Translations
F.O.G.MPrimary
F.O.G MessageSo they turned off the road to spend the night in Gibeah. They went in and waited in the city's open square — but not one person offered them shelter.
F.O.GSecondary
The F.O.GThey turned aside there to go in and lodge at Giv'ah. He went in and sat down in the open plaza of the city — but no one took them into his house to spend the night.
KJV
King James VersionAnd they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city: for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.
BSB
Berean Standard BibleThey stopped to go in and lodge in Gibeah. The Levite went in and sat down in the city square, but no one would take them into his home for the night.
Footnotes
The רְחוֹב (*rehov*) — the open plaza or city square — was the customary station for sojourners awaiting hospitality, an obligation that functioned as near-sacred social covenant across the ancient Near East. The silence of Gibeah's citizens is not mere discourtesy; it is a catastrophic moral failure. The structural echo of Genesis 19 is unmistakable: Lot sat at Sodom's gate and urgently drew the angels inside before nightfall (Gen. 19:1). In Gibeah, no one moves. The city's hospitality — its basic humanity — is already dead before the night begins.