Judges 19:30

Judges 19:30 a

‘And it was so, that all who saw it, said, ‘there was no such deed done nor seen, from the day that the children of Israel came out of the land of Egypt, to this day.'

The pieces would be delivered by messenger. The Levite may indeed have gone to the central sanctuary and arranged for them to go from there. It was from there that the call to action ought to go. And the messengers would take a report of what had happened and what the pieces meant. They were a call for justice on the terms of the covenant, on penalty of death for failure to give it.

The comment about ‘such a deed' probably refers to the actions of the men of Gibeah (as the Septuagint makes clear). Certainly they became a byword for sinfulness (Hosea 9:9; Hosea 10:9). But it may have been a reaction to the horror of what they saw.

Judges 19:30 b

‘Weigh it up, take counsel, and declare what you think.'

It was a call for action and judgment in legal jargon. They were to weigh up the situation, discuss the matter together and then come to a decision.

The whole episode demonstrates how low morals in Israel had fallen. The Levite's attitude to his concubine wife, his failure to protect her, the lack of hospitality from anyone except the old man, the behaviour of the men of Gibeah, all reflected the level to which society had fallen.