman, for until now I have spoken from my deep pain and anguish.”

¹⁷ Eli replied, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request that you have asked of him.” ¹⁸ She said, “May I, your servant, find favor in your sight.” So the woman went her way and got something to eat. Her face no longer looked sad.

¹⁹ They got up early the next morning and after worshiping the Lord, they returned to their home at Ramah. Elkanah had marital relations with his wife Hannah, and the Lord remembered her. ²⁰ After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him.

Hannah Dedicates Samuel to the Lord

²¹ This man Elkanah went up with all his family to make the yearly sacrifice to the Lord and to keep his vow, ²² but Hannah did not go up with them. Instead she told her husband, “Once the boy is weaned, I will bring him and appear before the Lord, and he will remain there from then on.”

²³ So her husband Elkanah said to her, “Do what you think best. Stay until you have weaned him. May the Lord fulfill his promise.”

So the woman stayed and nursed her son until she had weaned him. ²⁴ Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah of flour, and a container of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ²⁵ Once the bull had been slaughtered, they brought the boy to Eli. ²⁶ She said, “Just as surely as you are alive, my lord, I am the woman who previously stood here with you in order to pray to the Lord. ²⁷ I prayed for this boy, and the Lord has given me the request that I asked of him. ²⁸ Now I dedicate him to the Lord. From this time on he is dedicated to the Lord.” Then they worshiped the Lord there.

Hannah Exalts the Lord in Prayer

2 Hannah prayed,

¹¹ Then Elkanah went back home to Ramah. But the boy was serving the Lord under the supervision of Eli the priest.

Eli’s Sons Misuse Their Sacred Office

¹² The sons of Eli were wicked men. They did not recognize the Lord’s authority. ¹³ Now the priests would always treat the people in the following way: Whenever anyone was making a sacrifice, while the meat was boiling, the priest’s attendant would come with a three-pronged fork in his hand. ¹⁴ He would jab it into the basin, kettle, cauldron, or pot, and everything that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they used to do to all the Israelites when they came there to Shiloh.

¹⁵ Even before they burned the fat, the priest’s attendant would come and say to the person who was making the sacrifice, “Hand over some meat for the priest to roast! He won’t take boiled meat from you, but only raw.” ¹⁶ If the individual said to him, “First let the fat be burned away, and then take for yourself whatever you wish,” he would say, “No! Hand it over right now! If you don’t, I will take it forcibly!”

¹⁷ The sin of these young men was very great in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offering with contempt.

¹⁸ Now Samuel was ministering before the Lord. The boy was dressed in a linen ephod. ¹⁹ His mother used to make him a small robe and bring it up to him at regular intervals when she would go up with her husband to make the annual sacrifice. ²⁰ Eli would bless Elkanah and his wife saying, “May the Lord raise up for you descendants from this woman to replace the one that she dedicated to the Lord.” Then they would go to their home. ²¹ So the Lord graciously attended to Hannah, and she was able to conceive and gave birth to three sons and two daughters. The boy Samuel grew up at the Lord’s sanctuary.

Healing a Paralytic at the Pool of Bethesda

5 After this there was a Jewish feast, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. ² Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool called Bethzatha in Aramaic, which has five covered walkways. ³ A great number of sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed people were lying in these walkways. ⁵ Now a man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and when he realized that the man had been disabled a long time already, he said to him, “Do you want to become well?” ⁷ The sick man answered him, “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up. While I am trying to get into the water, someone else goes down there before me.” ⁸ Jesus said to him, “Stand up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ Immediately the man was healed, and he picked up his mat and started walking. (Now that day was a Sabbath.)

¹⁰ So the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath, and you are not permitted to carry your mat.” ¹¹ But he answered them, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” ¹² They asked him, “Who is the man who said to you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” ¹³ But the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had slipped out, since there was a crowd in that place.

¹⁴ After this Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “Look, you have become well. Don’t sin any more, lest anything worse happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and informed the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the one who had made him well.

Responding to Jewish Leaders

¹⁶ Now because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began persecuting him. ¹⁷ So he told them, “My Father is working until now, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason the Jewish leaders were trying even harder to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was also calling God his own Father, thus making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him everything he does, and will show him greater deeds than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whomever he wishes. ²² Furthermore, the Father does not judge anyone, but has assigned all judgment to the Son, ²³ so that all people will honor the Son just as they honor the Father. The one who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him.

Ruth Works in the Field of Boaz

2 Now Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side of the family named Boaz. He was a wealthy, prominent man from the clan of Elimelech. ² One day Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the fields so I can gather grain behind whoever permits me to do so.” Naomi replied, “You may go, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth went and gathered grain in the fields behind the harvesters. Now she just happened to end up in the portion of the field belonging to Boaz, who was from the clan of Elimelech.

Boaz and Ruth Meet

⁴ Now at that very moment, Boaz arrived from Bethlehem and greeted the harvesters, “May the Lord be with you!” They replied, “May the Lord bless you!” ⁵ Boaz asked his servant in charge of the harvesters, “To whom does this young woman belong?” ⁶ The servant in charge of the harvesters replied, “She’s the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab. ⁷ She asked, ‘May I follow the harvesters and gather grain among the bundles?’ Since she arrived she has been working hard from this morning until now—except for sitting in the resting hut a short time.”

⁸ So Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my dear! Do not leave to gather grain in another field. You need not go beyond the limits of this field. You may go along beside my female workers. ⁹ Take note of the field where the men are harvesting and follow behind with the female workers. I will tell the men to leave you alone. When you are thirsty, you may go to the water jars and drink some of the water the servants draw.”

¹⁰ Ruth knelt before him with her forehead to the ground and said to him, “Why are you so kind and so attentive to me, even though I am a foreigner?” ¹¹ 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. ¹² May the Lord reward your efforts! May your acts of kindness be repaid fully by the Lord God of Israel, from whom you have sought protection!” ¹³ She said, “You really are being kind to me, sir, for you have reassured and encouraged me, your servant, even though I am not one of your servants!”

¹⁴ Later during the mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come here and have some food! Dip your bread in the vinegar!” So she sat down beside the harvesters. Then he handed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was full and saved the rest. ¹⁵ When she got up to gather grain, Boaz told his male servants, “Let her gather grain even among the bundles! Don’t chase her off! ¹⁶ Make sure you pull out ears of grain for her and drop them so she can gather them up. Don’t tell her not to!” ¹⁷ So she gathered grain in the field until evening. When she threshed what she had gathered, it came to about thirty pounds of barley!

Ruth Returns to Naomi

¹⁸ She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw how much grain she had gathered. Then Ruth gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you gather grain today? Where did you work? May the one who took notice of you be rewarded!” So Ruth told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked. She said, “The name of the man with whom I worked today is Boaz.” ²⁰ Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be rewarded by the Lord because he has shown loyalty to the living on behalf of the dead!” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is a close relative of ours; he is our guardian.” ²¹ Ruth the Moabite replied, “He even told me, ‘You may go along beside my servants until they have finished gathering all my harvest!’” ²² Naomi then said to her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter, that you should go out to work with his female servants. That way you will not be harmed, which could happen in another field.” ²³ 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.

Naomi Instructs Ruth

3 At that time, Naomi, her mother-in-law, said to her, “My daughter, I must find a home for you so you will be secure. ² Now Boaz, with whose female servants you worked, is our close relative. Look, tonight he is winnowing barley at the threshing floor. ³ So bathe yourself, rub on some perfumed oil, and get dressed up. Then go down to the threshing floor. But don’t let the man know you’re there until he finishes his meal. ⁴ When he gets ready to go to sleep, take careful notice of the place where he lies down. Then go, uncover his legs, and lie down beside him. He will tell you what you should do.” ⁵ Ruth replied to Naomi, “I will do everything you have told me to do.”

Ruth Visits Boaz

⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had instructed her to do. ⁷ When Boaz had finished his meal and was feeling satisfied, he lay down to sleep at the far end of the grain heap. Then Ruth crept up quietly, uncovered his legs, and lay down beside him. ⁸ In the middle of the night he was startled and turned over. Now he saw a woman lying beside him! ⁹ He said, “Who are you?” She replied, “I am Ruth, your servant. Marry your servant, for you are a guardian of the family interests.” ¹⁰ He said, “May you be rewarded by the Lord, my dear! This act of devotion is greater than what you did before. For you have not sought to marry one of the young men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ Now, my dear, don’t worry! I intend to do for you everything you propose, for everyone in the village knows that you are a worthy woman. ¹² Now yes, it is true that I am a guardian, but there is another guardian who is a closer relative than I am. ¹³ Remain here tonight. Then in the morning, if he agrees to marry you, fine, let him do so. But if he does not want to do so, I promise, as surely as the Lord lives, to marry you. Sleep here until morning.” ¹⁴ So she slept beside him until morning. She woke up while it was still dark. Boaz thought, “No one must know that a woman visited the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ Then he said, “Hold out the shawl you are wearing and grip it tightly.” As she held it tightly, he measured out about sixty pounds of barley into the shawl and put it on her shoulders. Then he went into town, ¹⁶ and she returned to her mother-in-law.

Ruth Returns to Naomi

When Ruth returned to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did things turn out for you, my daughter?” Ruth told her about all the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said, “He gave me these sixty pounds of barley, for he said to me, ‘Do not go to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’” ¹⁸ Then Naomi said, “Stay put, my daughter, until you know how the matter turns out. For the man will not rest until he has taken care of the matter today.”

Boaz Settles the Matter

4 Now Boaz went up to the village gate and sat there. Then along came the guardian whom Boaz had mentioned to Ruth! Boaz said, “Come here and sit down, ‘John Doe’!” So he came and sat down. ² Boaz chose ten of the village leaders and said, “Sit down here!” So they sat down. ³ Then Boaz said to the guardian, “Naomi, who has returned from the region of Moab, is selling the portion of land that belongs to our relative Elimelech. ⁴ So I am legally informing you: Acquire it before those sitting here and before the leaders of my people! If you want to exercise your right to redeem it, then do so. But if not, then tell me so I will know. For you possess the first option to redeem it; I am next in line after you.” He replied, “I will redeem it.” ⁵ Then Boaz said, “When you acquire the field from Naomi, you must also acquire Ruth the Moabite, the wife of our deceased relative, in order to preserve his family name by raising up a descendant who will inherit his property.” ⁶ The guardian said, “Then I am unable to redeem it, for I would ruin my own inheritance in that case. You may exercise my redemption option, for I am unable to redeem it.” ⁷ (Now this used to be the customary way to finalize a transaction involving redemption in Israel: A man would remove his sandal and give it to the other party. This was a legally binding act in Israel.) ⁸ So the guardian said to Boaz, “You may acquire it,” and he removed his sandal. ⁹ Then Boaz said to the leaders and all the people, “You are witnesses today that I have acquired from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech, Kilion, and Mahlon. ¹⁰ I have also acquired Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, as my wife to raise up a descendant who will inherit his property so the name of the deceased might not disappear from among his relatives and from his village. You are witnesses today.” ¹¹ All the people who were at the gate and the elders replied, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is entering your home like Rachel and Leah, both of whom built up the house of Israel! May you prosper in Ephrathah and become famous in Bethlehem. ¹² May your family become like the family of Perez—whom Tamar bore to Judah—through the descendants the Lord gives you by this young woman.”

A Grandson is Born to Naomi

¹³ So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. The Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ The village women said to Naomi, “May the Lord be praised because he has not left you without a guardian today! May he become famous in Israel! ¹⁵ He will encourage you and provide for you when you are old, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, has given him birth. She is better to you than seven sons!” ¹⁶ Naomi took the child and placed him on her lap; she became his caregiver. ¹⁷ The neighbor women named him, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi.” They named him Obed. Now he became the father of Jesse—David’s father!

Epilogue: Obed in the Genealogy of David

¹⁸ These are the descendants of Perez: Perez was the father of Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron was the father of Ram, Ram was the father of Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab was the father of Nachshon, Nachshon was the father of Salmah, ²¹ Salmon was the father of Boaz, Boaz was the father of Obed, ²² Obed was the father of Jesse, and Jesse was the father of David.

Onward to Galilee

⁴³ After the two days he departed from there to Galilee. ⁴⁴ (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen all the things he had done in Jerusalem at the feast (for they themselves had gone to the feast).

Healing the Royal Official’s Son

⁴⁶ Now he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had made the water wine. In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. ⁴⁷ When he heard that Jesus had come back from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and begged him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die. ⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will never believe!” ⁴⁹ “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my child dies.” ⁵⁰ Jesus told him, “Go home; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and set off for home.

⁵¹ While he was on his way down, his slaves met him and told him that his son was going to live. ⁵² So he asked them the time when his condition began to improve, and they told him, “Yesterday at one o’clock in the afternoon the fever left him.” ⁵³ Then the father realized that it was the very time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he himself believed along with his entire household. ⁵⁴ Jesus did this as his second miraculous sign when he returned from Judea to Galilee.

600 Brides for 600 Brothers

21 The Israelites had taken an oath in Mizpah, saying, “Not one of us will allow his daughter to marry a Benjaminite.” ² So the people came to Bethel and sat there before God until evening, weeping loudly and uncontrollably. ³ They said, “Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel?” An entire tribe has disappeared from Israel today!”

⁴ The next morning the people got up early and built an altar there. They offered up burnt sacrifices and tokens of peace. ⁵ The Israelites asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes has not assembled before the Lord?” They had made a solemn oath that whoever did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah must certainly be executed. ⁶ The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin. They said, “Today we cut off an entire tribe from Israel! ⁷ How can we find wives for those who are left? After all, we took an oath in the Lord’s name not to give them our daughters as wives.” ⁸ So they asked, “Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?” Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering. ⁹ When they took roll call, they noticed none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead were there. ¹⁰ So the assembly sent 12,000 capable warriors against Jabesh Gilead. They commanded them, “Go and kill with your swords the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead, including the women and little children. ¹¹ Do this: exterminate every male, as well as every woman who has had sexual relations with a male. But spare the lives of any virgins.” So they did as instructed. ¹² They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young girls who were virgins—they had never had sexual relations with a male. They brought them back to the camp at Shiloh in the land of Canaan.

¹³ The entire assembly sent messengers to the Benjaminites at the cliff of Rimmon and assured them they would not be harmed. ¹⁴ The Benjaminites returned at that time, and the Israelites gave to them the women they had spared from Jabesh Gilead. But there were not enough to go around.

¹⁵ The people regretted what had happened to Benjamin because the Lord had weakened the Israelite tribes. ¹⁶ The leaders of the assembly said, “How can we find wives for those who are left? After all, the Benjaminite women have been wiped out. ¹⁷ The remnant of Benjamin must be preserved. An entire Israelite tribe should not be wiped out. ¹⁸ But we can’t allow our daughters to marry them, for the Israelites took an oath, saying, ‘Whoever gives a woman to a Benjaminite will be destroyed!’ ¹⁹ However, there is an annual festival to the Lord in Shiloh, which is north of Bethel (east of the main road that goes up from Bethel to Shechem) and south of Lebonah.” ²⁰ So they commanded the Benjaminites, “Go hide in the vineyards, ²¹ and keep your eyes open. When you see the daughters of Shiloh coming out to dance in the celebration, jump out from the vineyards. Each one of you, catch yourself a wife from among the daughters of Shiloh and then go home to the land of Benjamin. ²² When their fathers or brothers come and protest to us, we’ll say to them, “Do us a favor and let them be, for we could not get each one a wife through battle. Don’t worry about breaking your oath! You would only be guilty if you had voluntarily given them wives.’”

²³ 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. ²⁴ Then the Israelites dispersed from there to their respective tribal and clan territories. Each went from there to his own property. ²⁵ In those days Israel had no king. Each man did what he considered to be right.

A Family Tragedy: Famine and Death

1 During the time of the judges there was a famine in the land of Judah. So a man from Bethlehem in Judah went to live as a resident foreigner in the region of Moab, along with his wife and two sons. ² (Now the man’s name was Elimelech, his wife was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Kilion. They were of the clan of Ephrath from Bethlehem in Judah.) They entered the region of Moab and settled there. ³ Sometime later Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she and her two sons were left alone. ⁴ So her sons married Moabite women. (One was named Orpah and the other Ruth.) And they continued to live there about ten years. ⁵ Then Naomi’s two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left all alone—bereaved of her two children as well as her husband! ⁶ So she decided to return home from the region of Moab, accompanied by her daughters-in-law, because while she was living in Moab she had heard that the Lord had shown concern for his people, reversing the famine by providing abundant crops.

Ruth Returns with Naomi

⁷ 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, ⁸ Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Listen to me! Each of you should return to your mother’s home! May the Lord show you the same kind of devotion that you have shown to your deceased husbands and to me! ⁹ May the Lord enable each of you to find security in the home of a new husband!” Then she kissed them goodbye and they wept loudly. ¹⁰ But they said to her, “No! We will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ But Naomi replied, “Go back home, my daughters! There is no reason for you to return to Judah with me! I am no longer capable of giving birth to sons who might become your husbands! ¹² Go back home, my daughters! For I am too old to get married again. Even if I thought that there was hope that I could get married tonight and conceive sons, ¹³ surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry! Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! No, my daughters, you must not return with me. For my intense suffering is too much for you to bear. For the Lord is afflicting me!”

¹⁴ Again they wept loudly. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye, but Ruth clung tightly to her. ¹⁵ So Naomi said, “Look, your sister-in-law is returning to her people and to her god. Follow your sister-in-law back home!” ¹⁶ But Ruth replied,

¹⁸ When Naomi realized that Ruth was determined to go with her, she stopped trying to dissuade her. ¹⁹ So the two of them journeyed together until they arrived in Bethlehem.

Naomi and Ruth Arrive in Bethlehem

When they entered Bethlehem, the whole village was excited about their arrival. The women of the village said, “Can this be Naomi?” ²⁰ But she replied to them, “Don’t call me ‘Naomi’! Call me ‘Mara’ because the Sovereign One has treated me very harshly. ²¹ I left here full, but the Lord has caused me to return empty-handed. Why do you call me ‘Naomi,’ seeing that the Lord has opposed me, and the Sovereign One has caused me to suffer?” ²² So Naomi returned, accompanied by her Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, who came back with her from the region of Moab. (Now they arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.)

Conversation With a Samaritan Woman

⁴ But he had to pass through Samaria. ⁵ Now he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, so Jesus, since he was tired from the journey, sat right down beside the well. It was about noon.

⁷ A Samaritan woman came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me some water to drink.” ⁸ (For his disciples had gone off into the town to buy supplies.) ⁹ So the Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you—a Jew—ask me, a Samaritan woman, for water to drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you had known the gift of God and who it is who said to you, ‘Give me some water to drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” ¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said to him, “you have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do you get this living water? ¹² Surely you’re not greater than our ancestor Jacob, are you? For he gave us this well and drank from it himself, along with his sons and his livestock.”

¹³ Jesus replied, “Everyone who drinks some of this water will be thirsty again. ¹⁴ But whoever drinks some of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” ¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.” ¹⁶ He said to her, “Go call your husband and come back here.” ¹⁷ The woman replied, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “Right you are when you said, ‘I have no husband,’ ¹⁸ for you have had five husbands, and the man you are living with now is not your husband. This you said truthfully!”

¹⁹ The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, and you people say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” ²¹ Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You people worship what you do not know. We worship what we know, because salvation is from the Jews. ²³ But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. ²⁴ God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” ²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (the one called Christ); “whenever he comes, he will tell us everything.” ²⁶ Jesus said to her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.”

The Disciples Return

²⁷ Now at that very moment his disciples came back. They were shocked because he was speaking with a woman. However, no one said, “What do you want?” or “Why are you speaking with her?” ²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar, went off into the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Surely he can’t be the Messiah, can he?” ³⁰ So they left the town and began coming to him.

Workers for the Harvest

³¹ Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” ³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” ³³ So the disciples began to say to one another, “No one brought him anything to eat, did they?” ³⁴ Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of the one who sent me and to complete his work. ³⁵ Don’t you say, ‘There are four more months and then comes the harvest?’ I tell you, look up and see that the fields are already white for harvest! ³⁶ The one who reaps receives pay and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the one who sows and the one who reaps can rejoice together. ³⁷ For in this instance the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you did not work for; others have labored and you have entered into their labor.”

The Samaritans Respond

³⁹ Now many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the report of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they began asking him to stay with them. He stayed there two days, ⁴¹ and because of his word many more believed. ⁴² They said to the woman, “No longer do we believe because of your words, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this one really is the Savior of the world.”

Psalm 105

A Levite, a woman, and her father

19 In those days when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living as an immigrant in the far corners of the Ephraim highlands. He married a secondary wife from Bethlehem in Judah. ² In an act of unfaithfulness toward him, his secondary wife left him and went back to her father’s household at Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there four full months. ³ Then her husband set out after her to convince her to come back. He had his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. She took him into her father’s house, and when the young woman’s father saw him, he was happy to welcome him. ⁴ Since his father-in-law, the young woman’s father, insisted, he stayed with him three days, eating, drinking, and spending the night there.

⁵ On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning, and he got ready to set out. But the young woman’s father said to his son-in-law, “Eat a little food to give you strength, and then you can go.” ⁶ So the two of them sat down and ate and drank together. The young woman’s father said to the man, “Why not spend the night and enjoy yourself?” ⁷ When the man got ready to set out, his father-in-law persuaded him, and he spent the night there again. ⁸ On the fifth day, he got up early in the morning to set out, and the young woman’s father said, “Have some food for strength.” So the two of them ate, sitting around until late in the day. ⁹ When the man got ready to set out with his secondary wife and servant, his father-in-law, the young woman’s father, said, “Look, the day has turned to evening, so spend the night. Seriously, the day is over. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Then you can get up early tomorrow for your journey, and you can head home.”

¹⁰ But the man was unwilling to spend another night. He got up, set out, and went as far as the area of Jebus, that is, Jerusalem. He had a couple of saddled donkeys and his secondary wife with him. ¹¹ When they were near Jebus, the day was totally gone. The servant said to his master, “Come on, let’s turn into this Jebusite city and spend the night in it.”

¹² But his master replied to him, “We won’t turn into a city of foreigners who aren’t Israelites. We’ll travel on to Gibeah. ¹³ “Come on,” he said to his servant, “let’s reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in one of those places.” ¹⁴ So they traveled on, and the sun set when they were near Gibeah in Benjamin. ¹⁵ They turned in to enter there, so they could spend the night in Gibeah, and he went and sat down in the city square. But no one offered to take them home to spend the night.

Rape and murder at Gibeah

¹⁶ Then in the evening, an old man was coming home from his daily work in the fields. This man was from the Ephraim highlands and was an immigrant in Gibeah, the people of that place being Benjaminites. ¹⁷ He looked up and saw the traveler in the city square. “Where are you heading and where have you come from?” the old man asked.

¹⁸ “We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the far corners of the Ephraim highlands,” he replied to the old man. “That’s where I’m from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m heading to my home.^[a] But no one has offered to take me in tonight. ¹⁹ We’ve got our own straw and feed for our donkeys, plus food and wine to provide for me, the woman, and my servant with us. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰ The old man answered, “You’re welcome to stay with me,^[b] but let me take care of all your needs. Just don’t spend the night in the square.” ²¹ And he took him into his house. He mixed feed for the donkeys, and they washed their feet, ate, and drank.

²² While they were relaxing, suddenly the men of the city, a perverse bunch, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the owner of the house, “Send out the man who came to your house, so we can have sex with him!”

²³ The owner of the house went outside and said to them, “No, my friends, please don’t commit such an evil act, given that this man has come to my home as a guest. Don’t do this disgraceful thing! ²⁴ Here’s my daughter, the young woman, and his secondary wife. Let me send them out, and you can abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!” ²⁵ But the men refused to listen to him.

So the Levite grabbed his secondary wife and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They finally let her go as dawn was breaking.

²⁶ At daybreak, the woman came and collapsed at the door of the man’s house where her husband was staying, where she lay until it was daylight. ²⁷ When her husband got up in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went outside to set out on his journey. And there was his secondary wife, lying at the entrance of the house, with her hands clutching the doorframe. ²⁸ “Get up,” he said to her, “let’s go.” But there was no response. So he laid her across a donkey, and the man set out for home. ²⁹ When he got home, he picked up a knife, took his secondary wife, and chopped her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces. Then he sent them into all the areas of Israel. ³⁰ Everyone who saw it said, “Has such a thing ever happened or been seen since the time when the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until today? Think about it, decide what to do, and speak out!”

Civil war between the Benjaminites and the Israelites

20 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beer-sheba, as well as from the area of Gilead, marched out, and the group assembled as one body in the Lord’s presence at Mizpah. ² The commanders of the people and of all the tribes of Israel took their place in the assembly of God’s people, four hundred thousand foot soldiers armed with swords. ³ And the Benjaminites got word that the Israelites had marched up to Mizpah.

The Israelites inquired, “Tell us how this evil act happened.”

⁴ So the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, answered, “My secondary wife and I came to Gibeah of Benjamin to spend the night, ⁵ and the leading citizens of Gibeah tried to attack me. They surrounded me in the house at night and were determined to kill me. They abused my secondary wife until she died. ⁶ I took her, chopped her up, and sent her pieces into every part of Israel’s territory, because they had committed a disgraceful act in Israel. ⁷ All you Israelites, say what you think should be done here and now!”

⁸ At this, all the people stood as one to say, “Not a single one of us is going home or returning to our house! ⁹ This is what we’re now going to do to Gibeah: We’ll march up^[c] against it as the lot determines. ¹⁰ From all the tribes of Israel, we’ll get ten men for every hundred, one hundred for every thousand, and one thousand for every ten thousand to take supplies for the troops who are going to pay back^[d] Gibeah of Benjamin for the disgraceful act they’ve done in Israel.” ¹¹ So all the Israelites joined together and were united as one against the city.

¹² The Israelite tribes sent men throughout the whole tribe of Benjamin with this message: “What about this evil act that happened among you? ¹³ Now hand over those perverse men in Gibeah so that we can execute them and remove the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites refused to comply with the demand of their own relatives the Israelites. ¹⁴ Instead, the Benjaminites from all the cities came together at Gibeah to march out for battle against the Israelites. ¹⁵ On that day, the Benjaminites called up from their cities twenty-six thousand men armed with swords, not counting those living in Gibeah.^{[e] 16} Out of this entire army, seven hundred specially chosen men were left-handed, and every one of them could sling a stone at a hair and not miss. ¹⁷ Not counting Benjamin, the Israelites called up four hundred thousand men armed with swords, and every one of them was a trained warrior.

¹⁸ Then the Israelites marched up to Bethel to ask for direction from God. They inquired, “Who should go up first to fight against the Benjaminites for us?”

And the Lord said, “Let the tribe of Judah be first.”

¹⁹ So the next morning, the Israelites got up and camped near Gibeah. ²⁰ They marched out to fight against the Benjaminites, lining up in battle formation against them at Gibeah. ²¹ But the Benjaminites marched out from Gibeah and cut down twenty-two thousand Israelite men that day.

^23 [f] So the Israelites went back up and wept before the Lord until evening. They asked the Lord, “Should we move in again to fight our relatives the Benjaminites?”

And the Lord replied, “March out against them.”

²² The Israelite troops regrouped and lined up in battle formation again in the same place they had lined up the first day. ²⁴ The Israelites moved in against the Benjaminites the second day. ²⁵ But the Benjaminites marched out of Gibeah to meet them on that second day and cut down another eighteen thousand Israelite men, all of whom were armed with swords.

²⁶ Then all the Israelite troops went back up to Bethel and wept, just sitting there in the Lord’s presence. They fasted that whole day until evening. Then they offered entirely burned offerings and well-being sacrifices to the Lord. ²⁷ Now in those days the chest containing God’s covenant was there, ²⁸ and Phinehas, Eleazar’s son and Aaron’s grandson, was in charge of ministering before it. The Israelites asked the Lord, “Should we march out once again to fight our relatives the Benjaminites or should we give up?”

And the Lord replied, “March up, for I’ll hand them to you tomorrow.”

²⁹ So the Israelites set ambushes around Gibeah. ³⁰ Three days later, the Israelites marched out against the Benjaminites. They lined up for battle against Gibeah as before. ³¹ When the Benjaminites came out to meet them, they were drawn away from the city. They began to strike down some of the troops just like the last time, about thirty Israelites along the main roads, one of which goes up to Bethel and one to Gibeah, as well as in the open fields. ³² The Benjaminites thought, They’re being wiped out before us like the first time. But the Israelites had planned, We’ll retreat and draw them away from the city toward the main roads. ³³ The Israelites moved from their position and reformed their battle lines at Baal-tamar. Then the Israelites who had been set in ambush charged out from their positions west of Gibeah.^{[g] 34} Ten thousand specially chosen men from all the Israelites came against Gibeah. The fighting was fierce, and the Benjaminites didn’t realize that disaster was almost on them. ³⁵ The Lord wiped out the Benjaminites before Israel. The Israelites slaughtered twenty-five thousand one hundred Benjaminite men that day, all of them armed with swords. ³⁶ Then the Benjaminites saw that they had been defeated.

The Israelites had given ground to the Benjaminites because they relied on the ambush that they had set around Gibeah. ³⁷ Indeed, those in the ambush had dashed swiftly into Gibeah and killed all the people in the city with their swords. ³⁸ The plan between the main force of the Israelites and those in the ambush was that when they sent up a big cloud of smoke from the city, ³⁹ the Israelites would turn around in battle. The Benjaminites had begun to defeat some of the Israelites and had killed about thirty men, thinking, They are definitely going to be wiped out before us, as in the first battle! ⁴⁰ But then the column of smoke began to rise from the city. When the Benjaminites looked back, there was the entire city going up in smoke to the sky. ⁴¹ The main force of the Israelites turned around, and the Benjaminites lost heart, because they recognized that disaster had fallen on them. ⁴² They turned back before the Israelites in the direction of the desert, but the fighting caught up with them, and those from the towns were slaughtering them there.^{[h] 43} They encircled the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah,^[i] and trampled them to the east of Gibeah. ⁴⁴ Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of whom were strong warriors. ⁴⁵ When they turned back and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon, the Israelites picked off another five thousand men on the main roads. And when they caught up with them at Gidom, they struck down two thousand more.

⁴⁶ All in all, the total number of Benjaminites who fell that day was twenty-five thousand men, all of whom were armed with swords and were strong warriors. ⁴⁷ Six hundred men turned back and fled toward the desert to the rock of Rimmon. They stayed at the rock of Rimmon for four months. ⁴⁸ But the Israelites turned their attention to the rest of the Benjaminites and massacred them entirely—the city, the people, even the animals, and everything else they found. They also burned down every city they came across.

John’s final witness

²² After this Jesus and his disciples went into Judea, where he spent some time with them and was baptizing. ²³ John was baptizing at Aenon near Salem because there was a lot of water there, and people were coming to him and being baptized. (²⁴ John hadn’t yet been thrown into prison.)

²⁵ A debate started between John’s disciples and a certain Jew about cleansing rituals. ²⁶ They came to John and said, “Rabbi, look! The man who was with you across the Jordan, the one about whom you testified, is baptizing and everyone is flocking to him.”

²⁷ John replied, “No one can receive anything unless it is given from heaven. ²⁸ You yourselves can testify that I said that I’m not the Christ but that I’m the one sent before him. ²⁹ The groom is the one who is getting married. The friend of the groom stands close by and, when he hears him, is overjoyed at the groom’s voice. Therefore, my joy is now complete. ³⁰ He must increase and I must decrease. ³¹ The one who comes from above is above all things. The one who is from the earth belongs to the earth and speaks as one from the earth. The one who comes from heaven is above all things. ³² He testifies to what he has seen and heard, but no one accepts his testimony. ³³ Whoever accepts his testimony confirms that God is true. ³⁴ The one whom God sent speaks God’s words because God gives the Spirit generously. ³⁵ The Father loves the Son and gives everything into his hands. ³⁶ Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever doesn’t believe in the Son won’t see life, but the angry judgment of God remains on them.”

Jesus leaves Judea

4 Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was making more disciples and baptizing more than John (² although Jesus’ disciples were baptizing, not Jesus himself). ³ Therefore, he left Judea and went back to Galilee.

Micah’s sanctuary and the Levite priest

17 Once there was a man named Micah who lived in the Ephraim highlands. ² He said to his mother, “The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from you led you to declare a curse and even to repeat it when I could hear. I have that silver. I’m the one who took it, and now I’ll give it back to you.”^[a]

His mother replied, “May the Lord bless you, my son!” ³ When he gave the eleven hundred pieces of silver back to his mother, she said, “I wholeheartedly devote this silver to the Lord, to be made into a sculpted image and a molded image for my son.” ⁴ So he gave the silver back to his mother, and she took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to a silversmith, who used it for a sculpted image and a molded image. And they were placed in Micah’s house. ⁵ This man Micah had his own sanctuary.^[b] He made a priestly vest^[c] and divine images^[d] and appointed one of his sons to be his personal priest. ⁶ In those days there was no king in Israel; each person did what they thought to be right.

⁷ Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the area of the Judahite clan. He was a Levite residing there as an immigrant. ⁸ The man left the town of Bethlehem in Judah to settle as an immigrant wherever he could find a place. He came to Micah’s house in the Ephraim highlands while he was making his way.^[e]

⁹ “Where are you from?” Micah asked him.

He replied, “I’m a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m looking to settle as an immigrant anywhere I can find a place.”

¹⁰ So Micah said to him, “Stay with me and be a father and a priest to me, and I’ll give you ten pieces of silver a year, a set of clothes, and your basic needs.”^{[f] 11} The Levite agreed to stay with him; and the young man became like one of his own sons. ¹² Micah appointed the Levite so that the young man became his personal priest and lived in Micah’s sanctuary. ¹³ And Micah said to himself, Now I know that the Lord will give me good things, because a Levite has become my priest.

Dan’s search for a land

18 In those days there was no king in Israel. Also in those days the tribe of Dan was searching for a territory of their own to live in, since no permanent territory had been assigned to them among the tribes of Israel up to that point. ² The Danites sent five men from their whole clan, strong men from Zorah and Eshtaol, to spy on the land and explore it. They told them, “Go explore the land.” So they went into the Ephraim highland as far as Micah’s house, and they spent the night there. ³ When they were in the area of Micah’s house, they recognized the accent of the young Levite. They turned in there and said to him, “Who brought you here? What are you doing in these parts? What is there for you here?”

⁴ “Micah has done a lot for me,” he replied to them. “He hired me to be his personal priest.”

⁵ They said to him, “Ask for an answer from God so we can know whether we’ll be successful on this trip we’ve taken.”

⁶ The priest replied to them, “Go in peace. The Lord is watching over you on this trip you’ve taken.”

⁷ So the five men journeyed on until they reached Laish. There they saw that its people were living without worry in the same way as the Sidonians, undisturbed and secure. Nobody held back anything in the land, so no one had to hoard.^[g] Yet they lived far away from the Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else.^[h]

⁸ When the men came back to their relatives at Zorah and Eshtaol, they asked them, “What did you find?”

⁹ “Come on,” they replied, “let’s march up against them! Indeed, we’ve seen the land, and it’s very good. Right now you’re doing nothing! Don’t hold back from going and taking possession of the land. ¹⁰ When you arrive, you’ll come upon a secure people and a wide-open land, because God has given to you a place where nothing on earth is lacking.” ¹¹ At this, six hundred men from the Danite clan at Zorah and Eshtaol set out armed for battle. ¹² They marched up and made camp at Kiriath-jearim in Judah. This is why the place west of Kiriath-jearim is still known as Dan’s Camp today. ¹³ From there they crossed into the Ephraim highlands and came to Micah’s house.

Dan acquires a levitical priest

¹⁴ Then the five men who had gone to spy on the land around Laish reported to their relatives, “Did you know that there is a priestly vest, divine images, a sculpted image, and a molded image in these buildings? Now think about what you should do!” ¹⁵ So they turned in there and went to the young Levite’s house in Micah’s compound and greeted him. ¹⁶ While the six hundred Danites armed for battle stood at the entrance of the gate, ¹⁷ the five men who had gone to spy on the land moved up, went inside, and took the sculpted image, the priestly vest, the divine images, and the molded image. The priest was standing at the entrance of the gate with the six hundred men armed for battle ¹⁸ when these five entered Micah’s sanctuary and took the sculpted image, the priestly vest, the divine images, and the molded image.

The priest said to them, “What are you doing?”

¹⁹ “Shut up!” they said to him. “Put your hand over your mouth! Come with us and be a father and a priest for us. Would you rather be a priest for one man’s household or a priest for a tribe and a clan in Israel?” ²⁰ The priest was convinced, so he took the priestly vest, the divine images, and the sculpted image and went along with the people.

²¹ They headed back on their way, but they put the children, the livestock, and the prized possessions in front of them. ²² After they had gone a good distance away from Micah’s house, the men who were in the houses around Micah’s home were summoned for battle and caught up to the Danites. ²³ They called out to the Danites, who turned around and said to Micah, “Why have you summoned men for battle?”

²⁴ Micah replied, “You’ve taken my gods that I made, and the priest, and have gone off! What do I have left? How can you ask me what is wrong?”

²⁵ But the Danites said to him, “Don’t raise your voice with us or else hotheaded men will attack you, and you and your household will lose your lives.” ²⁶ Then the Danites went on their way. When Micah realized that they were too strong for him, he turned around and went home.

The Danites take possession of Laish

²⁷ The Danites took along the things that Micah had made, as well as the priest who had been with him, and came to Laish, to a people who were undisturbed and secure. They killed the people and burned down the city. ²⁸ No one was there to rescue them because the city was far away from Sidon and had no dealings with anyone else.^[i] It was in the Beth-rehob Valley.

They rebuilt the city and settled in it. ²⁹ They renamed the city Dan, after their ancestor Dan who had been one of Israel’s sons; but in fact, the original name of the city was Laish. ³⁰ The Danites set up the sculpted image for themselves, and Jonathan son of Gershom and grandson of Moses,^[j] and his sons became priests for the Danite tribe until the land went into exile. ³¹ They kept for themselves the sculpted image that Micah had made throughout the whole time that God’s sanctuary was in Shiloh.

Jesus and Nicodemus

3 There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a Jewish leader. ² He came to Jesus at night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could do these miraculous signs that you do unless God is with him.”

³ Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born anew,^[a] it’s not possible to see God’s kingdom.”

⁴ Nicodemus asked, “How is it possible for an adult to be born? It’s impossible to enter the mother’s womb for a second time and be born, isn’t it?”

⁵ Jesus answered, “I assure you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom. ⁶ Whatever is born of the flesh is flesh, and whatever is born of the Spirit is spirit. ⁷ Don’t be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ ⁸ God’s Spirit^[b] blows wherever it wishes. You hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it is going. It’s the same with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

⁹ Nicodemus said, “How are these things possible?”

¹⁰ “Jesus answered, “You are a teacher of Israel and you don’t know these things? ¹¹ I assure you that we speak about what we know and testify about what we have seen, but you don’t receive our testimony. ¹² If I have told you about earthly things and you don’t believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? ¹³ No one has gone up to heaven except the one who came down from heaven, the Human One.^{[c] 14} Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so must the Human One^[d] be lifted up ¹⁵ so that everyone who believes in him will have eternal life. ¹⁶ God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him won’t perish but will have eternal life. ¹⁷ God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. ¹⁸ Whoever believes in him isn’t judged; whoever doesn’t believe in him is already judged, because they don’t believe in the name of God’s only Son.

¹⁹ “This is the basis for judgment: The light came into the world, and people loved darkness more than the light, for their actions are evil. ²⁰ All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light. ²¹ Whoever does the truth comes to the light so that it can be seen that their actions were done in God.”

Psalm 104