Judges 19:1

_AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THOSE DAYS, WHEN THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL, THAT THERE WAS A CERTAIN LEVITE SOJOURNING ON THE SIDE OF MOUNT EPHRAIM, WHO TOOK TO HIM A CONCUBINE OUT OF BETHLEHEMJUDAH._ It came to pass in those days. The painfully interesting episode that follows, together with the intestine commotion the report of it produced throughout the country, belongs to the same early period of anarchy and prevailing disorder. A CERTAIN LEVITE ... TOOK ... A CONCUBINE. The priests under the Mosaic law enjoyed the privilege of marrying, as well as other classes of the people. It was no disreputable connection this Levite had formed; because a nuptial engagement with a concubine-wife (though, as wanting in some outward ceremonies, it was reckoned a secondary or inferior relationship) possessed the true essence of marriage: it was not only lawful, but sanctioned by the example of many go...

CHAPTER XIX _A Levite and his concubine disagree; and she leaves him and_ _goes to her father's house_, 1, 2. _He follows to bring her back, and is kindly entertained by her_ _father five days_, 3-8. _He returns; and lodges the first night at Gibeah, in the tribe_ _of Benjamin_, 9-21. _The men of Gibeah attack the house, and insist on abusing the_ _body of the Levite; who, to save himself, delivers to them his_ _concubine, whose life falls a victim to their brutality_, 22-27. The Levite divides her dead body into twelve pieces,

A CONCUBINE - See the margin. The name does not imply any moral reproach. A concubine was as much the man’s wife as the woman so called, though she had not the same rights. See Judges 19:3....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 19:1 WHEN THERE WAS NO KING (Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1; Judges 21:25). It appears from Judges 20:27, Judges 20:28 that the events narrated in these three last chapters of the Book of Judges happened in the lifetime of Phinehas, and while the ark was at Shiloh (see Judges 20:27, note). Phinehas evidently outlived Joshua ...

AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THOSE DAYS, WHEN THERE WAS NO KING IN ISRAEL,.... The same is observed in Judges 17:6 and refers to the same times, the times before the judges, between them and the death of Joshua, during which time there was no supreme magistrate or ruler in Israel, which is meant; and this is observed, as before, to account for wickedness being committed with impunity, such as adultery, sodomy, murder, c. afterwards related: THAT THERE WAS A CERTAIN LEVITE SOJOURNING ON THE SIDE OF MOUNT EPHRAIM in a city that was on one side of that mountain; it seems not to have been a Levitical city, because he was only a sojourner in it; perhaps he chose to reside there, as being near to the tabernacle of Shiloh, which was in that tribe; WHO TOOK TO HIM A CONCUBINE OUT OF BETHLEHEMJUDAH; the same place from whence the wicked Levite came, spoken of in the prec

2. ISRAEL'S MORAL CONDITION AND THE WAR ON BENJAMIN CHAPTER 19 The Levite and His Concubine _ 1. The Levite and the unfaithful woman (Judges 19:1)_ 2. The fate of the concubine (Judges 19:22) The results of departure from God are now revealed in the awful corruption and violence so faithfully recorded in this chapter. The moral condition of Israel has gone down to the same level of the Canaanites; they sank even lower than the nations whom God had doomed to destruction. We do not repeat the horrible details of this deed of lust and violence. Apostasy from God, rejection of the truth is followed by moral corruption. Romans 1:26 shows the vileness of the Gentiles, who turned their backs to the

JUDGES 19-21. In the story of the outrage of Gibeah, there is a combination of history and midrash. Hosea (Judges 9:9) makes allusion to the days of Gibeah, as a time of notorious moral depravity in Israel, and the events which he had in view doubtless form the basis of the present chapter. But when Israel is called the congregation (Judges 20:18), when the elders of the congregation are introduced, and when the tribes come automatically together as one man (Judges 20:1; Judges 20:11), making a national army ten times as great as Barak's, it is apparent that this is a modernised version of the story, written in the language of the congregation. It is

IN THOSE DAYS. In the same days as Ch. Judges 18:1. Soon after the death of Joshua. Figure of speech _Hysterologia._ App-6. NO KING. See note on Judges 18:1. A CERTAIN LEVITE. The house of God neglected. Priests and Levites unemployed and wandering about. Compare Judges 17:7. MOUNT. the hill country of....

_The outrage at Gibeah_ 1 _.when there was no king_ See on Judges 17:6. _on the farther side_ or _recesses_, probably meaning the northern parts of E.; cf. _the recesses of Lebanon_2 Kings 19:23, also Isaiah 14:13; Jeremiah 6:22 etc. Like his fellow in App. i, this Levite is a _sojourner_, and he has a connexion with Beth-lehem of Judah. See on Judges 17:7. No doubt he was serving a local sanctuary in some remote quarter of Ephraim. _a concubine_ The relationship was sanctioned by custom, cf....

_A LEVITE PASSES THE NIGHT IN GIBEAH OF BENJAMIN: THE MEN OF GIBEAH ABUSE HIS CONCUBINE TO DEATH: THE LEVITE DIVIDES HER BODY INTO TWELVE PARTS, WHICH HE SENDS TO THE TWELVE TRIBES._ _Before Christ 1426._ _JUDGES 19:1. TOOK TO HIM A CONCUBINE_— Women of this sort differed little from the wife, except in some outward ceremonies and stipulations, but agreed with her in all the true essences of marriage, and gave themselves up to the _husband,_ (for so he is called in the next chapter, Judges 19:4.) with faith plighted, with sentiment, and with affection. See Selden de Jur. Nat. et Gent. l. v. c. 7....