Chapter Nineteen

1–30. The display of cruelty and moral depravity by the inhabitants of Gibeah when a Levite passed through on his journey.

Judges 19:1. In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite residing in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. Judges 19:2. And his concubine became angry with him, and she went away from him to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months. Judges 19:3. Then her husband set out after her, to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. When he reached her father’s house, the father of the young woman saw him and came with joy to meet him. Judges 19:4. Her father, the father of the young woman, insisted that he stay, and he remained with him three days; so they ate and drank, and he slept there. Judges 19:5. On the fourth day they rose early in the morning, and he prepared to leave; but the father of the young woman said to his son-in-law: Strengthen your heart with a morsel of bread, and after that you may go. Judges 19:6. So the two of them sat and ate and drank together; and the father of the young woman said to the man: Why not spend the night and enjoy yourself? Judges 19:7. The man rose to leave, but his father-in-law urged him; so he stayed and spent the night there again. Judges 19:8. On the fifth day he rose early in the morning to leave; and the father of the young woman said: Strengthen your heart [with food], and wait until the day declines. So the two of them ate [and drank]. Judges 19:9. When the man rose to leave, he and his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the father of the young woman, said to him: See, the day has waned toward evening; please spend the night. See, the day is coming to its close; lodge here and let your heart be merry; tomorrow you can rise early in the morning for your journey, and go home. Judges 19:10. But the man would not spend the night; he rose up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem) with his concubine and his servant; they had with them a pair of saddled donkeys. Judges 19:11. When they were near Jebus, the day was nearly over; and the servant said to his master: Come now, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites, and spend the night in it. Judges 19:12. But his master said to him: We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel; but we will continue on to Gibeah. Judges 19:13. And he said to his servant: Come, let us try to reach one of these places, and spend the night at Gibeah or at Ramah. Judges 19:14. So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. A Levite, returning with his concubine from her father’s house, which was probably in the tribe of Judah, and being unwilling to spend the night in Jerusalem, as it was then a city of the Jebusites, came to Gibeah of Benjamin (now Tell el-Fullah) for lodging, which is an hour’s journey north of Jerusalem.

Judges 19:15. So they turned aside there, to go in and lodge in Gibeah. He went in and sat down in the open square of the city, but no one took them in to lodge. Judges 19:16. Then at evening there was an old man coming from his work in the field; he was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was residing in Gibeah. (The people of the place were Benjaminites.) Judges 19:17. When the old man looked up and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city, he said: Where are you going and where do you come from? Judges 19:18. He answered: We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from where I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to the house of the Lord; but there is no one who has taken me in. Judges 19:19. We have straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and your maidservant and the young man along with your servants; there is no lack of anything. Judges 19:20. The old man said: Peace be to you. I will care for all your needs; only, do not spend the night in the square. Judges 19:21. So he brought him into his house, and fed the donkeys [with him]; and they washed their feet, and ate and drank. After the inhabitants of Gibeah refused to give the traveling Levite lodging, he was taken in by an old man, a native of the area of the tribe of Ephraim, the same place from which the Levite himself came.

Judges 19:22. As they were making merry, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house: Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may know him. Judges 19:23. The man, the master of the house, went out to them and said: No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is a guest in my house, do not do this vile thing. Judges 19:24. Behold, here are my daughter, a virgin, 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 so vile a thing. Judges 19:25. But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They knew her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. Judges 19:26. 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. Judges 19:27. In the morning her master rose, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way, when behold, his concubine was lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. Judges 19:28. He said to her: Get up, let us be going. But there was no answer, [because she was dead]. He put her on the donkey; and the man set out and went to his home. The Gibeahites, like the men of Sodom (Gen 19:4-5), combining cruelty with lust and sodomy, demanded from the old man who had shown hospitality to the Levite that he give up the Levite for sodomy. But when the old man succeeded in protecting the Levite himself, the Levite himself gave them his concubine, whom they abused throughout the entire night, so that she, having reached the threshold of the house where the Levite was as dawn broke, died there from exhaustion.

Judges 19:29. When he entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. Judges 19:30. All who saw it said: Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day the Israelites came up out of the land of Egypt until this day. [Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.] Reflect on this, consult, and declare. Having brought her corpse to his house, the Levite cut it into twelve pieces and sent one piece to each tribe of Israel, so as to draw the Israelites’ attention to the cruelty and moral depravity of the Gibeahites.