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16And behold, an old man was coming from his work in the field at evening. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was sojourning in Gibeah. The men of the place were Benjaminites. 17And he lifted up his eyes and saw the traveler in the open square of the city. And the old man said, "Where are you going? And where do you come from?" 18And he said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to the house of the Lord, but no one has taken me into his house. 19We have straw and feed for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and your female servant and the young man with your servants. There is no lack of anything." 20And the old man said, "Peace be to you; I will care for all your wants. Only, do not spend the night in the square." 21So he brought him into his house and gave the donkeys feed. And they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
22As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know 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 has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. 24Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing." 25But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. 26And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.
27And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28He said to her, "Get up, let us be going." But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. 29And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. 30And all who saw it said, "Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak."
The sickening scene in Gibeah is an echo of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19). The Levite thought it would be a good idea to push the itinerary and head for Gibeah in his tribal territory to spend the night. Little did he know that he had arrived in Sodom! As in Sodom, the mob of the city has gathered to commit homosexual rape. But when their drive is frustrated, a woman will do too. The marathon rape and murder of an Israelite woman pushes the bizarre portrait of Israel's disintegration to the extreme. Israel has become its own enemy. Could it get any worse?
The sad tale revolves around the abuse of power, and in this sense, the Levite is implicated, too. He had once spoken tenderly to his concubine, but now he "seized" (19:25, cf. 19:29, suggesting the use of force) her and pushes her out to the men of the city to abuse her. The atrocity in Gibeah is even worse than in Sodom, in that it offers no intervention to protect the woman. Inside the house there appear to be two classes of people. The implicit conventions of honor and protective hospitality do not extend to the concubine. She is expendable simply because she is the weakest link in the picture and does not have a lobby to speak out for her.
The Levite goes to bed, and his true nature is further revealed the next morning when he opens the door to find his concubine lying at the threshold. His words have an unmistakable air of callousness: "Get up, we're going!"
The woman is reduced to an object by those who have power over her from her being seized by her master, to the raping, to the grisly act of butchering her at home. When the Levite packs her body on the back of a donkey like a piece of meat, we see the reverse image of the first woman in the book. Achsah had dismounted from her donkey to ask her loving father for life-giving springs of water. Caleb gave her two. The love, generosity and care that characterized the relationship between the sexes has now been turned on its head. The weak are victimized.
Have we husbands perhaps abused power and treated our wives or children as our property? The unnamed woman of Judges 19 may stand for all the people who are victimized in this world. Wherever people have power, even if it is very marginal, there is the potential for abuse. You may think about the areas in your life where you act without regard for the well-being of those entrusted to you, whether at home or elsewhere.
God hates the abuse of power, and his Son broke the cycle of abuse. Although he could have called for legions of angels, he let himself be victimized by sinful men. Christ is the ultimate patriarch, the ultimate ruler, who gives his life for his people. Our challenge is to follow our master in his use of power. How then do we put the interests of others in front of our own? How is Christ glorified in our breaking down of barriers and including outsiders?
The author of these devotionals, the Rev. Martin Emmrich, is an ordained OPC minister (Westminster OPC, Corvallis, Oregon) as well as the author of Pneumatological Concepts in the Epistle to the Hebrews, a book on the teaching of Hebrews on the Holy Spirit. We are happy to make these devotionals on Ecclesiastes and other passages of Scripture available to you.
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