⁴ The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night.^(A)

¹⁵ They turned aside there, to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. He went in and sat down in the open square of the city, but no one took them in to spend the night.^(A)

¹⁶ Then at evening there was an old man coming from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was residing in Gibeah. (The people of the place were Benjaminites.)^{(B) 17} When the old man looked up and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city, he said, “Where are you going, and where do you come from?” ¹⁸ He answered him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to my home.^[a] Nobody has offered to take me in.^{(C) 19} We have straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and the woman and the young man along with us. Your servants need nothing more.” ²⁰ The old man said, “Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants; only do not spend the night in the square.” ²¹ So he brought him into his house and fed the donkeys; they washed their feet and ate and drank.^(D)

Gibeah’s Crime

²² While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.”^{(E) 23} And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing.^{(F) 24} Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them, but against this man do not do such a vile thing.”^{(G) 25} But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. ²⁶ As morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.

²⁷ In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was the woman, his concubine, lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸ “Get up,” he said to her, “we are going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man set out for his home.^(H)