Judges 19:20-29

Contemporary English Version

²⁰The old man said, “You are welcome to spend the night in my home and to be my guest, but don't stay out here!”

²¹The old man brought them into his house and fed their donkeys. Then he and his guests washed their feet^[a] and began eating and drinking. ²²^(A) They were having a good time, when some worthless men of that town surrounded the house and started banging on the door and shouting, “A man came to your house tonight. Send him out, so we can have sex with him!”

²³The old man went outside and said, “My friends, please don't commit such a horrible crime against a man who is a guest in my house. ²⁴Let me send out my daughter instead. She's a virgin. And I'll even send out the man's wife.^[b] You can rape them or do whatever else you want, but please don't do such a horrible thing to this man.”

²⁵The men refused to listen, so the Levite grabbed his wife and shoved her outside. The men raped her and abused her all night long. Finally, they let her go just before sunrise, ²⁶and it was almost daybreak when she went back to the house where her husband^[c] was staying. She collapsed at the door and lay there until sunrise.

²⁷About that time, her husband woke up and got ready to leave. He opened the door and went outside, where he found his wife lying at the door with her hands on the doorstep. ²⁸“Get up!” he said. “It's time to leave.”

But his wife didn't move.^[d]

He lifted her body onto his donkey and left. ²⁹^(B) When he got home, he took a butcher knife and cut her body into twelve pieces. Then he told some messengers, “Take one piece to each tribe of Israel

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Footnotes

19.21 washed their feet: This was a custom, since people wore open sandals and their feet would be dirty after walking on the dirt roads or working in the fields.
19.24 wife: See the note at 8.31.
19.26 husband: Or “owner”; the Hebrew word may mean that she was his slave and had no legal rights.
19.28 move: Hebrew; one ancient translation “move. She was dead.”