1 In those days when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living as an immigrant in the far corners of the Ephraim highlands. He married a secondary wife from Bethlehem in Judah.
2 In an act of unfaithfulness toward him, his secondary wife left him and went back to her father’s household at Bethlehem in Judah. She stayed there four full months.
3 Then her husband set out after her to convince her to come back. He had his servant and a couple of donkeys with him. She took him into her father’s house, and when the young woman’s father saw him, he was happy to welcome him.
4 Since his father-in-law, the young woman’s father, insisted, he stayed with him three days, eating, drinking, and spending the night there.
5 On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning, and he got ready to set out. But the young woman’s father said to his son-in-law, "Eat a little food to give you strength, and then you can go."
6 So the two of them sat down and ate and drank together. The young woman’s father said to the man, "Why not spend the night and enjoy yourself?"
7 When the man got ready to set out, his father-in-law persuaded him, and he spent the night there again.