But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. We will travel on to Gibeah.”

All the Israelites from Dan to Beer Sheba and from the land of Gilead left their homes and assembled together before the Lord at Mizpah.

The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day.

Then the Benjaminites saw they were defeated. The Israelites retreated before Benjamin, because they had confidence in the men they had hid in ambush outside Gibeah.

The entire assembly sent messengers to the Benjaminites at the cliff of Rimmon and assured them they would not be harmed.

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!’

Then the Israelites dispersed from there to their respective tribal and clan territories. Each went from there to his own property.

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!

So Boaz married Ruth and had sexual relations with her. The Lord enabled her to conceive and she gave birth to a son.

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!”

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!

After some time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, thinking, “I asked the Lord for him.

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.

Why are you scorning my sacrifice and my offering that I commanded for my dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than you have me by having made yourselves fat from the best parts of all the offerings of my people Israel.’

This will be a confirming sign for you that will be fulfilled through your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas: in a single day they both will die!

The man said to Eli, “I am the one who came from the battle lines! Just today I fled from the battle lines!” Eli asked, “How did things go, my son?”

As she was dying, the women who were there with her said, “Don’t be afraid! You have given birth to a son!” But she did not reply or pay any attention.

So the men did as instructed. They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls.

The Israelites said to Samuel, “Keep crying out to the Lord our God so that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines!”

They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons don’t follow your ways. So now appoint over us a king to lead us, just like all the other nations have.”