And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.

And he said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramah.

And they will pass over and will go; and the sun will go down to them near Gibeah which is to Benjamin.

And they turned thitherward to go and lodge all night in Gibeah. And when they came in, they sat them down in a street of the city, for there was no man took them in to lodge.

And he will lift up his eyes and will see the man of the way in the street of the city: and the old man will say, Whither wilt thou go? and from whence wilt thou come?

And he said to him, We are on our way from Beth-lehem-judah to the inmost parts of the hill-country of Ephraim: I came from there and went to Beth-lehem-judah: now I am on my way back to my house, but no man will take me into his house.

But we have dry grass and food for our asses, as well as bread and wine for me, and for the woman, and for the young man with us: we have no need of anything.

And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.

So he took him into his home and fed the donkeys while they refreshed themselves and had dinner.

While {they were enjoying themselves}, behold, the men of the city, {the perverse lot}, surrounded the house, pounding on the door. And they said to the old man, the owner of the house, "Bring out the man who came to your house so that {we may have sex with him}."

The owner of the house went out and said to them, “No, don’t do this evil, my brothers. After all, this man has come into my house. Don’t do this horrible thing.

Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.

But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go.

And the woman will come at the turning of the morning and she will fall at the door of the house where her lord there, even till the light

And her lord will rise in the morning and will open the doors of the house and will come forth to go to his way, and behold, the woman his concubine, fallen at the door of the house, and her hands upon the threshold.

And he will say to her, Arise, and go. And none answered. And he will take her upon the ass, and the man will rise and go to his place.

And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel.

And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.

Then all the children of Israel went out, and the congregation was gathered together as one man, from Dan even to Beersheba, with the land of Gilead, unto the LORD in Mizpeh.

And the chief of all the people, even of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand footmen that drew sword.

While the descendants of Benjamin were learning that the Israelis had gone up to Mizpah, the Israelis asked, "Somebody tell us how this evil could happen?"

And the Levite, the woman's husband that was slain, answered and said, "I came into Gibeah that is in Benjamin with my concubine to lodge all night.

And the townsmen of Gibeah came together against me, going round the house on all sides by night; it was their purpose to put me to death, and my servant-wife was violently used by them and is dead.

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

Behold, ye are all children of Israel; give here your advice and counsel.

And all the people arose as one man, saying, We will not any of us go to his tent, neither will we any of us turn into his house.

But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;

And we will take ten men of an hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and an hundred of a thousand, and a thousand out of ten thousand, to fetch victual for the people, that they may do, when they come to Gibeah of Benjamin, according to all the folly that they have wrought in Israel.

So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.

And the tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, What wickedness is this that is done among you?

And now give the men, sons of Belial, which are in Gibeah, and we will put them to death, and take away evil from Israel. And Benjamin would not hear to the voice of their brethren the sons of Israel.

And the children of Benjamin came together from all their towns to Gibeah, to go to war with the children of Israel.

From the cities the descendants of Benjamin were counted on that day twenty-six thousand {sword-wielding men}, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah, who were counted seven hundred well-trained men.

Among all this people there were seven hundred chosen men lefthanded; every one could sling stones at an hair breadth, and not miss.

And the men of Israel, beside Benjamin, were numbered four hundred thousand men that drew sword: all these were men of war.

And the children of Israel arose, and went up to Beth-el, and asked counsel of God; and they said, Who shall go up for us first to battle against the children of Benjamin? And Jehovah said, Judah'shall go up first.

And the sons of Israel will rise in the morning and will encamp against Gibeah.

And the men of Israel will go forth to war with Benjamin; and the men of Israel will prepare to war with them at Gibeah.

And the sons of Benjamin will come forth from Gibeah, and they will destroy in that day in Israel twenty and two thousand men to the earth.

And the people, the men of Israel, will strengthen themselves, and they will add to prepare war in the place which they set in array in the first day.

And the sons of Israel will go up and will weep before Jehovah till the evening, and they will ask in Jehovah, saying, Shall I add to draw near to war with the sons of Benjamin my brother? And Jehovah will say, Go up against him.

And the sons of Israel will come near to the sons of Benjamin in the second day.

And Benjamin went forth against them out of Gibeah the second day, and destroyed down to the ground of the children of Israel again eighteen thousand men; all these drew the sword.

Then all the children of Israel, and all the people, went up, and came unto the house of God, and wept, and sat there before the LORD, and fasted that day until even, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.

And the sons of Israel will ask in Jehovah, (and there the ark of the covenant of God in those days,

And Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before it in those days,) saying, Shall I yet again go out to battle against the children of Benjamin my brother, or shall I cease? And the LORD said, Go up; for to morrow I will deliver them into thine hand.

So Israel stationed an ambush all around Gibeah.

And the sons of Israel will go up to the sons of Benjamin in the third day, and they will set in array against Gibeah as once upon once.

And the children of Benjamin went out against the people, and were drawn away from the city; and they began to smite and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goeth up to Beth-el, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.

And the sons of Benjamin will say, They are smitten before us as at first. And the sons of Israel said, We will flee, and draw him away from the city to the highways.

And all the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and put themselves in array at Baaltamar: and the liers in wait of Israel came forth out of their places, even out of the meadows of Gibeah.

And there came against Gibeah ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel, and the battle was sore: but they knew not that evil was near them.

And the LORD smote Benjamin before Israel: and the children of Israel destroyed of the Benjamites that day twenty and five thousand and an hundred men: all these drew the sword.

And the sons of Benjamin will see that they were smitten: and the men of Israel will give place to Benjamin, for they trusted to the ambush which they put by Gibeah.

And the liers in wait hasted, and rushed upon Gibeah; and the liers in wait drew themselves along, and smote all the city with the edge of the sword.

So the men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill about thirty men of Israel, for they said, “Certainly they are defeated before us as in the first battle!”

But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and, behold, the whole of the city went up in smoke to heaven.

And the men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin will hasten, for they saw that evil touched upon them.

And, when they turned before the men of Israel unto the way of the desert, the battle, over took them, - while, as for them that came out of the cities, they began to destroy them in their midst: -

They surrounded the Benjaminites, chased them from Nohah, and annihilated them all the way to a spot east of Geba.

And there fell of Benjamin eighteen thousand men; all these were men of valour.

The rest of them turned and ran into the wilderness in the direction of the rock of Rimmon, but 5,000 of them were killed on the highways while 2,000 of them were overtaken and killed near Gidom.

So that all which fell that day of Benjamin were twenty and five thousand men that drew the sword; all these were men of valour.

And there will turn and flee to the desert to the rock Rimmon, six hundred men, and they will dwell in the rock Rimmon four months.

And the men of Israel turned again upon the children of Benjamin, and smote them with the edge of the sword, as well the men of every city, as the beast, and all that came to hand: also they set on fire all the cities that they came to.

The men of Israel had sworn at Mizpah, saying, "None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife."

And the people came to Beth-el, and sat there till even before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept sore.

And they will say, Wherefore, Jehovah, God of Israel, was this in Israel to miss one tribe this day from Israel?

And it will be on the morrow, and the people will rise early and they will build there an altar, and will bring up burnt-offerings and peace.

And the children of Israel said, Who is there among all the tribes of Israel that came not up with the congregation unto the LORD? For they had made a great oath concerning him that came not up to the LORD to Mizpeh, saying, He shall surely be put to death.

And the sons of Israel will lament for Benjamin their brother, and they will say, There was cut off this day one tribe from Israel.

How shall we do for wives for them that remain, seeing we have sworn by the LORD that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?

So they asked, "Who from all the Israelite tribes did not assemble before the Lord at Mizpah?" Now it just so happened no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the gathering.

And the people will be reviewed, and behold, not a man there from the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead.

And they will send there twelve thousand men from the sons of power, and they will command them, saying, Go and smite them, the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead, with the mouth of the sword, and the women and the little ones

This is the thing you will do: {you will destroy} every man and {every woman who had sex with a man}."

And they will find of the inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead four hundred girls, virgins, who knew not man by the bed of a male: and they will bring them to the camp of Shiloh which is in the land of Canaan.

And the whole congregation sent some to speak to the children of Benjamin that were in the rock Rimmon, and to call peaceably unto them.

and Benjamin turneth back at that time, and they give to them the women whom they have kept alive of the women of Jabesh-Gilead, and they have not found for all of them so.

So the elders of the congregation asked, "What will we do to obtain wives for the survivors, since the women of Benjamin have been devastated?"

And they said, "[There must be] a remnant for Benjamin, so that a tribe will not be blotted out from Israel.

But we can't allow our daughters to marry them, for the Israelites took an oath, saying, 'Whoever gives a woman to a Benjaminite will be destroyed!'

And they said, Behold, there is a feast of Jehovah from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Beth-el, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Beth-el to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.

And it shall be, when their fathers or their brethren come unto us to complain, that we will say unto them, Be favourable unto them for our sakes: because we reserved not to each man his wife in the war: for ye did not give unto them at this time, that ye should be guilty.

So the descendants of Benjamin did all of this: they chose and carried away just enough wives from those who danced to meet the number needed, then they left to return to their inheritance, to rebuild their cities, and to live there.

And the sons of Israel will go from there in that time, a man to his tribe and to his family, and they will go forth from there, a man to his inheritance.

In those days no king in Israel: a man will do the right in his eyes.

During the time of the judges, there was a famine in the land. A man left Bethlehem in Judah with his wife and two sons to live in the land of Moab for a while.

And the name of the man Elimelech, and the name of his wife, Naomi, and the name of his two sons, Mahlon and Chilion, Ephrathites from the house of bread of Judah. And they will come to the field of Moab and be there.

And Elimelech will die, the husband of Naomi; and she will be left, and her two sons.

And they will take to them wives from the Moabitesses; the name of the one, Orpah, and the name of the second, Ruth: and they will dwell there about ten years.

Then Naomi's two sons, Mahlon and Kilion, also died. So the woman was left all alone -- bereaved of her two children as well as her husband!

She and her daughters-in-law prepared to return from the country of Moab, because she had heard while living there how the LORD had come to the aid of his people, giving them relief.

And she will go forth from the place where she was there, and her two daughters-in-law with her; and they will go in the way to turn back to the land of Judah.

And Naomi will say to her two daughters-in-law, Go, turn back each to the house of her mother: Jehovah will do mercy with you according as ye did with the dead, and with me.

Jehovah will give to you, and find ye rest, each in the house of her husband And she will kiss to them, and they will lift up their voice and weep.

And they said unto her, Surely we will return with thee unto thy people.

And Naomi said, Turn again, my daughters: why will ye go with me? are there yet any more sons in my womb, that they may be your husbands?

surely you would not want to wait until they were old enough to marry! Surely you would not remain unmarried all that time! No, my daughters, you must not return with me. For my intense suffering is too much for you to bear. For the Lord is afflicting me!"

And they will lift up their voice and weep yet. And Orpah will kiss to her mother-in law; and Ruth adhered to her.