Judges 19:4–15

⁴His father-in-law, the woman’s father, begged him to stay. So he remained with him for three days. He ate, drank and slept there.

⁵On the fourth day they got up early. The Levite prepared to leave. But the woman’s father spoke to his son-in-law. He said, “Have something to eat. It will give you strength. Then you can go on your way.”

⁶So the two of them sat down. They ate and drank together. After that, the woman’s father said, “Please stay tonight. Enjoy yourself.”

⁷The man got up to go. But his father-in-law talked him into staying. So he stayed there that night.

⁸On the morning of the fifth day, he got up to go. But the woman’s father said, “Have something to eat. It will give you strength. Wait until this afternoon!” So the two of them ate together.

⁹Then the man got up to leave. His concubine and his servant got up when he did. But his father-in-law, the woman’s father, spoke to him again. “Look,” he said. “It’s almost evening. The day is nearly over. So spend another night here. Please stay. Enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and go back home.”

¹⁰But the man didn’t want to stay another night. So he left. He went toward Jebus. He had his two donkeys and his concubine with him. The donkeys had saddles on them. Jebus is also called Jerusalem.

¹¹By the time the travelers came near Jebus, the day was almost over. So the servant said to his master, “Come. Let’s stop at this Jebusite city. Let’s spend the night here.”

¹²His master replied, “No. We won’t go into a city where strangers live. The people there aren’t from Israel. We’ll continue on to Gibeah.” ¹³He added, “Come. Let’s try to reach Gibeah or Ramah. We can spend the night in one of those places.”

¹⁴So they continued on. As they came near Gibeah in Benjamin, the sun went down. ¹⁵They stopped there to spend the night. They went to the city’s main street and sat down. But no one took them home for the night.