Judges 19:16–30

¹⁶That evening^z an old man from the hill country of Ephraim,^a who was living in Gibeah (the inhabitants of the place were Benjamites), came in from his work in the fields. ¹⁷When he looked and saw the traveler in the city square, the old man asked, “Where are you going? Where did you come from?”^b

¹⁸He answered, “We are on our way from Bethlehem in Judah to a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim where I live. I have been to Bethlehem in Judah and now I am going to the house of the Lord.^ac No one has taken me in for the night. ¹⁹We have both straw and fodder^d for our donkeys^e and bread and wine^f for ourselves your servants—me, the woman and the young man with us. We don’t need anything.”

²⁰“You are welcome at my house,” the old man said. “Let me supply whatever you need. Only don’t spend the night in the square.” ²¹So he took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they had something to eat and drink.^g

²²While they were enjoying themselves,^h some of the wicked menⁱ of the city surrounded the house. Pounding on the door, they shouted to the old man who owned the house, “Bring out the man who came to your house so we can have sex with him.^j”

²³The owner of the house went outside^k and said to them, “No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing.^{l 24}Look, here is my virgin daughter,^m and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But as for this man, don’t do such an outrageous thing.”

²⁵But the men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them, and they raped herⁿ and abused her^o throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. ²⁶At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight.

²⁷When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine, fallen in the doorway of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸He said to her, “Get up; let’s go.” But there was no answer. Then the man put her on his donkey and set out for home.

²⁹When he reached home, he took a knife^p and cut up his concubine, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all the areas of Israel.^{q 30}Everyone who saw it was saying to one another, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt.^r Just imagine! We must do something! So speak up!^s”