1. In those days there was no king in Israel; there was a man, a Levite, who dwelled as a foreigner in the remote areas of the hill country of Ephraim. And he took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
2. But his concubine felt repugnance toward him, and she left him and went to her father’s house, to Bethlehem in Judah; she was there some four months.
3. So her husband set out, and he went after her to speak tenderly to her, to bring her back. He took with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. And she brought him to her father’s house, and the father of the young woman saw him and was glad to meet him.
4. His father-in-law, the young woman’s father, urged him to stay with him three days; and they ate and drank, and they spent the night there.
5. On the fourth day, they rose early in the morning, and he prepared to go, but the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law, “Refresh yourself with a bit of food, and afterward you may go.”
6. So the two of them sat and ate and drank together, and the father of the young woman said to the man, “Please, agree to spend the night and enjoy yourself.”
7. The man got up to go, but his father-in-law urged him, and he returned and spent the night there.
8. On the fifth day he rose early in the morning to go, and the father of the young woman said, “Please, enjoy yourself,” and they lingered until the day declined, and the two of them ate.