She carried it back to town, and her mother-in-law saw ¹  how much grain ²  she had gathered. Then Ruth ³  gave her the roasted grain she had saved from mealtime. ⁴ 

Once she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with three bulls, an ephah ¹  of flour, and a container ²  of wine. She brought him to the Lord’s house at Shiloh, even though he was young. ³ 

David sent some messengers to get her. ¹  She came to him and he had sexual relations with her. ²  (Now at that time she was in the process of purifying herself from her menstrual uncleanness.) ³  Then she returned to her home.

Then Tamar put ashes on her head and tore the long robe she was wearing. She put her hands on her head and went on her way, wailing as she went.

But she is unique! ¹  My dove, my perfect one! She is the special daughter ²  of her mother, she is the favorite ³  of the one who bore her. The maidens ⁴  saw her and complimented her; ⁵  the queens and concubines praised her:

She bestowed her sexual favors on them; all of them were the choicest young men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all whom she desired ¹  – with all their idols.

“I will punish her for the festival days when she burned incense to the Baal idols; ¹  she adorned herself with earrings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but ²  she forgot me!” ³  says the Lord.

What’s more, ¹  she is indeed my sister, my father’s daughter, but not my mother’s daughter. She became my wife.

When she had done so, ¹  she said, “I’ll draw water for your camels too, until they have drunk as much as they want.”

She quickly emptied ¹  her jug into the watering trough and ran back to the well to draw more water until she had drawn enough for all his camels.

She replied, “Here is my servant Bilhah! Have sexual relations with ¹  her so that she can bear ²  children ³  for me ⁴  and I can have a family through her.” ⁵ 

The woman became pregnant ¹  and gave birth to a son. When ²  she saw that ³  he was a healthy ⁴  child, she hid him for three months.

If a daughter of a priest profanes herself by engaging in prostitution, she is profaning her father. She must be burned to death. ¹ 

(Now she had taken them up to the roof and had hidden them in the stalks of flax she had spread out ¹  on the roof.)

She said, “I agree to these conditions.” ¹  She sent them on their way ²  and then tied the red rope in the window.

He said, “You may go.” He permitted her to leave ¹  for two months. She went with her friends and mourned her virginity as she walked through the hills. ² 

However, she ¹  got angry at him ²  and went home ³  to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months,

Now as she and her two daughters-in-law began to leave the place where she had been living to return to the land of Judah, ¹ 

So she slept beside him ¹  until morning. She woke up while it was still dark. ²  Boaz thought, ³  “No one must know that a woman visited the threshing floor.” ⁴ 

Riding on her donkey, she went down under cover of the mountain. David and his men were coming down to meet her, and she encountered them.