7130	RUT 1:1	In the time when the judges ruled, there was once a famine in the land. A man from Bethlehem in Judah took his wife and two sons to live in the territory of Moab.
7131	RUT 1:2	His name was Elimelech and his wife’s was Naomi, and his two sons were Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephrathites from Bethlehem in Judah. After they had been living in Moab for some time,
7133	RUT 1:4	who married Moabite women named Orpah and Ruth. After they had lived there about ten years,
7135	RUT 1:6	So she set out with her daughters-in-law to return from the land of Moab, for she had heard that the Lord had remembered his people and given them food.
7137	RUT 1:8	Naomi said to her daughters-in-law, ‘Go, return both of you to the home of your mother. May the Lord be kind to you as you have been kind to the dead and to me.
7141	RUT 1:12	Go back, my daughters, go your own way, because I am too old to have a husband. Even if I should say, “I have hope,” even if I should have a husband tonight and should bear sons,
7142	RUT 1:13	would you wait for them until they were grown up? Would you remain single for them? No, my daughters! My heart grieves for you, for the Lord has sent me adversity.’
7145	RUT 1:16	But Ruth answered, ‘Do not urge me to leave you or to go back. I will go where you go, and I will stay wherever you stay. Your people will be my people, and your God my God;
7148	RUT 1:19	So they journeyed on until they came to Bethlehem. Their arrival stirred the whole town, and the women said, ‘Can this be Naomi?’
7149	RUT 1:20	‘Do not call me Naomi,’ she said to them, ‘call me Mara, for the Almighty has given me a bitter lot.
7151	RUT 1:22	So Naomi and Ruth, her Moabite daughter-in-law, returned from Moab. They reached Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.
7152	RUT 2:1	Now Naomi was related through her husband to a very wealthy man of the family of Elimelech named Boaz.
7153	RUT 2:2	Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, ‘Let me now go into the fields and gather leftover grain behind anyone who will allow me.’ ‘Go, my daughter,’ she replied.
7156	RUT 2:5	‘Whose girl is this?’ Boaz asked his servant who had charge of the reapers.
7157	RUT 2:6	The servant who had charge of the reapers replied, ‘It is the Moabite girl who came back with Naomi from the territory of Moab.
7158	RUT 2:7	She asked to be allowed to glean and gather sheaves after the reapers. So she came and has continued to work until now and she has not rested a moment in the field.’
7159	RUT 2:8	Then Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Listen, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field nor leave this place, but stay here with my girls.
7160	RUT 2:9	Watch where the men are reaping and follow the gleaners. I have told the young men not to trouble you. When you are thirsty, go to the jars and drink of that which the young men have drawn.’
7162	RUT 2:11	Boaz replied, ‘I have heard what you have done for your mother-in-law since the death of your husband, and how you left your father and mother and your native land to come to a people that you did not know before.
7163	RUT 2:12	May the Lord repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.’
7164	RUT 2:13	Then she said, ‘I trust I may please you, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your servant, although I am not really equal to one of your own servants.’
7165	RUT 2:14	At mealtime Boaz said to Ruth, ‘Come here and eat some of the food and dip your piece of bread in the vinegar.’ So she sat beside the reapers, and he passed her some roasted grain. She ate until she was satisfied and had some left.
7166	RUT 2:15	When she rose to glean, Boaz gave this order to his young men: ‘Let her glean even among the sheaves and do not disturb her.
7167	RUT 2:16	Also pull out some for her from the bundles and leave for her to glean, and do not find fault with her.’
7168	RUT 2:17	So she gleaned in the field until evening, then beat out what she had gleaned. It was about a bushel of barley.
7169	RUT 2:18	Then she took it up and went into the town and showed her mother-in-law what she had gleaned. She also brought out and gave her that which she had left from her meal after she had had enough.
7171	RUT 2:20	Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, ‘May the blessing of the Lord rest on this man who has not ceased to show his loving-kindness to the living and to the dead. The man,’ she added, ‘is a near relation of ours.’
7172	RUT 2:21	‘He told me,’ Ruth said, ‘that I must keep near his young men until they have completed all his harvest.’
7174	RUT 2:23	So she gleaned with the girls of Boaz until the end of the barley and wheat harvest; but she lived with her mother-in-law.
7176	RUT 3:2	Is not Boaz, with whose girls you have been, a relative of ours?
7178	RUT 3:4	Then when he lies down, mark the place where he lies. Go in, uncover his feet, lie down, and then he will tell you what to do.’
7181	RUT 3:7	When Boaz had finished eating and drinking and was in a happy mood, he went to lie down at the end of the heap of grain. Then Ruth came quietly and uncovered his feet and lay down.
7182	RUT 3:8	At midnight the man was startled and turned over, and there was a woman lying at his feet!
7183	RUT 3:9	‘Who are you?’ he said. ‘I am Ruth your servant,’ she answered, ‘Spread your cloak over your servant, for you are a near relative.’
7184	RUT 3:10	He said, ‘May you be blest by the Lord, my daughter. You have shown me greater favour now than at first, for you have not followed young men, whether poor or rich.
7185	RUT 3:11	My daughter, have no fear. I will do for you all that you ask, for the whole town knows that you are a virtuous woman.
7186	RUT 3:12	Now it is true that I am a near relative, but there is another man nearer than I.
7187	RUT 3:13	Stay here tonight, and then in the morning, if he will perform for you the duty of a kinsman, well, let him do it. But if he will not perform for you the duty of a kinsman, then as surely as the Lord lives, I will do it for you. Lie down until morning.’
7189	RUT 3:15	He also said, ‘Bring the cloak which you have on and hold it.’ So she held it while he poured into it six measures of barley and laid it on her shoulders. Then he went into the city.
7191	RUT 3:17	‘He gave me these six measures of barley,’ she said, ‘for he said I should not go to my mother-in-law empty-handed.’
7195	RUT 4:3	Then he said to the near relative, ‘Naomi, who has come back from the country of Moab, is offering for sale the piece of land which belonged to our relative Elimelech,
7197	RUT 4:5	Then Boaz said, ‘On the day you buy the field from Naomi, you must also marry Ruth the Moabite, the widow of the dead, in order to preserve the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance.’
7198	RUT 4:6	‘I cannot buy it for myself without spoiling my own inheritance,’ the near relative said. ‘You take my right of buying it as a relative, because I cannot do so.’
7199	RUT 4:7	Now this used to be the custom in Israel: to make valid anything relating to a matter of redemption or exchange, a man drew off his sandal and gave it to the other man; and this was the way contracts were attested in Israel.
7200	RUT 4:8	So when the near relative said to Boaz, ‘Buy it for yourself,’ Boaz drew off the man’s sandal.
7201	RUT 4:9	Then Boaz said to the elders and to all the people, ‘You are witnesses at this time that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s from Naomi.
7202	RUT 4:10	Moreover I have secured Ruth the Moabite, the wife of Mahlon, to be my wife, in order to perpetuate the name of the dead in connection with his inheritance, so that his name will not disappear from among his relatives and from the household where he lived. You are witnesses this day.’
7204	RUT 4:12	From the children whom the Lord will give you by this young woman may your household become like the household of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah.’
7205	RUT 4:13	So Boaz married Ruth, and she became his wife; and the Lord gave to her a son.
7206	RUT 4:14	Then the women said to Naomi, ‘Blessed be the Lord who has not left you at this time without a near relative, and may his name be famous in Israel.
7207	RUT 4:15	This child will restore your vigor and nourish you in your old age; for your daughter-in-law who loves you, who is worth more to you than seven sons, has borne a son to Boaz!’
7209	RUT 4:17	The women of the neighbourhood gave him a name, saying, ‘A son is born to Naomi!’ They named him Obed. He became the father of Jesse, who was the father of David.
7214	RUT 4:22	Obed of Jesse, Jesse of David.
12707	EST 1:1	These events happened in the time of Ahasuerus, who ruled over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces from India to Ethiopia
12709	EST 1:3	In the third year of his reign, the king gave a feast for all his officers and courtiers. The commanders of the military forces of Persia and Media, the nobles and provincial rulers were present
12711	EST 1:5	When these days were ended, the king held a banquet for all the people who were present in the royal palace at Susa, high and low alike. It was a seven days’ feast in the enclosed garden of the royal palace.
12712	EST 1:6	There were white and violet cotton curtains fastened to silver rings and pillars of marble with cords of fine purple wool and linen. The couches were of gold and silver placed upon a mosaic pavement of alabaster, white marble, mother-of-pearl, and dark stone.
12713	EST 1:7	Drink was brought in vessels of gold – which were all different – and the king’s wine was provided with royal liberality.
12715	EST 1:9	Queen Vashti also gave a feast for the women in the King Ahasuerus’ royal palace.
12716	EST 1:10	On the seventh day, when the king was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, Abagtha, Zathar and Carkas, his seven eunuch attendants
12717	EST 1:11	to bring Queen Vashti before him with the royal diadem on her head, to show her beauty to the people and the officials, for she was very beautiful.
12718	EST 1:12	But Queen Vashti refused to come as the king commanded through the eunuchs. Then the king became very angry and his fury burned within him.
12720	EST 1:14	Those next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena and Memucan, seven officials of Persia and Media who had access to the king and were highest in the kingdom.
12721	EST 1:15	‘Queen Vashti’, the king said, ‘has failed to obey my royal command – the command of King Ahasuerus conveyed through the eunuchs! What does the law say should be done to her?’
12722	EST 1:16	Memucan replied before the king and the officials, ‘Queen Vashti has done wrong not only to the king but also to all the officials and to all the peoples in all of the king’s provinces.
12724	EST 1:18	This very day the ladies of Persia and Media who have heard of the refusal of the queen will tell it to all the king’s officials, and there will be contempt and strife!
12725	EST 1:19	If it seems best to the king, let him send out a royal edict. Let it be written among the laws of Persia and Media, never to be repealed, that Vashti may never again come before King Ahasuerus. Let the king give her place as queen to another who is more worthy than she.