‘And behold, there came an old man from his work, from the country in the evening. Now the man was of the hill country of Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gibeah.'
As it happened an old man was returning from his fields out in the country. He was coming back late from working in them, possibly because the fields he rented were some distance from the town. Not being a native of the town, for he was a sojourner, he had not been quite so contaminated by their attitudes towards strangers. And as it happened he came from the same area as the Levite.
‘But the men of the place were Benjaminites.'
The tribes should have been united and friendly towards each other, but it is clear here that there was some discordancy between the tribes. The aim is to contrast the goodness and hospitality of the Ephraimite with the rank sinfulness and evil of the Benjaminites.