Judges 19:16–30

¹⁶While they were there, an old man came by at the end of a day’s work in the fields. He was originally from the hill country of Ephraim, but he was now living in Gibeah. (The other people there were from the tribe of Benjamin.) ¹⁷The old man noticed the traveller in the city square and asked him, “Where do you come from? Where are you going?”

¹⁸The Levite answered, “We have been to Bethlehem in Judah, and now we are on our way home^s deep in the hill country of Ephraim. No one will put us up for the night, ¹⁹even though we have fodder and straw for our donkeys, as well as bread and wine for my concubine and me and for my servant. We have everything we need.”

²⁰The old man said, “You are welcome in my home! I’ll take care of you; you don’t have to spend the night in the square.” ²¹So he took them home with him and fed their donkeys. His guests washed their feet and had a meal.

^22*They were enjoying themselves when all of a sudden some sexual perverts from the town surrounded the house and started beating on the door. They said to the old man, “Bring out that man that came home with you! We want to have sex with him!”

^23*But the old man went outside and said to them, “No, my friends! Please! Don’t do such an evil, immoral thing! This man is my guest. ^24*Look! Here is his concubine and my own daughter, who is a virgin. I’ll bring them out now, and you can have them. Do with them whatever you want. But don’t do such an awful thing to this man!” ²⁵But the men would not listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and put her outside with them. They raped her and abused her all night long and didn’t stop until morning.

²⁶At dawn the woman came and fell down at the door of the old man’s house, where her husband was. She was still there when daylight came. ²⁷Her husband got up that morning, and when he opened the door to go on his way, he found his concubine lying in front of the house with her hands reaching for the door. ²⁸He said, “Get up. Let’s go.” But there was no answer. So he put her body across the donkey and started on his way home. ^29*When he arrived, he went into the house and got a knife. He took his concubine’s body, cut it into twelve pieces, and sent one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel. ³⁰Everyone who saw it said, “We have never heard of such a thing! Nothing like this has ever happened since the Israelites left Egypt! We have to do something about this! What will it be?”