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,
7132	RUT 1:3	Elimelech died, and Naomi was left with her two sons,
7138	RUT 1:9	The Lord grant that each of you may find peace and happiness in the house of a new husband.’ Then she kissed them; but they began to weep aloud
7140	RUT 1:11	But Naomi said, ‘Go back, my daughters. Why should you go with me? Can I still bear sons who might become your husbands?
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,
7144	RUT 1:15	‘Look,’ said Naomi, ‘your sister-in-law is going back to her own people and to her own gods. Go along with her!’
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;
7146	RUT 1:17	I will die where you die, and be buried there. May the Lord bring a curse upon me, if anything but death separate you and me.’
7147	RUT 1:18	When Naomi saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she ceased urging her to return.
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.
7150	RUT 1:21	I had plenty when I left, but the Lord has brought me back empty handed. Why should you call me Naomi, now that the Lord has afflicted me, and the Almighty has brought misfortune on me?’
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.
7154	RUT 2:3	So she went to glean in the field after the reapers. As it happened, she was in that part of the field which belonged to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
7155	RUT 2:4	When Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, ‘The Lord be with you,’ they answered him, ‘May the Lord bless you.’
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.
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.
7170	RUT 2:19	‘Where did you glean today, and where did you work?’ asked her mother-in-law. ‘A blessing on him who took notice of you!’ So she told her mother-in-law where she had worked. ‘The name of the man with whom I worked today,’ she said, ‘is Boaz.’
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.’
7173	RUT 2:22	Naomi said to Ruth, ‘It is best, my daughter, that you should go out with his girls because you might not be as safe in another field.’
7175	RUT 3:1	One day, Naomi said to Ruth, ‘My daughter, should I not seek to secure a home for you where you will be happy and prosperous?
7177	RUT 3:3	Tonight he is going to winnow barley on the threshing-floor. So bathe and anoint yourself and put on your best clothes and go down to the threshing-floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking.
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.
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.
7188	RUT 3:14	So she lay at his feet until morning, but rose before anyone could recognise her, for Boaz said, ‘No one must know that a woman came to the threshing-floor.’
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.
7190	RUT 3:16	When Ruth came to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, ‘Is it you, my daughter?’ Then Ruth told Naomi all that the man had done for her.
7193	RUT 4:1	Then Boaz went up to the gate and sat down. Just then the near kinsman of whom Boaz had spoken came along. Boaz said, ‘Hello, So-and-so (calling him by name), come here and sit down.’ So he stopped and sat down.
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,
7196	RUT 4:4	and I thought that I would lay the matter before you, suggesting that you buy it in the presence of these men who sit here and of the elders of my people. If you will buy it and so keep it in the possession of the family, do so; but if not; then tell me, so that I may know; for no one but you has the right to buy it, and I am next to you.’ ‘I will buy it,’ he said.
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.
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.’
7203	RUT 4:11	Then all the people who were at the gate and the elders said, ‘We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your house like Rachel and Leah, who together built the house of Israel. May you do well in Ephrata, and become famous in Bethlehem.
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.
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!’
7208	RUT 4:16	So Naomi took the child in her arms and cared for him as if he was her own.
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.
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
12708	EST 1:2	from his royal throne in the fortified palace of Susa.
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
12710	EST 1:4	while for one hundred and eighty days he showed them the glorious riches of his kingdom and the costliness of his magnificent regalia.
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.