Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Judges 19:25
‘But the men would not listen to him, so the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her out to them.'
Nothing would at this point divert them from their purpose. They continued beating at the door in their dreadful lust.
“So the man laid hold on his concubine, and brought her out to them.” The Levite presumably thrust her through the doorway, for had he gone out to them they would have achieved their purpose. The concubine was handed over. We must remember that she may well have been a cult prostitute and if so may have been used to multiple sex. It may therefore be that she volunteered to go out to them, not aware of quite how bestial they would be, otherwise the old man would surely have given his daughter first. Yet the force of ‘laid hold' is against this. It suggests that she was unwilling.
Thus it seems that the Levite acted to save the man's daughter, and he may certainly have had in mind that his wife was a concubine, and was also used to multiple sex. He certainly expected her to be alive in the morning. All through the emphasis has been on the fact that she was his concubine. He no doubt considered his own worth, and the worth of the daughter, as being superior. The concubine, though beautiful, was more expendable. That she was beautiful comes out in that once the men had seen her they forgot about their chief prey.
It is easy to criticise the Levite. But he was a man who believed he knew his own worth, and whom others respected and looked up to. He was conscious of his social class, and the thought of being sodomised would to such a man have been unbearable. On the other hand his wife was ‘only a concubine', had already revealed her sexual propensities and was still under the shadow of guilt. And he had the example of Lot to go by.
‘And they knew her, and abused her all night until the morning, and when the day began to spring they let her go.'
What followed demonstrated their bestiality. They lined up to have sex with her, passing her from one to the other, and no doubt treated her roughly as such men will. And this went on all night. And when day came they let her go, a spent wreck, and disappeared to their homes.