When the feast of Passover came, on the fifteenth of the first month, a Moabite shepherd came to David and talked with him saying: “My lord the king, you have known that I, your servant, have been loyal to Israel from my youth, and now take me away from dwelling among uncircumcised people and circumcise the flesh of my foreskin to take away my reproach, so that I can sit among your people.”
And David said: “the LORD does not want your people, and He commanded, ‘An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of the LORD forever.’ Deuteronomy
The servant answered: “Is it not it true that Ruth was of our people, and you are one of her children and descendants, and the LORD has chosen you and your descendants forever?”
Then said he: “You have given a convincing argument. Stand here with me to ask from the mouth of my Lord.”
And David asked the LORD about the statement of the Moabite servant.
And David said: “O LORD, LORD of Hosts, teach me wondrous things out of Your Law so that I may know how to rule for this servant, and what should be done with him.”
And the LORD said to Nathan the prophet: “Go to David My servant, and tell him the message that I tell you.”
And Nathan went to David, to his chambers, saying: “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘I have heard your prayer, so tell the Moabite: ‘You are a Moabite man, not a Moabite woman, for I never said a ‘Moabite woman’ and ‘Ammonite woman,’ because their women and daughters belong to the LORD; however you are cursed by the LORD, and forbidden to enter the LORD’s assembly.”
When the Moabite heard the message of the LORD, he cried out and exclaimed: “I am forbidden from entering the assembly of the LORD.”
And the king took him and appointed him a shepherd among David’s shepherds, and he was there until the third year of the reign of King Solomon, then he died.
And he had a daughter whose name was Sephirah; she had a beautiful form and was very fair to look upon. King Solomon took her to be his concubine, and she found grace and favor in his sight more than all the other concubines, and she became the chief of the concubines’ residence.
And this became the statute in Israel forever.