¹It happened in those days, and there was no king in Israel, there was a man, a Levite, who lived in the flanks of the mountain of Ephraim, and took to him a woman, a concubine, from Beth-lechem Judah.

²His concubine prostituted over him, and went from it to her father's house, to Beth-lechem Judah; and was there days, four months.

³Her husband rose and went her after that, to speak over to return it; and his boy was with him, and the pair of donkeys; and it brought to the house of her father, and the father of the young woman saw it, and rejoiced to encounter it.

⁴His father-in-law, the father of the young woman, took hold in it; and it dwelled with it three days; and they ate and drank, and lodged there.

⁵It happened in the day they rose early in the morning; he rose to go; the father said to his son-in-law, "Sustain your heart with a morsel of food, and after that you will go."

⁶They sat, their two together, and ate and drank; the father said to the man, "Undertake and lodge your heart," and he will go well.

⁷The man rose to go, and his father-in-law pressed in it, and he returned, and lodged there.

⁸He rose early in the morning, in the fifth day, to go; the father of the young woman said, "Sustain your heart," and they lingered in the stretching out of the day; and the two of them ate.

⁹The man rose to go, he and his concubine and his boy; his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him, "the day has let go to evening; lodge, encamp; the day lodges here; stop, and your heart will go well; and you will rise early at the time to come to your way, and go to your tent."

¹⁰And the man was not willing to lodge; he rose and went, and came before Jebus, she is Jerusalem; and with him the pair of donkeys saddled, and his concubine with him.

¹¹They were with Jebus, and the day come down exceedingly; the boy said to his lord, "Go, and let us remove to the city of the Jebusite, and lodge in it."

¹²His lord said to him, "We will not remove to a foreigner's city which is not from the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah."

¹³He said to his boy, "Go, and near in one of the places, and we will lodge in Gibeah or in Ramah."

¹⁴They passed over and went; the sun went to them the side of Gibeah which belongs to Benjamin.

¹⁵There they removed, to go to lodge in Gibeah; he went to the city, and there was no man who gathered them to the house to lodge, and he dwelled in the broad place of the city.

¹⁶And an old man came from his work from the field in the evening; and the man was from the mountain of Ephraim, and he lived in Gibeah; and the men of the place were the Ben of Ben.

¹⁷He lifted up his eyes and saw the man, the traveler, in the broad place of the city; the old man said, "Where will you go, and from where will you come?"

¹⁸We said to him, "We passed over from Beth-lechem Judah to the flanks of the mountain of Ephraim; from there I am; I went to Beth-lechem Judah, and I went to the house of Yahweh; and there is no man who gathered me to the house.

¹⁹And there is also straw, also fodder to our donkeys; and also food and wine is to me and to your maid-servant and to the boy with your slave; there is no need of all word."

²⁰The old man said, "Wholeness to you; only all your need is over me; only in the broad place do not lodge."

²¹He brought it to his house, and let to the donkeys; and they laved their feet, and ate and drank.

²²They went well their heart, and the men of the city, men, children of the wicked, went partly round the house, beating violently over the door; and they said to the man, the lord of the old house, saying, "Bring forth the man who came to your house, and we will know it."

²³The man, the lord of the house, went forth to them, and said to them, "Not, my brothers, you will not do spoil; after that which the man came to my house, do not make this outrage.

²⁴my daughter the virgin, and his concubine; bring them forth, and afflict them, and make to them the good in your eyes; and to the man you will not make this word of outrage."

²⁵And the men were not willing to listen to him; the man took hold in his concubine, and brought forth to them the outside; and they knew it, and made in it all the night until the morning, and sent it as the dawn came up.

²⁶The woman came to the turn of the morning, and fell at the door of the house of the man where her lord was, in the light.

²⁷Her lord rose in the morning, and opened wide the doors of the house, and went forth to go to his way; and the woman, his concubine, fell at the door of the house, and her hands over the basin.

²⁸He said to it, "Rise, and go," and there was no answer; he took it over the donkeys, and the man rose and went to his place.

²⁹He came to his house, and took the knife, and took hold in his concubine, and cut it to her bone to twelve pieces, and sent it in all the boundary of Israel.

³⁰All was that he sees, and he said, "Not was and not seen as this from the day the children came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Put to you over it, deliberate, and speak."