(The view expressed in this blog are my own and should not be taken as inspired in any way.)
Judges 19:22–30, “Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him. And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do not this folly. Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they let her go. Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light. And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold. And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.”
Even though the Levite wasn’t offered accommodation at first. The man who finally gave him a place to stay decided to have a good meal and enjoy is company. They were having a good time when some of the people from that town, who were evil men, decided that they wanted to follow the example of the men from Sodom. The man who had offered hospitality felt the obligation of his kindness and refused to let this happen. However, he was willing to offer these evil men his daughter and the concubine. This, in itself, was evil for these women were entirely innocent of any crime and, even if they were, this was completely wrong. Never the less, this shows something of the attitude the men held towards women in those days. Again, it is important to reiterate, the Bible gives a record of the history and is not demonstrating approval. In fact, the very opposite is true for this section begins with the statement, “In those days there was no king in Israel and every man did what was right in his own eyes.” The Bible is showing what happens when every man does what is right in his own eyes. Eventually the men tried to break the door down so they forced the concubine to go outside with the men. She was gang raped all night and murdered by these men. The Levite, who owned that dead girl, took her home and cut her body in pieces and sent a piece to all the tribes in Israel for it wasn’t proper that such evil should occur in Israel, let alone any country at all.
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