Judges 19:1-30
19 And in those days, there being no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living as an immigrant far back in the highlands of Ephraim, and he took as his concubine a woman from Bethlehem in Judah.
2 And his concubine got into a rage at him, and went from him to her father’s home at Bethlehem in Judah and was there a while, four months.
3 And her husband set out after her to coax her back, taking with him his man and a pair of donkeys; and he came to her father’s home, and the girl’s father saw him and came joyfully to meet him.
4 And his father-in-law, the girl’s father, held him fast, and he stayed with him three days; and they ate and drank and lodged there for the night.
5 And on the fourth day, the first thing in the morning, he rose to go, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law “Take a bit of bread to brace you up, and after that you shall go.”
6 And the two of them sat down and ate together and drank, and the girl’s father said to the husband “Do stay for the night and be jolly”;
7 and the husband rose to go, but his father-in-law urged him to stay, and he spent the night there again.
8 And the first thing in the morning on the fifth day he was going, but the girl’s father said “Have something to brace you up” and inveigled him till along in the afternoon, and the two of them were eating.
9 And the husband rose to go, he and his concubine and his man, but his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him “Here the day is dropping off to evening: stay for the night; here it is the windup of the day: stay here for the night and be jolly, and tomorrow be on your way the first thing in the morning, and go to your home.”
10 But the husband would not stay for the night, but started out, and came opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), having with him a pair of saddled donkeys, and his concubine with him.
11 They were up to Jebus when the day got very low, and the serving-man said to his master “Come, let us turn off to this city of the Jebusites’ and lodge there for the night”;
12 but his master said to him “We will not turn off to a city of foreigners who do not belong to the sons of Israel, but go across to Gibeah.”
13 And he said to his man “Come, we will get to one of the places and stay at Gibeah or Ramah for the night”;
14 and they crossed over and went on, and the sun went down on them alongside Gibeah of Benjamin,
15 and they turned off there to go in and lodge in Gibeah. And he went in and sat down in the square of the city, but there was no man to take them in into his house for the night.
16 But in came an old man, coming at evening from his work in the field (the man was from the highland of Ephraim and was living in Gibeah as an immigrant, while the men of the place were Benjamites),
17 and he raised his eyes and saw the wayfarer in the square of the city. And the old man said “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”
18 and he said to him “We are going across from Bethlehem in Judah to the back side of the highland of Ephraim: I am from there, and I have been to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going home. But there is no man to take us in into his house.
19 Yet I have with me both straw and feed for the donkeys, and bread and wine too for both your servants, and for the man: we are not in want of anything.”
20 And the old man said “All right: just let every want of yours come on me; only do not spend the night in the square,”
21 and brought him into his house, and foddered the donkeys.
22 And they washed their feet and ate and drank. They were having a jolly evening when the men of the city, a set of reprobates, got around the house pounding on the door, and told the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man that went into your house, for us to know him.”
23 And the man went out to them, the master of the house, and said to them “Don’t, brothers, don’t do mischief; now that this man has come into my house, don’t do this scandalous thing.
24 Here is my maiden daughter, and his concubine: let me bring them out to you, and outrage them and do what you think best to them, but don’t do this scandalous thing to this man.”
25 But the men would not listen to him; and the husband took hold of his concubine and took her outside to them, and they knew her and did their will on her all night till morning, and let her go at dawn.
26 And the woman came when morning was drawing on, and fell down at the door of the man’s house and lay there till daylight.
27 And her master rose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, and found the woman, his concubine, lying at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold.
28 And he said to her “Get up and let us go,” but nobody answered; and he took her on his donkey.
29 And the husband went off to his place; and he went into his house and took the knife, and took hold of his concubine and cut her up joint by joint into twelve pieces, and sent her all through the territory of Israel,
30 * and gave the men that he sent the order “You are to say to all the men of Israel ‘Has there happened the like of this thing from the day that the sons of Israel came up out of Egypt to this day? make up your minds to something, and speak’”; and everyone who saw said “There has not happened, nor was ever seen, the like of this, from the day that the sons of Israel came up out of Egypt to this day.”
Footnotes
^ 19:30 Codd. have the first part of the verse, down to and speak, not at the beginning of the verse but at the end
