Judges 19: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

In days when there was no king in Israel, a Levite from the hill country of Ephraim goes to Bethlehem to bring back his concubine, who had left him, and her father keeps him there for several days. On the way home he stops for the night in Gibeah, a town of Benjamin, where an old man takes him in; men of the city surround the house, and the Levite puts his concubine outside to them, and they abuse her all night. At dawn she collapses at the door, and when her master tells her to get up she does not answer. He carries her home, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends them through all Israel, and everyone who sees it says nothing like this has been done since Israel came out of Egypt.

Claim by Claim

1. 19:1
   • This happened in those days.
   • There was no king in Israel at that time.
   • A certain Levite was living as a resident alien in the far side of the hill country of Ephraim.
   • The Levite took for himself a woman as a concubine.
   • The concubine was from Bethlehem in Judah.
2. 19:2
   • His concubine was unfaithful to him, playing the harlot against him.
   • She went away from him to her father's house at Bethlehem in Judah.
   • She stayed there four months.
3. 19:3
   • Her husband got up and went after her.
   • He went to speak tenderly to her.
   • He went to bring her back.
   • His servant was with him.
   • A pair of donkeys was with him.
   • She brought him into her father's house.
   • The young woman's father saw him.
   • The young woman's father was glad to meet him.
4. 19:4
   • His father-in-law, the young woman's father, kept him from leaving.
   • He stayed with him three days.
   • They ate and drank.
   • They lodged there.
5. 19:5
   • On the fourth day they rose early in the morning.
   • The Levite got up to depart.
   • The young woman's father said to his son-in-law to strengthen his heart with a morsel of bread.
   • The young woman's father said they could go afterward.
6. 19:6
   • The two of them sat down together.
   • The two of them ate and drank together.
   • The young woman's father said to the man to be willing to stay the night.
   • The young woman's father said that his heart would be merry.
7. 19:7
   • The man got up to depart.
   • His father-in-law urged him to stay.
   • He stayed and lodged there again.
8. 19:8
   • He rose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart.
   • The young woman's father told him to strengthen his heart.
   • They lingered until the day declined.
   • The two of them ate.
9. 19:9
   • The man got up to depart.
   • He, his concubine, and his servant were departing.
   • His father-in-law, the young woman's father, said to him that the day had grown weak toward evening.
   • The father asked them to stay the night.
   • The father said the day was ending.
   • The father told him to lodge there so his heart would be merry.
   • The father told them to rise early the next day for their journey.
   • The father told him to go to his home.
10. 19:10
    • The man was unwilling to stay the night.
    • He got up and departed.
    • He came opposite Jebus.
    • Jebus is Jerusalem.
    • A pair of saddled donkeys was with him.
    • His concubine was with him.
11. 19:11
    • They were near Jebus.
    • The day was far spent.
    • The servant said to his master to turn aside into this city of the Jebusites.
    • The servant proposed that they lodge in it.
12. 19:12
    • His master said to him that they would not turn aside into a foreign city.
    • His master said that the city was not of the children of Israel.
    • His master said they would pass on to Gibeah.
13. 19:13
    • He said to his servant to come and draw near to one of these places.
    • He said they would lodge in Gibeah or in Ramah.
14. 19:14
    • They passed on and went their way.
    • The sun set on them when they were near Gibeah.
    • Gibeah belongs to Benjamin.
15. 19:15
    • They turned aside there to go in and lodge in Gibeah.
    • He went in and sat down in the open square of the city.
    • No one took them into his house to lodge.
16. 19:16
    • An old man came from his work in the field in the evening.
    • The old man was from the hill country of Ephraim.
    • The old man was living as a resident alien in Gibeah.
    • The men of that place were Benjamites.
17. 19:17
    • The old man lifted up his eyes.
    • He saw the traveling man in the open square of the city.
    • The old man asked where he was going.
    • The old man asked where he had come from.
18. 19:18
    • He said to him that they were passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the far side of the hill country of Ephraim.
    • He said he was from there.
    • He said he had gone to Bethlehem in Judah.
    • He said he was going to the house of the LORD.
    • He said no one was taking him into a house.
19. 19:19
    • He said there was straw and fodder for their donkeys.
    • He said there was bread and wine for himself, for the old man's maidservant, and for the young man with his servants.
    • He said there was no lack of anything.
20. 19:20
    • The old man said peace be to him.
    • The old man said that all his needs were on him.
    • The old man said only not to lodge in the open square.
21. 19:21
    • He brought him into his house.
    • He gave fodder to the donkeys.
    • They washed their feet.
    • They ate and drank.
22. 19:22
    • They were making their hearts merry.
    • The men of the city, worthless men, surrounded the house.
    • They beat on the door.
    • They spoke to the old man who was master of the house.
    • They demanded that he bring out the man who had come into his house.
    • They said they wanted to have sexual relations with him.
23. 19:23
    • The man who was master of the house went out to them.
    • He said to them not to act wickedly, calling them his brothers.
    • He said this man had come into his house.
    • He told them not to do this outrageous thing.
24. 19:24
    • He offered his virgin daughter and the guest's concubine.
    • He said he would bring them out.
    • He told the men to violate them.
    • He told the men to do to them what was good in their eyes.
    • He told them not to do this outrageous thing to this man.
25. 19:25
    • The men would not listen to him.
    • The man took hold of his concubine.
    • He brought her out to them outside.
    • They had sexual relations with her.
    • They abused her all night until the morning.
    • They let her go when the dawn came up.
26. 19:26
    • The woman came at the turning of the morning.
    • She fell down at the entrance of the man's house where her master was.
    • She lay there until it was light.
27. 19:27
    • Her master got up in the morning.
    • He opened the doors of the house.
    • He went out to go on his way.
    • The woman, his concubine, was fallen at the entrance of the house.
    • Her hands were on the threshold.
28. 19:28
    • He said to her to get up so they could go.
    • There was no answer.
    • He took her up on the donkey.
    • The man got up and went to his place.
29. 19:29
    • He came into his house.
    • He took a knife.
    • He took hold of his concubine.
    • He cut her up limb by limb into twelve pieces.
    • He sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
30. 19:30
    • Everyone who saw it said that nothing like this had happened or been seen from the day the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until that day.
    • They said to consider it.
    • They said to take counsel.
    • They said to speak.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

19:1

"No king in Israel" is a set phrase repeated through the closing chapters of Judges; it marks the period before Israel had a monarchy, when no central authority existed to judge or punish. A Levite was a member of the tribe of Levi, which was given no territory of its own and lived scattered among the other tribes, supported by them and responsible for duties at the sanctuary. A concubine (Hebrew *pilegesh*) was not a mistress: she was a woman joined to a man in a recognized but second-rank marriage. She and her children had fewer rights than those of a full wife, but the union was legal, which is why the man is called her husband and her father is called his father-in-law.

19:2

The Hebrew verb here normally means "she was sexually unfaithful," which is how the King James and most modern versions read it. Some ancient manuscripts (in Greek and Old Latin) instead read "she became angry with him" and left. Both readings are old, and translations still differ; the text as it stands does not explain why she went home.

19:3

"Speak kindly to her" is literally "speak to her heart" in Hebrew, to reassure or win someone over. Donkeys were the ordinary pack and riding animal for people of modest means; the second one is for bringing her back. Because a wife's family had received payment when the marriage was made, a husband in this situation had to deal with her father, not just with her.

19:4

Roughly three days was the customary span of hospitality to a guest. Anything the host pressed on a visitor beyond that counted as extra honor, and, as here, as pressure to stay.

19:5

"Have a bite of bread to strengthen yourself" is a Hebrew idiom for sitting down to a meal. "A bite of bread" is polite understatement; what follows is a full meal with wine.

19:9

Journeys were timed to reach a town before dark. Roads were unpoliced, there were no inns along the way, and a traveler caught outside a settlement at night had no shelter and no protection.

19:10

Jebus was Jerusalem under its Canaanite inhabitants, the Jebusites. At this point it was not an Israelite town; it was captured by David generations later. It lay about six miles north of Bethlehem, a few hours' walk.

19:11

The Jebusites were the people who lived in Jebus. They were not part of Israel.

19:12

The Jebusites were one of the Canaanite peoples living in the land before and alongside Israel. The Levite's objection is about ethnicity and safety: he assumes he will be treated better among his own people.

19:13

Gibeah lay about three miles north of Jerusalem and Ramah a couple of miles further on; each was under an hour's walk from the last, which is why both are options at sunset.

19:14

Benjamin was one of Israel's twelve family groups. These groups were called tribes. The land was shared out among them.

19:15

The "open square" was the broad open space just inside the town gate, where public business was done. Towns had no inns. A traveler sat in the square and waited for a resident to take him home; making that offer was a strong social obligation, and leaving a stranger sitting there was a public failure of the town's duty.

19:16

The old man is himself an outsider in Gibeah, a man from another tribe's territory settled among Benjamites. Such a resident had a recognized place in the town but not the standing of someone born there.

19:18

"The house of the LORD" is what the Hebrew says: the central sanctuary, at this period at Shiloh, which lay on his route north. Some ancient Greek copies read "to my house" instead, and translations differ over which is original.

19:19

"Your servant woman" and "your servants" are polite third-person speech for "me and the people with me." The point of listing the supplies is that he is asking only for a roof, not to be fed at anyone's expense.

19:20

"Let all thy wants lie upon me" means let me cover everything you need. The old man is insisting on paying for his guests himself, which was the proper form.

19:21

Travelers wore open sandals on dusty roads. Providing water to wash a guest's feet was the standard opening act of hospitality, done before food.

19:22

The King James "sons of Belial" translates a Hebrew phrase meaning "sons of worthlessness", an idiom for lawless, good-for-nothing men, not a proper name. "That we may know him" in the King James is literal: the Hebrew verb "know" is a common plain-speech way of referring to sexual intercourse.

19:23

The King James "folly" translates *nebalah*, a much stronger word than the English suggests: an outrage, a disgraceful act that breaks the community's basic order. A host was held responsible for the safety of anyone sheltering under his roof, which is the ground of his protest.

19:24

"A maiden" in the King James means a girl who has not had sexual relations; "humble ye them" means to violate or rape them. The scene closely mirrors Genesis 19, where Lot offers his daughters to the men of Sodom, and the wording is near enough that the first hearers would have recognized the echo.

19:25

"They knew her" is the same euphemism as in verse 22. The Hebrew behind "abused her" is a word for violent, repeated mistreatment. The King James phrasing is restrained; the event it describes is a gang rape lasting all night.

19:26

"Her lord" and "her master" translate the ordinary Hebrew word a wife or concubine used for her husband. It states his legal authority over her rather than any feeling.

19:27

The threshold was the boundary of the household's protection. She reached the door of the house but not the inside of it.

19:28

The Hebrew says only that there was no answer; it does not state whether she was alive or dead at this point, and readers have disagreed about it since antiquity. Some ancient Greek copies add the words "for she was dead," which the Hebrew does not have.

19:29

Twelve pieces, one for each of the twelve tribes. Sending out portions of a body was a summons: it demanded that every tribe answer and come. Saul later does the same with a butchered pair of oxen (1 Samuel 11:7), with the threat that whoever fails to come will have his own oxen treated so.

19:30

"Think it over, talk it over, speak up" renders three commands calling for formal deliberation: that the tribes assemble, take counsel together, and give a public verdict on what to do.