13. because we can make it to Gibeah or perhaps even to Ramah before dark.”
14. They walked on and reached Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin just after sunset.
15. They left the road and went into Gibeah. But the Levite couldn't find a house where anyone would let them spend the night, and they sat down in the open area just inside the town gates.
16. Soon an old man came in through the gates on his way home from working in the fields. Most of the people who lived in Gibeah belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, but this man was originally from the hill country of Ephraim.
17. He noticed that the Levite was just in town to spend the night. “Where are you going?” the old man asked. “Where did you come from?”
18. “We've come from Bethlehem in Judah,” the Levite answered. “We went there on a visit. Now we're going to the place where the Lord is worshipped, and later we will return to our home in the hill country of Ephraim. But no one here will let us spend the night in their home.
19. We brought food for our donkeys and bread and wine for ourselves, so we don't need anything except a place to sleep.”
20. The old man said, “You are welcome to spend the night in my home and to be my guest, but don't stay out here!”
21. The old man brought them into his house and fed their donkeys. Then he and his guests washed their feet and began eating and drinking.
22. 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!”
23. The 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.
24. Let me send out my daughter instead. She's a virgin. And I'll even send out the man's wife. You can rape them or do whatever else you want, but please don't do such a horrible thing to this man.”
25. The 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,
26. and it was almost daybreak when she went back to the house where her husband was staying. She collapsed at the door and lay there until sunrise.
27. About 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.He lifted her body on to his donkey and left.