1
In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite, residing in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
2
But his concubine became angry with him, and she went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months.
3
Then her husband set out after her, to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys. When he reached her father's house, the girl's father saw him and came with joy to meet him.
4
His father-in-law, the girl's father, made him stay, and he remained with him three days; so they ate and drank, and he stayed there.
5
On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to go; but the girl's father said to his son-in-law, "Fortify yourself with a bit of food, and after that you may go."
6
So the two men sat and ate and drank together; and the girl's father said to the man, "Why not spend the night and enjoy yourself?"
7
When the man got up to go, his father-in-law kept urging him until he spent the night there again.
8
On the fifth day he got up early in the morning to leave; and the girl's father said, "Fortify yourself." So they lingered until the day declined, and the two of them ate and drank.