King James Version · The judges
Ruth 4
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Then went up to the , and sat him down there: and, behold, the kinsman of whom spake came by; unto whom he said, Ho, such a one! turn aside, sit down here. And he turned aside, and sat down. And he took ten men of the , and said, Sit ye down here. And they sat down. And he said unto the kinsman, , that is come again out of the country of , selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother ’s: And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the of my people. If thou wilt it, it: but if thou wilt not it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will it. Then said , What day thou buyest the field of the hand of , thou must buy it also of the Moabitess, the wife of , to raise up the name of upon his . And the kinsman said, I cannot it for myself, lest I mar mine own : thou my right to thyself; for I cannot it. Now this was the manner in former time in Israel concerning redeeming and concerning changing, for to confirm all things; a man plucked off his shoe, and gave it to his neighbour: and this was a in Israel. 8Therefore the kinsman said unto , Buy it for thee. So he drew off his shoe. And said unto the , and unto all the people, Ye are this day, that I have bought all that was ’s, and all that was ’s and ’s, of the hand of . Moreover the Moabitess, the wife of , have I purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of upon his , that the name of be not among his brethren, and from the of his place: ye are this day. And all the people that were in the , and the , said, We are . make the woman that is come into thine house like and like , which two did build the : and do thou worthily in Ephratah, and be famous in Beth–lehem: And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom unto Judah, of the which shall give thee of this young woman. So took , and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, gave her conception, and she a son. And the women said unto , be , which hath not left thee this day without a kinsman, that his name may be famous in Israel. And he shall be unto thee a restorer of thy life, and a nourisher of thine old age: for thy daughter in law, which loveth thee, which is better to thee than seven sons, hath born him. 16And took the child, and laid it in her , and became nurse unto it. And the women her neighbours gave it a name, saying, There is a son born to ; and they called his name : he is of , of . Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat , And begat , and begat , And begat , and begat Salmon, And Salmon begat , and begat , And begat , and begat .
The 1611 translation, public domain. Its original printing included the Apocrypha, which is why the deuterocanonical books can be read here. Notes and cards are EKLI’s own.
The world at this moment · The judges, 1200 BC to 1050 BC ›
No central government and no standing army. The great empires are weak, which is precisely why Israel's troubles come from close neighbors: Moab, Ammon, Midian, and the newly arrived Philistines on the coast.
- Egypt
- Broken into competing power centres and no longer able to project force into Canaan. Its withdrawal is the single biggest reason this period has no imperial overlord.
- Mesopotamia
- Assyria exists but is dormant, hemmed in and looking east. The century that would have crushed a stateless Israel simply has not arrived yet.
- The coast
- The Philistines settle their five cities after arriving from the Aegean world, bringing Mycenaean-style pottery, a taste for pork, and an early advantage in ironworking. Further north the Phoenician ports of Tyre and Sidon start the trading expansion that will eventually give the alphabet to Greece.
- Further afield
- Greece has entered its dark age: the palaces are gone, Linear B is forgotten, and writing disappears from the Aegean for three centuries. In China the Zhou dynasty replaces the Shang in 1046 BC and issues the doctrine that heaven withdraws its mandate from unjust kings, an idea with an interesting resemblance to the book of Judges.