e to
Booz, who was himself of kin to those that were dead, as alleging that
he had a wife already, and children also; so Booz called the senate
to witness, and bid the woman to loose his shoe, and spit in his face,
according to the law; and when this was done, Booz married Ruth, and
they had a son within a year's time. Naomi was herself a nurse to this
child; and by the advice of the women, called him Obed, as being to be
brought up in order to be subservient to her in her old age, for Obed in
the Hebrew dialect signifies a servant. The son of Obed was Jesse, and
David was his son, who was king, and left his dominions to his sons
for one and twenty generations. I was therefore obliged to relate this
history of Ruth, because I had a mind to demonstrate the power of God,
who, without difficulty, can raise those that are of ordinary parentage
to dignity and splendor, to which he advanced David, though he were born
of such mean parents.

CHAPTER 10. Concerning The Birth Of Samuel; And How He Foretold The
Calamity That Befell The Sons Of Eli.

1. And now upon the ill state of the affairs of the Hebrews, they made
war again upon the Philistines. The occasion was this: Eli, the high
priest, had two sons, Hophni and Phineas. These sons of Eli were guilty
of injustice towards men, and of impiety towards God, and abstained
from no sort of wickedness. Some of their gifts they carried off, as
belonging to the honorable employment they had; others of them they took
away by violence. They also were guilty of impurity with the women that
came to worship God at the tabernacle, obliging some to submit to their
lust by force, and enticing others by bribes; nay, the whole course of
their lives was no better than tyranny. Their father therefore was angry
at them for such their wickedness, and expected that God would suddenly
inflict his punishments upon them for what they had done. The multitude
took it heinously also. And as soon as God had foretold what calamity
would befall Eli's sons, which he did both to Eli himself and to Samuel
the prophet, who was yet but a child, he openly showed his sorrow for
his sons' destruction.

2. I will first despatch what I have to say about the prophet Samuel,
and after that will proceed to speak of the sons of Eli, and the
miseries they brought on the whole people of the Hebrews. Elcanah, a
Levite, one of a middle condition among his fellow citizens, and one
that dwelt at Ramathaim, a city of