Judges 19

19 ¹ In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite living in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. ² But his concubine was unfaithful to him, and she left him and went back to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and she stayed there four months. ³ Then her husband set out after her, to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. He had his servant and a pair of donkeys with him. She brought him into her father's house, and when the girl's father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. ⁴ His father-in-law, the girl's father, prevailed on him to stay, and he remained with him three days; so they ate and drank and lodged there.

⁵ On the fourth day they rose early in the morning, and he got ready to leave. But the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Strengthen yourself with a morsel of bread, and afterward you can go." ⁶ So the two of them sat down together and ate and drank. Then the girl's father said to the man, "Please be willing to spend the night and enjoy yourself." ⁷ And when the man rose to go, his father-in-law urged him, so he stayed the night there again. ⁸ On the fifth day he rose early in the morning to leave, but the girl's father said, "Please strengthen yourself, and wait until the afternoon." So the two of them ate. ⁹ When the man got up to leave, with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Look, the day is drawing to a close; please spend the night. See, the day is ending—stay here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can rise early for your journey and go home." ¹⁰ But the man was not willing to spend the night. He got up and departed and came opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his pair of saddled donkeys and his concubine. ¹¹ When they were near Jebus and the day was nearly gone, the servant said to his master, "Come, please, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it."

¹² But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners, who are not of the people of Israel; we will go on to Gibeah." ¹³ And he said to his servant, "Come, let us try to reach one of these places and spend the night at Gibeah or Ramah." ¹⁴ So they went on their way, and the sun set on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. ¹⁵ They turned aside there to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. He went in and sat down in the open square of the city, but no one took them into his house for the night.

¹⁶ Then an old man came in from his work in the field at evening. He was from the hill country of Ephraim and was living as a foreigner in Gibeah, while the men of the place were Benjamites. ¹⁷ When he looked up and saw the traveler in the open square of the city, the old man said, "Where are you going, and where do you come from?"

¹⁸ He said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of our Father, but no one has taken me into his house. ¹⁹ We have both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and there is bread and wine for me, for your maidservant, and for the young man with your servants. We lack nothing."

²⁰ The old man said, "Peace to you. Let me take care of all your needs; only do not spend the night in the square." ²¹ So he brought him into his house and fed the donkeys. They washed their feet and ate and drank.

The Wickedness at Gibeah

²² While they were enjoying themselves, suddenly the men of the city, worthless and wicked men, surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, so we can have relations with him!"

²³ The owner of the house went out to them and said, "No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this outrageous thing. ²⁴ Here is my virgin daughter and the man's concubine. Let me bring them out now. Abuse them and do to them whatever seems good to you, but against this man do not do such an outrageous thing."

²⁵ But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them, and they raped her and abused her all night until morning. As dawn was breaking, they let her go. ²⁶ At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the entrance of the man's house where her master was, and lay there until it was light. ²⁷ In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way—and there was his concubine, fallen at the entrance of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ He said to her, "Get up, let us go." But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man set out for his home.

²⁹ When he reached his house, he took a knife, and laying hold of his concubine, he cut her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. ³⁰ And everyone who saw it said, "Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day the Israelites came up out of the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, take counsel, and speak."