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          DASV: Judges 19    

1 In those days there was no king in Israel. There was a
certain Levite residing in the remote area of the hill
country of Ephraim, who took a concubine from Bethlehem
in Judah.
2 His concubine got angry at him, and ran away from him to
her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had
been there four months,
3 her husband came after her, to persuade her to return.
He had his servant and a couple of donkeys with him.
She brought him to her father's house, and when the girl's
father saw him, he was happy to meet him.
4 His father-in-law, the girl's father, urged him to stay
so he stayed with him three days. They ate, drink and
slept there.
5 Now on the fourth day, they got up early in the morning to
leave but the girl's father said to his son-in-law,
"Here's some food to strengthen your heart, and afterward
you can be on your way."
6 So they both sat down, ate and drank, and the girl's
father said to the man, "Please stay another night and
enjoy yourself."
7 The man got up to leave but his father-in-law urged him,
so he again spent the night there.
8 Then he got up to leave early in the morning of the
fifth day, and the girl's father said, "Strengthen your
heart, and wait until later when the day cools down."
So they ate together.
9 When the man got up to leave, he, his concubine and his servant,
his father-in-law, the girl's father, said to him, "Look, now
the day is almost over, spend the night here again, and
enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can get up early and be on
your way home."
10 But the man would not spend the night there, he got up
and left. He had a couple of saddled donkeys and his
concubine and was passing by Jebus (that is, Jerusalem).

11 When they were near Jebus, late in the day, the servant
said to his master, "Come now, let's stop at this town of
the Jebusites, and spent the night there."
12 But his master said to him, "We will not turn aside into
the town of foreigners where there are no Israelites.
Let's go on to Gibeah."
13 He said to his servant, "Come on, let's try to reach one
of these other places, and we will spend the night at Gibeah
or Ramah."
14 So they went on. The sun went down as they approached Gibeah,
which belongs to Benjamin.

15 They stopped in there to spend the night in Gibeah.
He entered the town and sat down in the town square,
because no one offered them a place to stay.
16 That evening an old man was coming in from his work out in
the field. Now the man happened to be from the hill country
of Ephraim, who was residing in Gibeah, but the actual people
of the place were Benjaminites.
17 He lifted up his eyes, and saw the traveler in the town
square, so the old man asked, "Where are you going? Where
do you come from?"
18 He replied, "We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the
remote area of the hill country of Ephraim. I'm from there,
and I went to Bethlehem in Judah and I am now returning to
the house of the LORD, and no one has invited me home to
spend the night.
19 Even though we have both straw and provisions for our donkeys;
and we also have food and wine for me, your female servant,
and the young man who is with your servants. We don't
need anything."
20 The old man said, "Peace be to you. I'll take care of what
you need, only don't spend the night in the town square."
21 So he brought him to his house, fed the donkeys,
washed their feet, ate and drank.

22 As they were enjoying themselves, some hoodlums of the
town surrounded the house, beating on the door. They shouted
at the old man who was the owner of the house, "Bring out
the man who came into your house, so that we can sex
with him."
23 The owner of the house, went out to them, and protested,
"No, my brothers, please, do not do such a wicked thing,
seeing this man has come into my house. Do not do
anything that shameful.
24 Look, here is my virgin daughter and his concubine.
I will bring them out now. Violate them, and do whatever
you want with them but do not do such a shameful thing
to this man."
25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man grabbed
his concubine and pushed her out to them. They raped
and abused her all the night until the morning.
When the day began to break, they let her go.

26 Then the woman came as the day was dawning, and fell
down at the door of the man's house where her master was,
until it became light.
27 Her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of
the house and went out to go on his way. There was his
concubine collapsed at the door of the house, with
her hands on the threshold.
28 He said to her, "Get up, and let's get going." But
there was no response. So he put her on the donkey,
got up and went home.
29 When he got to his house, he took a knife, and grabbing
a hold of his concubine, he cut her up, limb by limb,
into twelve pieces. Then he sent her throughout all
the territory of Israel.
30 When everyone saw it, they exclaimed, "There has never
been anything done like this from the time the Israelites
came up out of the land of Egypt to this day. Let's
think about this, get advice and talk about what to do."

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