Judges 19:16–30

¹⁶Then behold, an old man was coming from his work from the field in the evening, and the man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was dwelling as a foreignerⁿ in Gibeah. (The people of the place were descendants^o of Benjamin.) ¹⁷And the old man raised his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city, and he said, “Where are you going, and from where do you come?” ¹⁸And he said to him, “We are crossing over from Bethlehem in Judah up to the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, but now I am going to Yahweh’s house,^p but no one took me in to spend the night.^{q 19}There is both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, for your servant,^r and for the young man who is with your servant; there is no lack of anything.” ²⁰And the old man said, “Peace to you. I will take care of your needs; however, you must not spend the night in the open square.” ²¹So he brought him to his house, and he fed the donkeys; they washed their feet, ate, and drank.

²²While they were enjoying themselves,^s behold, the men of the city, the perverse lot,^t surrounded the house, pounding on the door. And they said to the old man, the owner of the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so that we may have sex with him.”^{u 23}So the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this disgraceful thing. ²⁴Here is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please, let me bring them out; do violence to them,^v and do to them whatever you please.^w Do not do this disgraceful thing to this man.” ²⁵But the men were not willing to listen to him, and the man seized his concubine and brought her out to them; and they had intercourse with her, and they abused her all night until the morning; they let her go at the approach of dawn. ²⁶And the woman came as the morning appeared, and she fell at the entrance of the man’s house where her master was, until daylight.^x

²⁷In the morning her master got up, and he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his journey, and behold, his concubine was falling^y at the entrance of the house, with her hand on the threshold. ²⁸And he said to her, “Get up, let us go,” but there was no answer. So he put her on the donkey, and the man got up and went to his place. ²⁹When he entered his house he took a knife, and he grasped his concubine and cut her into twelve pieces; and he sent her throughout the whole territory of Israel. ³⁰All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever been since the Israelites^z went up from the land of Egypt until this day. Take note of it, consider it, and speak up.”