Judges 19 - Introduction

XIX.

Judges 19:1. A Levite of Mount Ephraim goes to Bethlehem to bring back his unfaithful concubine, and is hospitably received by her father. 5-9. The afternoon of the fifth day after his arrival he sets out to return. Judges 19:10. Unwilling to stop at the heathen town of Jebus, he proceeds to Gibeah, where at first no man gives him shelter. Judges 19:16. An old Ephraimìte offers him hospitality. Judges 19:22. Infamous conduct of the inhabitants of Gibeah, resulting in the woman’s death. Judges 19:29. The Levite, by sending her dismembered body to the tribes, rouses them to vengeance.

In this chapter we see the unutterable depth of profligacy and shamelessness into which some of the Israelites had sunk. At the same time, we see that the moral sense of the nation was still sufficiently keen to be aroused by the glare of unnatural illumination thus flung upon their consciences. This narrative, like the former, belongs to the period between the death of Joshua and the rise of the greater Judges (Theodoret, Quœst. 27; Jos. Antt. v. 2, § 8).