Judges Chapter 19 (CW: Sexual assault)

I have read a lot of problematic chapters in this book so far, but this one is easily the worst. This is the story of a Levite from Ephraim whose concubine got mad at him and went back home to her father. The Levite went after her to attempt to make amends and stayed with her father and her in Bethlehem for four nights, leaving on the fifth day. According to the annotation, leaving on the fifth day leads to trouble, pointing back to Samson and Delilah (on the fifth day he was taken by the soldiers after his haircut).

So the Levite leaves with his concubine and instead of staying the city of Jebus, since it was filled with Jebusites, they stayed in Gibeah which is where the tribe of Benjamin lived. He figured that this would be a safer place since it was occupied by Israelites. He waited in the square and an old man who was also from Ephraim approached him and took the Levite, his concubine, and servant in, fed the animals, and cared for them. Then came a pounding at the door and the men of the town demand that the Levite be sent out so that they may have intercourse with him.

²³And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. ²⁴Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing.”

Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 392). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

This demonstrates that women in the Bible are nothing more than property. The man’s gesture shows that he is willing to give up the money that would make from his daughter in the form of bride-price. The man grabbed the concubine and threw her out to the crowd and they…had their way with her. I will not go into detail.

This story is of the same motif as the story of Sodom and Gomorrah except that the there are no angels and the men of the town are Israelites. The men of Gibeah display the same sin as the men in the earlier story, and it isn’t homosexuality as many apologists would like to have us believe. No, it’s a lack of hospitality for the stranger, instead wanting to show him who’s the boss around there. These stories, likely, are moral tales and not actual historical events. The desire of the men of the town is to show how evil they are that instead of welcoming guests, they would prefer to exercise their dominance over them.

The way that the evil men of the town are introduced in both stories is similar to the villain in a movie being introduced by having him kick a puppy or shoot an innocent person. It’s used to establish character. Anyway, where was I?

²⁷In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. ²⁸“Get up,” he said to her, “we are going.” But there was no answer.

Brettler, Marc; Newsom, Carol; Perkins, Pheme. The New Oxford Annotated Bible with Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version (p. 392). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.

There was no answer because she was dead. So, he loaded up her body onto his donkey, went home, and cut his concubine into twelve pieces and sent them throughout Israel. He told them what had happened and told them to talk it over. This is the beginning of the Benjaminite War.