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March 17, 2024 |
| Judges 19 | ||
Judges 19 contains one of the most horrific stories in the Bible. It is a story of homosexuality, rape, fear of violence, murder and slaughter of hundreds of thousands
It's also a very confusing story. It seems like the men are in a hurry to throw their wives and daughters to these evil men. Because of this, there is a lot of speculation about why some things are done and said.
Fortunately, the Bible provides the careful reader with the information needed to understand what is going on.
We see the man is a Levite, but why are we told that? That fact doesn't seem to be germane to the story, but it is. It is relevant because it is going to help us understand how the man perceives what happens later and why he does what he does.
We see that both the men are from "the hill country of Ephraim." At first, that also doesn't seem to be germane. Without that commonality, this story could have turned out very differently.
In this we see the hand of God putting pieces together. It looks like a horror story or nightmare to us and none of us would want to be the ones going through it. It is achieving God's goals, none the less.
The man's concubine "played the harlot", as the Bible says, and ran off on him, back to her family in Judah. As the story begins, the man has picked her up and is heading home.
Jebus, city of the Jebusites
When people traveled at that time and needed to spend the night along the way, they would choose a city and go to the center of the city, where the marketplace was. There they would introduce themselves and talk with people. Visitors were an important source of news for any city. People didn't travel that much and this was treasured information.
Usually someone would invite them to spend the night and would feed them. If that didn't happen, they would spend the night sleeping in the city center.
Now it happened in those days, when there was no king in Israel, […]
Their law is supposed to be God's law. If they fall away from that though, there isn't a real policing or judicial force. There is only whatever each town can muster and Gibeah is a corrupt town who live in fear of this gang.
The theme for the story comes very early in the story, at least the first part of it does.
They were alongside of Jebus, and the day was almost gone. And the young man said to his master, "Come, please, and let us turn aside into this city of the Jebusites and spend the night in it." 12 However, his master said to him, "We will not turn aside into the city of foreigners who are not of the sons of Israel; but we will pass on by until Gibeah." (Judges 19:11-12)
The man doesn't want to spend the night with unclean people. That's pretty understandable.
The man doesn't realize that he will be spending the night with "sons of Israel" who are much worse than the Jebusites. from that we get our theme.
Theme - The tribe of Benjamin has become worse than pagans
Then they turned aside there in order to enter and to spend the night in Gibeah. So they entered and sat down in the open square of the city. Now no one was taking them into his house to spend the night. (Judges 19:15)
An unusual thing happens - no one invites them to their house. There is a reason for this. The people of the city know the risk they would be taking by welcoming a traveling man into their homes for the night.
There is a homosexual rape gang that preys on visitors to the city. The gang is not usually a danger to the people of the city but if the people of the city take in men, the gang may go so far as to break into their house to get at them.
A homosexual rape gang terrorizing the population doesn't happen all by itself. For them to exist, the people must also be somewhat corrupt and maybe even sympathetic. They are doing nothing about this problem and therefore they are complicit.
Then the old man said, "Peace be to you. Only let me take care of all that you lack; however, do not spend the night in the open square." (Judges 19:20)
By what he says here, we see that he knows what will happen to the man if he is caught in the open at night.
He acts to help them, but why? What justifies taking the risk? Partly he is a merciful person. He also isn't a native to the area - not part of the tribe of Benjamin and not as corrupted.
But there is an important extra. They are both native to the same area of Israel. So the old man is wanting to hear news from home.
They were making their hearts merry (Judges 19:22)
When they get to the old man's house, they begin exchanging stories and laughing over wine.
They are having a great time, but why are we told this? Again, this doesn't seem relevant, but it will prove to be important in understanding why they do what they do. Alcohol is almost certainly a factor in a poor decision that is coming up. the Bible wouldn't have wasted our time with it, otherwise.
They were making their hearts merry, and behold, the men of the city, certain vile fellows, surrounded the house, pounding the door; and they spoke to the owner of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came into your house that we may know him." (Judges 19:22)
The thing to see here is that there are echoes from Sodom in this story. The words highlighted in yellow also appear, almost word-for-word, in the story of Sodom. Those verses from Genesis are shown below with highlighting.
The men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, from young to old, all the people from every quarter; 5 and they called to Lot and said to him, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them." (Genesis 19:4-5)
Then the man, the owner of the house, went out to them and said to them, "No, my brothers, please do not do evil. Since this man has come into my house, do not commit this disgraceful act. 24 Behold, my daughter who is a virgin, and hi s concubine - please let me bring them out that you may violate them and do to them whatever is good in your eyes. (Judges 19:23-24)
Again, we see a heavy echo of Sodom.
But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him, 7 and said, "Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. 8 Now behold, I have two daughters who have not known a man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them what is good in your eyes; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof." (Genesis 19:6-8)
Other than the textual commonality, we also see that in both our story and the Sodom story, two women are offered. Also virginity is part of the offer in both cases. There has to be something to that.
Why are we seeing this heavy echo from the story of Sodom?
The homosexuals wouldn't be intentionally mimicking the Sodom story. That would just be a declaration of their awareness that they were evil. God, however, often cause words declaring their guilt to come from the mouths of evil people.
Is the home owner intentionally mimicking the Sodom story to make a point to the gang about what they are doing? That wouldn't be a crazy idea. It may be though that this is, again, God putting words in his mouth.
That raises the next question though. Does the man, the Levite, recognize this? It seems impossible to believe that he could have missed that connection. He finds himself facing a homosexual rape gang and has to think, "Wow! This place is just like Sodom." Then he hears the words from the Sodom story coming out of the mouths of the gang and the old man. He's a Levite (the religious order) and the Bible is only 6 books long at this time - not 66.
This has to inform his thinking, though we can't be certain how. One possibility is that he begins to expect that God or angels are going to stop this, just as in the Sodom story.
We've gotten to one of the critical questions of the story - one that bothers everyone. Why is he offering his daughter and the man's concubine to the homosexual rape gang. Many people misunderstand and see misogyny. That isn't the case.
We have to wonder about the looks on the faces of his daughter and the concubine. Actually, we would likely guess wrong. They would understand what he is doing. For us though we have to dig it out of the text.
The strangest and best question is this. Why is the old man offering the Levite's concubine? He has no authority to do that. She is the wife of the man. The only possible answer has to be that he doesn't expect the men to accept the offer. that leads us to the next question. So, what is he doing?
Look at this phrase from the text, "please let me bring them out that you may violate them and do to them whatever is good in your eyes." It isn't an offer. It's an accusation. It's also an attempt to get the gang to think about the horrible thing they are planning to do. He wants them to come to their senses.
We don't see it in our story, but in the Sodom story, we know the gang knows these same words from Lot are a judgment of them, because they say so.
This one came to sojourn, and already he is persistently acting like a judge. (Genesis 19:9)
They feel judged for what they are trying to do and they don't appreciate that.
The old man (and Lot) is offering women and virgins to them to try to get their natural desire for women to kick in. that way they will take their focus off the man. They are also trying to get their male reflex for protecting women to kick in. The male psychology contains a desire to protect and not hurt women.
Understood that way, his words make a very pointed statement, "Look at yourselves! What men are you who refuse women?"
The gang doesn't explicitly refuse the offer. The Bible says they wouldn't listen … to his accusation and call to reason.
But the men were not willing to listen to him (Judges 19:25)
In the Sodom story they say "Get out of the way". They know it isn't an offer. They aren't listening either.
But they said, "Step aside." Furthermore, they said, "This one came to sojourn, and already he is persistently acting like a judge; now we will treat you more wickedly than them." (Genesis 19:9)
Note that the gang is not interested in the women. I think the old man expected that. The man, the Levite, hears this as well. It appears he determines the men have little to no interest in the women. They only want the man (men in the Genesis story). We'll also see that he likes the approach of trying to call the gang to their senses.
His butt is on the line here, if I can say it that way. He doesn't have a lot of options and none of them are good.
If he voluntarily goes outside, he will likely be damaged so much that he will die. There are enough men outside to surround the house while also breaking into the house. If they all go after him, he's done.
If he sends the young man outside, they may take the young man and still come back for him afterward.
If the gang comes inside, he meets the same fate and the gang may discover the young man and he will also meet that fate. The people inside will arm themselves and may be hurt or killed for not complying with the gang.
One thing is certain, the gang will be breaking into the house, if he does not go out. If the old man believed they won't or can't break in, he would have ignored them. Instead he tried to dissuade them. He must know from past experience that they will break-in.
The Sodom story goes in a different direction at this point. The angels blind the gang as they are about to break in the door. In our story, the events in play are not interrupted and are allowed to play out.
But, is the man, the Levite, expecting God to intervene here as well? As mentioned before, he can't have missed the repetitions of the Sodom story that he is seeing and hearing.
So the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them (Judges 19:25)
He grabs her and pushes her outside. Why is he doing that? It is the central question in the story. We have the knowledge of how it will play out, so we think he is crazy or something. He doesn't have that foreknowledge.
The question that leads to understanding is this. Why isn't the old man's daughter included? From that, this action seems to be something the man does on his own.
It also confirms that the old man had no intention of giving them his daughter. But this is done rashly and the old man doesn't get a chance to explain the risk involved in such a move.
The word "So" above implies that something just previous to his action caused him to take this action. What are the factors involved here?
1. Is he continuing the accusation of the gang but amping it up a notch - going from a verbal offering to actually showing a woman? This seems very likely. He likely sees this as his best option of bad options. So he is Doubling down - we are all children if Israel, surely they can come to their senses.
Is alcohol involved in this decision? We know it is because the text went out of its way to mention they were drinking.
Is he less connected to the concubine because she ran away? Almost certainly. The Bible again makes a point of saying he spent 4 months away from home to get her back. Also remember that a concubine is a lesser wife. She isn't a slave wife, but also is not a full wife.
Is he expecting God to intervene as God did in Sodom. This is also very likely. There seems to be no other reason for the text to bother mentioning that he is a Levite, except that a Levite couldn't miss the Sodom connection.
Is he sacrificing her to preserve the others in the house? Not in the way you might think. He is not thinking "better her than me". He has every reason to believe the gang are not a serious threat to women. Remember women were offered to the gang, including the concubine, but the gang rejected the offer. Instead he is willing to risk her in this gambit to get through to the men.
Does he think she will be safe? I think he believes she is reasonably safe. Remember that the gang had refused the offer. Everything he has seen indicates that they have little or no interest in women.
I can't believe he had the chance or the clarity of thought to reason there could be a few who would be interested in her. If so a vagina can take it better than a rectum, if you know what I mean. I'm sure he can't imagine the attack That will happen.
Does he feel guilt for bringing this on the household? Who wouldn't. He didn't understand the situation when he got to Gibeah but now he realizes that his presence is endangering everyone in the house. He wants to do something to make it right.
There are a lot of possible factors in play here. We know that some of them were given by the Bible. I think a combination of these factors result in his decision, maybe all of them.
Has he correctly evaluated the risk in putting her out outside? No, not even close. He has no experience with a homosexual rape gang. It's a rash decision driven by the pressure of the situation and the expected attempt by the gang to break down the door. He grabs the concubine and pushes her outside before anyone can dissuade him.
And they knew her and abused her all night until morning (Judges 19:25)
Unexpectedly, at least to the man, the gang goes crazy on her.
Then her master arose in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, and behold, the woman, his concubine, was lying at the doorway of the house with her hands on the threshold. 28 And he said to her, "Get up and let us go," but there was no answer. (Judges 19:27-28)
His words to her seem unfeeling. It seems he doesn't know what she has been through and he thinks she is alive.
In our time, a body lying on the sidewalk is a very bad sign. In their time, they had no glass windows so the environment inside was pretty much the same as outside. Inside you had protection from rain and heat when it was cold. In the heat of summer, it might be preferable to sleep outside.
He may think she chose to sleep outside as a courtesy. Otherwise she would have had to knock on the door and wake up everyone to be let inside.
Why are we told her hands were on the threshold? There is a message in that. It's a statement that she deserved and expected welcome and protection in the house of God and likely also in this house.
We are going to skip through the story to the end. There is no morgue for the body, no police to call, and no rules about it. The man takes the body to his home for a purpose.
Interestingly, the text still refers to her as his concubine and as "her", as though she is still alive. We usually depersonalize and use words like "the body" or maybe "her body."
Then he entered his house and took a knife and […] cut her in twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout the territory of Israel. 30 And all who saw it said, "Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day when the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it; take counsel and speak up!" (Judges 19:29-30)
Now the men of Israel […] struck [the sons of Benjamin] with the edge of the sword, both the entire city [Gibeah] with the cattle and all that they found; they also set on fire all the cities which they found. (Judges 20:48)
In the Sodom story, all the cities in the area were destroyed by fire. The same end comes on the tribe of Benjamin.
The destruction of the tribe of Benjamin is so complete that there is a fear they will cease to exist. Consider the idea that the male survivors from the battle do not have any women to marry.
Because of a foolish vow the other tribes have made, they have to hatch a silly ruse to get wives for the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin.
1. Who is responsible for the death of the concubine?
100% the gang is responsible. The man, her husband, is not responsible. The gang created the situation and took the life. He is
only trying to find the best way through it. That doesn't mean he finds the best way.
2. What should the man have done?
That's the problem in this story. There is no good answer.
Of these, the man tries to amp-up the dissuasion effort. He makes a risky decision that turns out much worse than he expected. He does what he thinks is best and what God knows he will do and God works with that.
God has an angle on this as well. If the man dies, there will be no one to carry the story to Israel. Therefore Israel will not act to stop Benjamin. His concubine would not have been able to do that.
3. Should he have gone after the concubine to rescue her?
He should have done that. He made the risky decision; he should try to make it right.
This is not a great story. There are no heroes to use as models. There is no wise guidance to gain. There are only evil people on one side and people who are doing their best to deal with them.
We have seen, though, that the factors involved are more complex than some would like to paint them. That really is life. Rarely do we do anything for just one reason or to achieve one goal.
This certainly isn't a story showing misogyny, as some would like to see.
Well-meaning people are caught in an impossible situation. There is no good or easy solution - give up a guest to a brutal death or risk brutalization of everyone, submit yourself for certain death or try a risky gambit.
Yet, this was part of God's plan to clean homosexuality out of Israel. Unlike Sodom, where God stepped in, the people need to see the horror of sin and rise up against it.
These no-win situations can come on us as well. All we can do is listen to the spirit showing us the best path of bad paths and slog through that to the end.