The Living Bible (87 page)

Ruth
4

So Boaz went down to the marketplace
*
and found the relative he had mentioned.

    
“Say, come over here,” he called to him. “I want to talk to you a minute.”

    
So they sat down together.
²
 Then Boaz called for ten of the chief men of the village and asked them to sit as witnesses.

    
³
 Boaz said to his relative, “You know Naomi, who came back to us from Moab. She is selling our brother Elimelech’s property.
⁴
 I felt that I should speak to you about it so that you can buy it if you wish, with these respected men as witnesses. If you want it,
*
let me know right away, for if you don’t take it, I will. You have the first right to purchase it and I am next.”

    
The man replied, “All right, I’ll buy it.”

    
⁵
 Then Boaz told him, “Your purchase of the land from Naomi requires your marriage to Ruth so that she can have children to carry on her husband’s name and to inherit the land.”

    
⁶
 “Then I can’t do it,” the man replied. “For her son would become an heir to my property too;
*
you buy it.”

    
⁷
 In those days it was the custom in Israel for a man transferring a right of purchase to pull off his sandal and hand it to the other party; this publicly validated the transaction.
⁸
 So, as the man said to Boaz, “You buy it for yourself,” he drew off his sandal.

    
⁹
 Then Boaz said to the witnesses and to the crowd standing around, “You have seen that today I have bought all the property of Elimelech, Chilion, and Mahlon, from Naomi,
¹⁰
 and that with it I have purchased Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon, to be my wife, so that she can have a son to carry on the family name of her dead husband.”

    
¹¹
 And all the people standing there and the witnesses replied, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make this woman, who has now come into your home, as fertile as Rachel and Leah, from whom all the nation of Israel descended! May you be a great and successful man in Bethlehem,
¹²
 and may the descendants the Lord will give you from this young woman be as numerous and honorable as those of our ancestor Perez, the son of Tamar and Judah.”

    
¹³
 So Boaz married Ruth, and when he slept with her, the Lord gave her a son.

    
¹⁴
 And the women of the city said to Naomi, “Bless the Lord who has given you this little grandson; may he be famous in Israel.
¹⁵
 May he restore your youth and take care of you in your old age; for he is the son of your daughter-in-law who loves you so much, and who has been kinder to you than seven sons!”

    
^16-17
 Naomi took care of the baby, and the neighbor women said, “Now at last Naomi has a son again!”

    
And they named him Obed. He was the father of Jesse and grandfather of King David.

    
^18-22
 This is the family tree of Boaz, beginning with his ancestor Perez: Perez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nashon, Salmon, Boaz, Obed, Jesse, David.

1 Samuel

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1 Samuel
1

This is the story of Elkanah, a man of the tribe of Ephraim who lived in Ramathaim-zophim, in the hills of Ephraim.

    
His father’s name was Jeroham,

    
His grandfather was Elihu,

    
His great-grandfather was Tohu,

    
His great-great-grandfather was Zuph.

    
²
 He had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Peninnah had some children, but Hannah didn’t.

    
³
 Each year Elkanah and his families journeyed to the Tabernacle at Shiloh to worship the Lord of the heavens and to sacrifice to him. (The priests on duty at that time were the two sons of Eli—Hophni and Phinehas.)
⁴
 On the day he presented his sacrifice, Elkanah would celebrate the happy occasion by giving presents to Peninnah and her children;
⁵
 but although he loved Hannah very much, he could give her only one present, for the Lord had sealed her womb; so she had no children to give presents to.
⁶
 Peninnah made matters worse by taunting Hannah because of her barrenness.
⁷
 Every year it was the same—Peninnah scoffing and laughing at her as they went to Shiloh, making her cry so much she couldn’t eat.

    
⁸
 “What’s the matter, Hannah?” Elkanah would exclaim. “Why aren’t you eating? Why make such a fuss over having no children? Isn’t having me better than having ten sons?”

    
⁹
 One evening after supper, when they were at Shiloh, Hannah went over to the Tabernacle. Eli the priest was sitting at his customary place beside the entrance.
¹⁰
 She was in deep anguish and was crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord.

    
¹¹
 And she made this vow: “O Lord of heaven, if you will look down upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he’ll be yours for his entire lifetime, and his hair shall never be cut.”
*

    
^12-13
 Eli noticed her mouth moving as she was praying silently and, hearing no sound, thought she had been drinking.

    
¹⁴
 “Must you come here drunk?” he demanded. “Throw away your bottle.”

    
^15-16
 “Oh no, sir!” she replied, “I’m not drunk! But I am very sad and I was pouring out my heart to the Lord. Please don’t think that I am just some drunken bum!”

    
¹⁷
 “In that case,” Eli said, “cheer up! May the Lord of Israel grant you your petition, whatever it is!”

    
¹⁸
 “Oh, thank you, sir!” she exclaimed, and went happily back, and began to take her meals again.

    
^19-20
 The entire family was up early the next morning and went to the Tabernacle to worship the Lord once more. Then they returned home to Ramah, and when Elkanah slept with Hannah, the Lord remembered her petition; in the process of time, a baby boy was born to her. She named him Samuel (meaning “asked of God”)
*
because, as she said, “I asked the Lord for him.”

    
^21-22
 The next year Elkanah and Peninnah and her children went on the annual trip to the Tabernacle without Hannah, for she told her husband, “Wait until the baby is weaned, and then I will take him to the Tabernacle and leave him there.”

    
²³
 “Well, whatever you think best,” Elkanah agreed. “May the Lord’s will be done.”

    
So she stayed home until the baby was weaned.
²⁴
 Then, though he was still so small, they took him to the Tabernacle in Shiloh, along with a three-year-old bull for the sacrifice, and a bushel of flour and some wine.
²⁵
 After the sacrifice they took the child to Eli.

    
²⁶
 “Sir, do you remember me?” Hannah asked him. “I am the woman who stood here that time praying to the Lord!
²⁷
 I asked him to give me this child, and he has given me my request;
²⁸
 and now I am giving him to the Lord for as long as he lives.” So she left him there at the Tabernacle for the Lord to use.

1 Samuel
2

This was Hannah’s prayer:

    
“How I rejoice in the Lord!

    
How he has blessed me!

    
Now I have an answer for my enemies,

    
For the Lord has solved my problem.

    
How I rejoice!

    
²
 No one is as holy as the Lord!

    
There is no other God,

    
Nor any Rock like our God.

    
³
 Quit acting so proud and arrogant!

    
The Lord knows what you have done,

    
And he will judge your deeds.

    
⁴
 Those who were mighty are mighty no more!

    
Those who were weak are now strong.

    
⁵
 Those who were well are now starving;

    
Those who were starving are fed.

    
The barren woman now has seven children;

    
She with many children has no more!

    
⁶
 The Lord kills,

    
The Lord gives life.

    
⁷
 Some he causes to be poor

    
And others to be rich.

    
He cuts one down

    
And lifts another up.

    
⁸
 He lifts the poor from the dust—

    
Yes, from a pile of ashes—

    
And treats them as princes

    
Sitting in the seats of honor.

    
For all the earth is the Lord’s

    
And he has set the world in order.

    
⁹
 He will protect his godly ones,

    
But the wicked shall be silenced in darkness.

    
No one shall succeed by strength alone.

    
¹⁰
 Those who fight against the Lord shall be broken;

    
He thunders against them from heaven.

    
He judges throughout the earth.

    
He gives mighty strength to his king,

    
And gives great glory to his anointed one.”

    
¹¹
 So they returned home to Ramah without Samuel; and the child became the Lord’s helper, for he assisted Eli the priest.

    
¹²
 Now the sons of Eli were evil men who didn’t love the Lord.
^13-14
 It was their regular practice to send out a servant whenever anyone was offering a sacrifice, and while the flesh of the sacrificed animal was boiling, the servant would put a three-pronged flesh hook into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. They treated all of the Israelites in this way when they came to Shiloh to worship.
¹⁵
 Sometimes the servant would come even before the rite of burning the fat on the altar had been performed, and he would demand raw meat before it was boiled, so that it could be used for roasting.

    
¹⁶
 If the man offering the sacrifice replied, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must first be burned as the law requires,
*
” then the servant would say, “No, give it to me now or I’ll take it by force.”

    
¹⁷
 So the sin of these young men was very great in the eyes of the Lord; for they treated the people’s offerings to the Lord with contempt.

    
¹⁸
 Samuel, though only a child, was the Lord’s helper and wore a little linen robe just like the priest’s.
*
¹⁹
 Each year his mother made a little coat for him and brought it to him when she came with her husband for the sacrifice.
²⁰
 Before they returned home Eli would bless Elkanah and Hannah and ask God to give them other children to take the place of this one they had given to the Lord.
²¹
 And the Lord gave Hannah three sons and two daughters. Meanwhile Samuel grew up in the service of the Lord.

    
²²
 Eli was now very old, but he was aware of what was going on around him. He knew, for instance, that his sons were seducing the young women who assisted at the entrance of the Tabernacle.

    
^23-25
 “I have been hearing terrible reports from the Lord’s people about what you are doing,” Eli told his sons. “It is an awful thing to make the Lord’s people sin. Ordinary sin receives heavy punishment, but how much more this sin of yours that has been committed against the Lord!” But they wouldn’t listen to their father, for the Lord was already planning to kill them.

    
²⁶
 Little Samuel was growing in two ways—he was getting taller, and he was becoming everyone’s favorite (and he was a favorite of the Lord’s, too!).

    
²⁷
 One day a prophet
*
came to Eli and gave him this message from the Lord: “Didn’t I demonstrate my power when the people of Israel were slaves in Egypt?
²⁸
 Didn’t I choose your ancestor Levi from among all his brothers to be my priest, and to sacrifice upon my altar, and to burn incense, and to wear a priestly robe
*
as he served me? And didn’t I assign the sacrificial offerings to you priests?
²⁹
 Then why are you so greedy for all the other offerings which are brought to me? Why have you honored your sons more than me—for you and they have become fat from the best of the offerings of my people!

    
³⁰
 “Therefore, I, the Lord God of Israel, declare that although I promised that your branch of the tribe of Levi could always be my priests, it is ridiculous to think that what you are doing can continue. I will honor only those who honor me, and I will despise those who despise me.
³¹
 I will put an end to your family, so that it will no longer serve as priests. Every member will die before his time. None shall live to be old.
³²
 You will envy the prosperity I will give my people, but you and your family will be in distress and need. Not one of them will live out his days.
³³
 Those who are left alive will live in sadness and grief; and their children shall die by the sword.
³⁴
 And to prove that what I have said will come true, I will cause your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, to die on the same day!

    
³⁵
 “Then I will raise up a faithful priest who will serve me and do whatever I tell him to do. I will bless his descendants, and his family shall be priests to my kings forever.
³⁶
 Then all of your descendants shall bow before him, begging for money and food. ‘Please,’ they will say, ‘give me a job among the priests so that I will have enough to eat.’”