and to make merry, saying: Our god hath delivered our enemy Samson into our hands. And the people also seeing this, praised their god, and said the same: Our god hath delivered our adversary into our hands, him that destroyed our country and killed very many. And rejoicing in their feasts, when they had now taken their good cheer, they commanded that Samson should be called, and should play before them. And being brought out of prison, he played before them, and they made him stand between two pillars. And he said to the lad that guided his steps: Suffer me to touch the pillars which support the whole house, and let me lean upon them, and rest a little. Now the house was full of men and women; and all the princes of the Philistines were there. Moreover, about three thousand persons of both sexes from the roof and the higher part of the house, were beholding Samson's play. But he called upon the Lord, saying: O Lord God, remember me; and restore to me now my former strength, O my God, that I may revenge myself on my enemies; and for the loss of my two eyes I may take one revenge. And laying hold on both the pillars on which the house rested, and holding the one with his right hand, and the other with his left, he said: Let me die with the Philistines. And when he had strongly shook the pillars, the house fell upon all the princes, and the rest of the multitude, that was there and he killed many more at his death, than he had killed before in his life.

CHAP. X. Ruth and her Mother-in-law.

THE general history of the Israelites under the judges is nothing more than an account of the idolatrous tyrants into whose hands God gave them as a punishment for their sins, and of the exploits of the chosen deliverers who from time to time were raised up to set them free on their repentance. But one story is related which regards the family from which our Lord Jesus Christ Himself was afterwards born, and which shews in a

beautiful way both the customs of the time, and the piety which reigned in the hearts of many of those Israelites who lived too private a life to be mentioned in the history of the nation itself.

During a season of famine, a certain man, named Elimelech, of the town of Bethlehem, with his wife Noemi and two sons, went into the country of the Moabites to seek for food. There the two sons married wives, the one called Orpha, the other Ruth. After ten years' sojourn in Moab, Elimelech died, and his sons also, leaving the three widows to mourn their loss together. The famine in the land of Israel was now past, and Noemi determined to return to her country and kindred. Her daughters-in-law offered to go with her; but when they reached the borders of Israel, she kissed them, and bade them stay with their own relations and marry again. Orpha yielded to her wishes; but Ruth, more tenderly attached to her mother-in-law, resolved to follow her whithersoever she might go. And Noemi said to her, Behold, thy kinswoman is returned to her people, go thou with her. But Ruth answered, Be not against me, to desire that I should leave thee, and depart for whithersoever thou shalt go, I will go: and where thou shalt dwell, I also will dwell. Thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God. The land that shall receive thee dying, in the same will I die: and there will I be buried. The Lord do so and so to me, and add more also, if aught but death part me and thee. Then Noemi seeing that Ruth was steadfastly determined to go with her, would not be against it, nor persuade her any more to return to her friends: so they went together, and came to Bethlehem. And when they were come into the city, the report was quickly spread among all and the women said: This is that Noemi. But she said to them: Call me not Noemi (that is, beautiful), but call me Mara (that is, bitter); for the Almighty hath quite filled me with bitterness. I went out full; and the Lord hath brought me back empty. Why then do you call me Noemi, whom the Lord hath humbled, and the Almighty hath afflicted? So Noemi came

with Ruth the Moabitess her daughter-in-law, from the land of her sojournment; and returned into Bethlehem, in the beginning of the barley-harvest.

Elimelech, Noemi's husband, who was dead, had a kinsman, a powerful man, and very rich, whose name was Booz. And Ruth the Moabitess said to her motherin-law: If thou wilt, I will go into the field, and glean the ears of corn that escape the hands of the reapers, wheresoever I shall find grace with a householder that will be favourable to me. And she answered her: Go, my daughter. She went therefore, and gleaned the ears of corn after the reapers. And it happened that the owner of that field was Booz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech. And behold, he came out of Bethlehem, and said to the reapers: The Lord be with you. And they answered him: The Lord bless thee. And Booz said to the young man that was set over the reapers: Whose maid is this? And he answered him: This is the Moabitess, who came with Noemi, from the land of Moab, and she desired leave to glean the ears of corn that remain, following the steps of the reapers: and she hath been in the field from morning till now, and hath not gone home for one moment. And Booz said to Ruth: Hear me, daughter, do not go to glean in any other field; and do not depart from this place; but keep with my maids, and follow where they reap. For I have charged my young men not to molest thee: and if thou art thirsty, go to the vessels, and drink of the waters whereof the servants drink. She fell on her face, and worshipping upon the ground, said to him: Whence cometh this to me, that I should find grace before thy eyes, and that thou shouldest vouchsafe to take notice of me, a woman of another country? And he answered her: All hath been told me, that thou hast done to thy mother-in-law after the death of thy husband; and how thou hast left thy parents, and the land wherein thou wast born, and art come to a people which thou knewest not heretofore. The Lord render unto thee for thy work; and mayst thou receive a full reward of the Lord the God of Israel, to whom thou art come, and under

whose wings thou art fled. And she said: I have found grace in thy eyes, my lord, who hast comforted me, and hast spoken to the heart of thy handmaid, who am not like to one of thy maids. And Booz said to her: At meal-time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. So she sat at the side of the reapers; and she heaped to herself frumenty, and ate and was filled, and took the leavings. And she arose from thence, to glean the ears of corn as before. And Booz commanded his servants, saying: If she would even reap with you, hinder her not: and let fall some of your handfuls of purpose, and leave them, that she may gather them without shame: and let no man rebuke her when she gathereth them. She gleaned therefore in the field till evening: and beating out with a rod, and threshing what she had gleaned, she found about the measure of an ephi of barley, that is, three bushels which she took up and returned into the city, and shewed it to her mother-in-law: moreover she brought out, and gave her of the remains of her meat, wherewith she had been filled. And her mother-in-law said to her: Where hast thou gleaned to-day, and where hast thou wrought? blessed be he that hath had pity on thee. And she told her with whom she had wrought: and she told the man's name, that he was called Booz. And Noemi answered her: Blessed be he of the Lord: because the same kindness which he shewed to the living, he hath kept also to the dead. And again she said: The man is our kinsman. And Ruth said, He also charged me, that I should keep close to his reapers, till all the corn should be reaped. And her mother-in-law said to her: It is better for thee, my daughter, to go out to reap with his maids, lest in another man's field some one may resist thee. So she kept close to the maids of Booz; and continued to glean with them, till all the barley and the wheat were laid up in the barns.