Tag Archives: Judges 19:1

Romans, Part 67

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I’m still considering, Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey.  This essay picks up where I left off in the previous essay considering Phinehas’ background and role in events at Gibeah.

Now you have rescued the Israelites from the Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) judgment,[2] Phinehas told the descendents of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh after hearing their defense.  It may not be obvious in the NET but it was a very poor choice of words: Now you have delivered (nâtsal, הצלתם) the children of Israel out of the hand (yâd, מיד) of the Lord (yehôvâh).[3]  It is not possible according to yehôvâh, Nor is there any who (ʼayin, ואין; literally, nothing) can deliver (nâtsal, מציל) from My hand (yâd).[4]  Beyond that, it was yehôvâh who delivered Israel from the hand of their enemies. 

O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord (yehôvâh),[5] Jacob prayed.  Rescue (nâtsal, הצילני) me, I pray, from the hand (yâd, מיד) of my brother Esau…[6]  The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said [to Moses], “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt.  I have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows.  I have come down to deliver (nâtsal, להצילו) them from the hand (yâd, מיד) of the Egyptians…”[7]  Jethro rejoiced because of all the good that the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) had done for Israel, whom he had delivered (nâtsal, הצילו) from the hand (yâd, מיד) of Egypt.[8]

I’m particularly sensitive to this because I believed that Jesus delivered me from the hand of Jehovah (though I probably didn’t think about it in exactly those words).  My situation became more acute when I was too old to pray to Jesus but told to pray to “our Father in heaven” instead.  I was fairly compliant as a child with things over which I had control.  So I prayed to “our Father in heaven.”  But I couldn’t draw near to Him, not to Jehovah, the one who wanted to condemn me to hell for failing to keep his law.

Was deliverance from the hand of yehôvâh simply a slip of Phinehas’ tongue?  After all even in the New Testament the author of the letter to the Hebrews believed that it is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.[9]  Or did Phinehas’ word choice accurately reflect his attitude?  David’s attitude by contrast, even regarding punishment, was, Please let us fall into the hand (yâd, ביד) of the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה), for His mercies are great; but do not let me fall into the hand (yâd, וביד) of man.[10]  Had futility crept into Phinehas’ thoughts, a darkening of his senseless heart (Romans 1:21 NET Table)?

For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.

These words were penned by a Benjaminite[11] who was extremely zealous for the traditions of [his] ancestors[12] until Jesus showed him a fresh and living way that [Jesus] inaugurated for us,[13] not based on the letter but on the Spirit, for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.[14]  I don’t fully understand how the Holy Spirit empowered people in the Old Testament (which is not to say that I fully understand Him in the New).

Samson is perhaps the most confusing example: Samson…grew and the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) empowered him.  The Lord’s (yehôvâh, יהוה) spirit began to control him in Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol.  Samson went down to Timnah, where a Philistine girl caught his eye.[15]  Though his parents protested his choice, the text is clear that his father and mother did not realize this was the Lord’s (yehôvâh, מיהוה) doing, because he was looking for an opportunity to stir up trouble with the Philistines.[16]  Samson’s choice and great strength are not the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control[17] with which I am more familiar.

I turn to David again: Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.  Do not cast me away from Your presence, And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.[18]  Perhaps Phinehas’ statement—Today we know that the Lord is among us, because you have not disobeyed the Lord in this[19]—is a similar recognition that yehôvâh’s presence, his Holy Spirit, creates the clean heart and steadfast spirit that effected righteousness among the descendants of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh.  Still, Moses wished for more for the descendants of Israel: I wish that all the Lord’s people were prophets, that the Lord would put his Spirit on them![20]

So I’m not sure whether Phinehas made a poor word choice or was becoming futile in his thoughts (e.g., actually intending to thank or praise the descendants of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh for delivering him from the hand of yehôvâh), whether he was fearing yehôvâh or afraid of yehôvâh, drawing near or fleeing in his heart and mind.  But I want to keep it as an open question as I move from the failure to resolve matters at Gibeah as a police function to war: The Benjaminites came from their cities and assembled at Gibeah to make war against the Israelites.[21]  

Vengeance War in Gibeah Divided Kingdom
The Lord spoke to Moses: “Exact vengeance for the Israelites on the Midianites…

Numbers 31:1, 2a (NET)

 The Israelites went up to Bethel and asked God, “Who should lead the charge against the Benjaminites?”  The Lord said, “Judah should lead.”

Judges 20:18 (NET)

 God told Shemaiah the prophet, “Say this to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all Judah and Benjamin, as well as the rest of the people, ‘The Lord says this: “Do not attack and make war with your brothers, the Israelites.  Each of you go home, for I have caused this [Israel’s rebellion against Judah and Benjamin] to happen”’” [Table].

1 Kings 12:22-24a (NET)

I’ve placed the war in Gibeah between yehôvâh’s vengeance on the Midianites and his prohibition of Judah declaring war on the northern kingdom of Israel.  The Israelites assumed they were called to war against Benjamin and asked yehôvâh which tribe should lead.  The war was neither initiated nor forbidden by yehôvâh.  Judah should lead, He said.

Vengeance War in Gibeah Divided Kingdom
So Moses sent them to the war… They fought against the Midianites, as the Lord commanded Moses, and they killed every male.  They killed the kings of Midian in addition to those slain – Evi, Rekem, Zur, Hur, and Reba – five Midianite kings.  They also killed Balaam son of Beor with the sword.

Numbers 31:6-8 (NET)

 The Israelites got up the next morning and moved against Gibeah.  The men of Israel marched out to fight Benjamin; they arranged their battle lines against Gibeah.

Judges 20:19, 20 (NET)

 They obeyed the Lord and went home as the Lord had ordered them to do [Table].

1 Kings 12:24b (NET)

Assuming that Judah actually did lead Israel at Gibeah, yehôvâh was obeyed in all three examples.  Since neither Judah nor the northern kingdom of Israel suffered any casualties in a war that didn’t happen I switched to Ai for purposes of comparison below. 

Vengeance War in Gibeah Ai
Then the officers who were over the thousands of the army, the commanders over thousands and the commanders over hundreds, approached Moses and said to him, “Your servants have taken a count of the men who were in the battle, who were under our authority, and not one is missing.

Numbers 31:48, 49 (NET)

 The Benjaminites attacked from Gibeah and struck down twenty-two thousand Israelites that day.

Judges 20:21 (NET)

 The Lord was furious with the Israelites.  Joshua sent men from Jericho to Ai… So about three thousand men went up, but they fled from the men of Ai.  The men of Ai killed about thirty-six of them…

Joshua 7:1b, 2a, 4, 5a (NET)

Was yehôvâh over 600 times more furious with Israel at Gibeah than at Ai?  Okay, proportionally speaking, was He four and one half times more furious?  According to the Zohar, “God was unwilling that other sinners of Israel should be the instruments for punishing them [the descendants of Benjamin], and therefore numbers of them fell time after time until all the sinners in the attacking army had perished, and there were left only those more righteous ones who could more appropriately execute the work.”[22] If I had only the story of the battle at Ai to go on, I might agree with this assessment.  But I have more Scripture that the writer(s) of the Zohar rejected (Luke 13:1-5 NET):

Now there were some present on that occasion who told [Jesus] about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.  He answered them, “Do you think these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered these things?  No, I tell you!  But unless you repent, you will all perish as well!  Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower in Siloam fell on them, do you think they were worse offenders than all the others who live in Jerusalem?  No, I tell you!  But unless you repent you will all perish as well!” 

So apart from an explicit statement of Scripture (as in the case of Achan[23]) I assume that the opinion in the Zohar is unwarranted.  The reason given in the text has nothing to do with yehôvâh, rather there were seven hundred specially-trained left-handed soldiers among the Benjaminites.  Each one could sling a stone and hit even the smallest target.[24]

War in Gibeah Ai
The Israelite army took heart (châzaq, ויתחזק) and once more arranged their battle lines, in the same place where they had taken their positions the day before.

Judges 20:22 (NET)

 … and chased them from in front of the city gate all the way to the fissures and defeated them on the steep slope.  The people’s courage melted away like water.

Joshua 7:5b (NET)
The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening.

Judges 20:23a (NET)

 Joshua tore his clothes; he and the leaders of Israel lay face down on the ground before the ark of the Lord until evening and threw dirt on their heads.

Joshua 7:6 (NET)

At Gibeah the Israelites suffered 22,000 casualties, grabbed or persuaded themselves and reformed their battle lines while the Israelites at Ai suffered 36 casualties and were routed.  The reason is given in the text: The men of Israel (not counting Benjamin) had mustered four hundred thousand sword-wielding soldiers, every one an experienced warrior.[25]

At Ai Joshua prayed, O, Master (ʼădônây, אדני), Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה)!  Why did you bring these people across the Jordan to hand us over to the Amorites…[26]  What will you do to protect your great reputation?[27]  Israel has sinned,[28] yehôvâh responded.  The Israelites are unable to stand before their enemies; they retreat because they have become subject to annihilation.[29]  The “trial” and execution of Achan[30] (along with his family) followed this.  In Gibeah (Judges 20:23b-25 NET):

They asked the Lord, “Should we again march out to fight the Benjaminites, our brothers?”  The Lord said, “Attack them!”  So the Israelites marched toward the Benjaminites the next day.  The Benjaminites again attacked them from Gibeah and struck down eighteen thousand sword-wielding Israelite soldiers.

Israel was no longer yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment: The Lord was furious with Israel.  He said, “This nation has violated the terms of the agreement I made with their ancestors by disobeying me.  So I will no longer remove before them any of the nations that Joshua left unconquered when he died.[31]  Then I consider the trajectory from weapon of judgment to objects of mercy[32] (Matthew 5:38-42 NET):

“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’  But I say to you, do not resist the evildoer.  But whoever strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other to him as well [Table].  And if someone wants to sue you and to take your tunic, give him your coat also.  And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two.  Give to the one who asks you, and do not reject the one who wants to borrow from you [Table].”

Jesus spoke to objects (KJV: vessels) of mercy under occupation of a very effective Roman government.  In those days Israel had no king,[33] the story of the Levite and his concubine began, addressing not merely the lack of a hereditary monarchy but the fact that Israel had rejected[34] yehôvâh as their king.  I think what is witnessed at the battle of Gibeah is two well-trained armies fighting in their own strength, without yehôvâh’s aid or interference.[35]  The outcome is a foregone conclusion as long as the larger army continues to fight.  But at first the Israelites fought for principle while the Benjaminites fought for their lives.[36]  Apart from miraculous intervention Phinehas’ role was reduced to providing encouragement and officiating at sacrifices.[37]  He is virtually nonexistent in the text.

Admittedly, I’m threading the eye of a subtle needle here.  I recognize that the Israelites intended to go to war by the throw of the dice.  But I accept yehôvâh’s acquiescence (at a minimum) because the Scripture reads: The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Judah should lead”[38] and, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Attack them!”[39]  At the same time I’m hearing, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) said, “Attack, for tomorrow I will hand (yâd, בידך) them over to you”[40] and, The Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) annihilated Benjamin before Israel,[41] as Phinehas’ manner of speaking, expressing yehôvâh’s foreknowledge and it’s fulfillment, and not necessarily yehôvâh’s direct involvement as when Israel was his weapon of judgment.

If I were able to interview all the survivors, I take it for granted that I’d hear many battlefield stories of individual and small group salvations credited to yehôvâh’s intercession.  I don’t doubt that many of those stories would be true examples of yehôvâh’s intercession.  Nor do I doubt that I would hear true salvation stories from both opposing armies.  But I doubt that Israel was yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment against Benjamin as they were against Midian.

The next day Israel followed the same tactic[42] against Benjamin that Joshua commanded at Ai.[43]  I don’t know if this came from Joshua’s writing, Phinehas’ memory or is evidence of the development of a professional military command structure with an institutional memory.  The Benjaminites apparently did not read Joshua, did not have Phinehas as an advisor or did not have a professional military command structure with an institutional memory and fell for the ruse.  The Israelites struck down that day 25,100 sword-wielding Benjaminites.[44]  Counting the 600 survivors they had only killed 1,000 in the previous two days of fighting while they suffered 40,000 casualties.

Israel apparently left the survivors alone for four months.  The Israelites regretted what had happened to their brother Benjamin.[45]  Why, O Lord God of Israel, has this happened in Israel? they prayed.  An entire tribe has disappeared from Israel today![46]

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Joshua 22:31b (NET)

[3] Joshua 22:31b (NKJV)

[4] Deuteronomy 32:39b (NKJV)

[5] Genesis 32:9a (NET)

[6] Genesis 32:11a (NET)

[7] Exodus 3:7, 8a (NET)

[8] Exodus 18:9 (NET)

[9] Hebrews 10:31 (NET)

[10] 2 Samuel 24:14 (NKJV)

[11] Romans 11:1, Philippians 3:5 (NET)

[12] Galatians 1:14b (NET)

[13] Hebrews 10:20a (NET)

[14] 2 Corinthians 3:6b (NET)

[15] Judges 13:24b-14:1 (NET)

[16] Judges 14:4a (NET)

[17] Galatians 5:22, 23a (NET)

[18] Psalm 51:10, 11 (NKJV) Table1 Table2

[19] Joshua 22:31a (NET)

[20] Numbers 11:29b (NET)

[21] Judges 20:14 (NET)

[22] http://jbq.jewishbible.org/assets/Uploads/412/jbq_41_2_idolofmicah.pdf

[23] In fact, no one would say that the 36 who died at Ai were worse sinners than the other 2,964 soldiers because as yehôvâh’s weapon of judgment all Israel was guilty and subject to annihilation because one man sinned.

[24] Judges 20:16 (NET)

[25] Judges 20:17 (NET)

[26] Joshua 7:7 (NET)

[27] Joshua 7:9b (NET)

[28] Joshua 7:11a (NET) Table

[29] Joshua 7:12a (NET) Table

[30] Joshua 7:16-26 (NET)

[31] Judges 2:20, 21 (NET)

[32] Romans 9:21-24  Darby related this directly to Romans 11:30-32 in his translation: For as indeed *ye* [also] once have not believed in God, but now have been objects of mercy through the unbelief of *these*; so these also have now not believed in your mercy, in order that *they* also may be objects of mercy.  For God hath shut up together all in unbelief, in order that he might shew mercy to all.

[33] Judges 19:1a (NET)

[34] 1 Samuel 8:6-9 (NET)

[35] Judges 7:9-14 (NET)

[36] Deuteronomy 13:12-18 (NET)

[37] Judges 20:26-28 (NET)

[38] Judges 20:18b (NET)

[39] Judges 20:23b (NET)

[40] Judges 20:28b (NET)

[41] Judges 20:35a (NET)

[42] Judges 20:29-48 (NET)

[43] Joshua 8:3-8 (NET)

[44] Judges 20:35b (NET)

[45] Judges 21:6a (NET)

[46] Judges 21:3 (NET)

Romans, Part 62

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As I continue to consider Rejoice in hope, endure in suffering, persist in prayer,[1] as a description of love rather than as rules to obey, I want to look at some more truth that love rejoices in along with some more ἀδικία that it does not.  What Luke called a parable (παραβολὴν, a form of παραβολή) Matthew presented as a rhetorical question in a discourse about child-rearing: If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray?[2]

Matthew

Luke
See that you do not disdain one of these little ones.  For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.

Matthew 18:10 (NET)

 So Jesus told them this parable:

Luke 15:3 (NET)
What do you think?  If someone owns a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountains and go look for the one that went astray?  And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice (χαίρει, a form of χαίρω) more over it than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.

Matthew 18:12, 13 (NET)

 “Which one of you, if he has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, would not leave the ninety-nine in the open pasture and go look for the one that is lost until he finds it?  Then when he has found it, he places it on his shoulders, rejoicing (χαίρων, another form of χαίρω).  Returning home, he calls together his friends and neighbors, telling them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my sheep that was lost.’

Luke 15:4-6 (NET)
In the same way, your Father in heaven is not willing that one of these little ones be lost.

Matthew 18:14 (NET)

 I tell you, in the same way there will be more joy (χαρὰ) in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent.

Luke 15:7 (NET)

I should back up a bit and look at more of the context of Matthew’s Gospel narrative.  Jesus’ disciples had asked him, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?[3]

He called a child, had him stand among them, and said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn around and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven!  Whoever then humbles himself like this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.  And whoever welcomes a child like this in my name welcomes me.”[4]

Then He began what I am calling a discourse about child-rearing: But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the open sea.[5]  The Greek word translated causes…to sin is σκανδαλίσῃ (a form of σκανδαλίζω).  The definition in the NET reads as follows:

1) to put a stumbling block or impediment in the way, upon which another may trip and fall, metaph. to offend 1a) to entice to sin 1b) to cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey 1b1) to cause to fall away 1b2) to be offended in one, i.e. to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority 1b3) to cause one to judge unfavourably or unjustly of another 1c) since one who stumbles or whose foot gets entangled feels annoyed 1c1) to cause one displeasure at a thing 1c2) to make indignant 1c3) to be displeased, indignant

It comes from σκάνδαλον a snare or trap, translated stumbling blocks in the next verse: Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks (σκανδάλων, a form of σκάνδαλον)!  It is necessary that stumbling blocks (σκάνδαλα, another form of σκάνδαλον) come, but woe to the person through whom they (σκάνδαλον) come.”[6]  The necessity (ἀνάγκη, a form of ἀναγκή) of stumbling blocks is part of the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God,[7] how God has consigned all people to disobedience so that he may show mercy to them all.[8]  As I write this my daughter is essentially a witch, a neo-pagan.  My part in her defection from Christ was a decision made during my divorce from her mother.

My children wanted to stay with me rather than their mother.  I went along with it, hoping their mother would see reason.  She called my bluff and asked for money (to which she was entitled) to leave.  My biggest concern at that moment was the family’s financial survival.  I traveled for a living and would need to hire someone to care for them while I was away.  I had no legal rights to my children.  (I married into them and hadn’t adopted them because their biological father was still living.)  And there were a few more things.

Her care for those children had saved their mother from many (though not all) misguided mistakes.  To take that from her seemed dangerous and cruel.  Add to that, I was crushed in my own soul to be rejected again by yet another woman.  I had serious doubts that I could be a single parent of two teenage children.  Did I even want to be a single parent of two teenage children?  I wanted to make movies.

I decided that I could walk away with nothing but a paycheck, start over again and still help the family financially, and my wife could not.  And so I rejected and abandoned my daughter.

I’m grateful to Stephenie Meyer, Melissa Rosenberg, Catherine Hardwicke and Kristen Stewart for giving me two hours to be a teenage girl in love.  Randy Brown, Robert Lorenz, Clint Eastwood and Amy Adams have also helped me immensely in a more didactic way.  But both “Twilight” and “Trouble with the Curve” came too late to save me from making potentially the worst decision of a lifetime of bad decisions (Matthew 18:8, 9 NET).

If your hand or your foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to enter life crippled or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into eternal fire.  And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away.  It is better for you to enter into life with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into fiery hell.

If what I do with my hands, if where I go with my feet, if what I see with my eyes causes me to sin?

Causes you to sin has proven to be the worst of all possible translations of σκανδαλίζει (another form of σκανδαλίζω) for me.  It turns my thoughts inward to my sins.  My sins are forgiven!  Young’s Literal Translation—cause thee to stumble—allows me to see that Jesus was still talking about my real bumbling and stumbling, causing my daughter—one of those little ones who believed in Him—to sin, becoming a stumbling block to her, causing her to desert one whom she ought to trust.

Having watched her struggle through two drug-related psychotic breaks and a stroke, I agree with Jesus that it would have been better for me to kill myself.[9]  It is better for her, however, that I believe that I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.  So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the Son of God…[10]  And I continue to pray that his love, his joy, his peace, his patience, his kindness, his goodness, his faithfulness, his gentleness, and his firm control[11] are all she sees from me from now on, because if I cannot be forgiven…

And by forgiven I mean:  though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.[12]  An eternity in a fiery hell seems like overkill to me for masturbation or premarital sex or even stealing a gazillion dollars.  But if my daughter cannot be found again by the Lord Jesus, if I have condemned her to an eternity in hell, I’m not entirely convinced one eternity in one fiery hell will be sufficient for me.

And though I write like this I still have hope.  “I’ll always be here as your daughter,” she texted me as I thought and wrote about these things.  She has forgiven me, but not Jesus—not yet.  “Your sacrifice has made my education possible and I can never repay you but with love,” she texted.  Since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word (ρήματος, a form of ῥῆμα) of God,[13] I pray that He will speak that word, “hear,” to her heart, so she will know Jesus and his Father who has given her so much more than a few dollars.  Now this is eternal life, Jesus prayed to his Father, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent.[14]

I didn’t intend this essay to be so confessional.  I intended to write about an incident in the history of Israel, when a Levite…acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.[15]  Actually, I wanted to write about what happened on their journey home, after she got angry at him and went home to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah,[16] after he retrieved her from there.  But in the KJV she didn’t get angry, she played the whore against him.  The note in the NET reads: “Or ‘was unfaithful to him.’ Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).”

Ken Stone wrote in the Jewish Women’s Archive online:

The Hebrew text states that the woman “prostituted herself against” the Levite (19:2). Thus, it has often been assumed that she was sexually unfaithful to him. Certain Greek translations, however, state that she “became angry” with him. The latter interpretation is accepted by a number of commentators and modern English translations, including the NRSV, since the woman goes to her father’s house rather than the house of a male lover. It is also possible that the woman’s “prostitution” does not refer to literal sexual infidelity but is a sort of metaphor for the fact that she leaves her husband. The act of leaving one’s husband is quite unusual in the Hebrew Bible, and the harsh language used to describe it could result from the fact that it was viewed in a very negative light.

And though Mr. Stone mentioned “Certain Greek translations,” the Septuagint reads simply καὶ ἐπορεύθη ἀπ᾽ αὐτοῦ ἡ παλλακὴ αὐτοῦ (literally: “and went from him the concubine of his”).

I won’t comment about a Levite with a concubine, except to say that the Hebrew word pı̂ylegesh (פילגש), translated concubine, does not occur in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers or Deuteronomy.  It occurs in Genesis before God’s law was given and again after in Judges, 2 Samuel, 1 Kings, 1 Chronicles, 2 Chronicles, Esther, Song of Solomon and Ezekiel.  But the concubine is a foreign custom to God’s law.

The Levite and his concubine spent the night in Gibeah, in the land of the Benjamites, with an old man from the Ephraimite hill country, the place to which the Levite and his concubine were returning.  I made the following table to compare and contrast what happened next to the incident in Sodom the night before it was destroyed.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
They were having a good time, when suddenly some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and kept beating on the door.

Judges 19:22a (NET)

 Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men – both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom – surrounded the house.

Genesis 19:4 (NET)

The note on good-for-nothings in the NET reads: “‘the men of the city, men, the sons of wickedness.’ The phrases are in apposition; the last phrase specifies what type of men they were. It is not certain if all the men of the city are in view, or just a group of troublemakers. In 20:5 the town leaders are implicated in the crime, suggesting that all the men of the city were involved. If so, the implication is that the entire male population of the town were good-for-nothings.”  The text is clearer regarding Sodom: Now the people of Sodom were extremely wicked rebels against the Lord (yehôvâh).[17]

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can have sex with him.”

Judges 19:22b (NET)

 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us so we can have sex with them!”

Genesis 19:5 (NET)
The man who owned the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers!  Don’t do this wicked thing!  After all, this man is a guest in my house.  Don’t do such a disgraceful thing!

Judges 19:23 (NET)

 Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him.  He said, “No, my brothers!  Don’t act so wickedly!

Genesis 19:6, 7 (NET)
Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine.  I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like.  But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

Judges 19:24 (NET)

 Look, I have two daughters who have never had sexual relations with a man.  Let me bring them out to you, and you can do to them whatever you please.  Only don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”

Genesis 19:8 (NET)

Chivalry as a moral code was invented much later.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
The men refused to listen to him…

Judges 19:25a (NET)

 

 “Out of our way!” they cried, and “This man came to live here as a foreigner, and now he dares to judge (Septuagint: κρίσιν κρίνειν) us!  We’ll do more harm to you than to them!”  They kept pressing in on Lot until they were close enough to break down the door.

Genesis 19:9 (NET)
…so the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.

Judges 19:25b (NET)

 So the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house as they shut the door.  Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, from the youngest to the oldest, with blindness.

Genesis 19:10, 11a (NET)
They raped her and abused her all night long until morning.  They let her go at dawn.

Judges 19:25c (NET)

 The men outside wore themselves out trying to find the door.

Genesis 19:11b (NET)

The Benjamites who did this were not “godless Sodomites,” extremely wicked rebels against the Lord (yehôvâh, ליהוה), but sons of Israel living in the promised land.

Judges, the Levite and his concubine

Genesis, Lot and the visitors
The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master was staying until it became light.  When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

Judges 19:26, 27 (NET)

 Then the two visitors said to Lot, “Who else do you have here?  Do you have any sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or other relatives in the city?  Get them out of this place because we are about to destroy it.  The outcry against this place is so great before the Lord (yehôvâh, יהוה) that he (yehôvâh, יהוה) has sent us to destroy it.”

Genesis 19:12, 13 (NET)

The woman was dead.  Dear God, I hope she was dead (Judges 19:29, 30 NET):

When he got home, [the Levite] took a knife, grabbed his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces.  Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.  Everyone who saw the sight said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since the Israelites left the land of Egypt!  Take careful note of it!  Discuss it and speak!”

Romans, Part 63

Back to Romans, Part 64

[1] Romans 12:12 (NET)

[2] Matthew 18:12 (NET)

[3] Matthew 18:1b (NET)

[4] Matthew 18:2-5 (NET)

[5] Matthew 18:6 (NET)

[6] Matthew 18:7 (NET)

[7] Romans 11:33a (NET)

[8] Romans 11:32 (NET)

[9] Matthew 18:6b (NET)

[10] Galatians 2:20a (NET)

[11] Galatians 5:22, 23 (NET)

[12] Isaiah 1:18b (NKJV) Table

[13] Romans 10:17 (NKJV)

[14] John 17:3 (NET)

[15] Judges 19:1b (NET)

[16] Judges 19:2a (NET)

[17] Genesis 13:13 (NET)