18. "We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the far corners of the Ephraim highlands," he replied to the old man. "That’s where I’m from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I’m heading to my home. But no one has offered to take me in tonight.
19. We’ve got our own straw and feed for our donkeys, plus food and wine to provide for me, the woman, and my servant with us. We don’t need anything."
20. The old man answered, "You’re welcome to stay with me, but let me take care of all your needs. Just don’t spend the night in the square."
21. And he took him into his house. He mixed feed for the donkeys, and they washed their feet, ate, and drank.
22. While they were relaxing, suddenly the men of the city, a perverse bunch, surrounded the house and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the owner of the house, "Send out the man who came to your house, so we can have sex with him!"
23. The owner of the house went outside and said to them, "No, my friends, please don’t commit such an evil act, given that this man has come to my home as a guest. Don’t do this disgraceful thing!
24. Here’s my daughter, the young woman, and his secondary wife. Let me send them out, and you can abuse them and do whatever you want to them. But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!"
25. But the men refused to listen to him.So the Levite grabbed his secondary wife and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They finally let her go as dawn was breaking.
26. At daybreak, the woman came and collapsed at the door of the man’s house where her husband was staying, where she lay until it was daylight.
27. When her husband got up in the morning, he opened the doors of the house and went outside to set out on his journey. And there was his secondary wife, lying at the entrance of the house, with her hands clutching the doorframe.
28. "Get up," he said to her, "let’s go." But there was no response. So he laid her across a donkey, and the man set out for home.
29. When he got home, he picked up a knife, took his secondary wife, and chopped her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces. Then he sent them into all the areas of Israel.