12 But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. We will travel on to Gibeah.”
13 He said to his servant, “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”
14 So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.
15 They stopped there and decided to spend the night in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night.
16 But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.)
17 When he looked up and saw the traveler in the town square, the old man said, “Where are you heading? Where do you come from?”
18 The Levite said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. But no one has invited me into their home.