Judges 19:16–30

¹⁶Then behold, an old man was coming out of the field from his work at evening. Now the man was from ^athe hill country of Ephraim, and he was ¹staying in Gibeah, but the men of the place ^bwere Benjamites.

¹⁷And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city; and the old man said, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?”

¹⁸He said to him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah. But I am now going to ¹my house, and no man will take me into his house.

¹⁹“Yet there is both straw and fodder for our donkeys, and also bread and wine for me, ¹your maidservant, and ^athe young man who is with your servants; there is no lack of anything.”

²⁰The old man said, “^aPeace to you. Only let me take care of all your needs; however, do not spend the night in the open square.”

^21aSo he took him into his house and gave the donkeys fodder, and they washed their feet and ate and drank.

²²While they were ¹celebrating, behold, ^athe men of the city, certain ^2bworthless fellows, surrounded the house, pounding the door; and they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house that we may have ³relations with him.”

²³Then the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my fellows, please do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, ^ado not commit this act of folly.

²⁴“^aHere is my virgin daughter and his concubine. Please let me bring them out that you may ravish them and do to them ¹whatever you wish. But do not commit such an act of folly against this man.”

²⁵But 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, then let her go at the approach of dawn.

²⁶¹As the day began to dawn, the woman came and fell down at the doorway of the man’s house where her master was, until full daylight.

²⁷When her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, then behold, his concubine was lying at the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold.

²⁸He said to her, “Get up and let us go,” ^abut there was no answer. Then he placed her on the donkey; and the man arose and went to his ¹home.

²⁹When he entered his house, he took a knife and laid hold of his concubine and ^acut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel.

³⁰All who saw it said, “Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, ^atake counsel and speak up!”