Judges 19:16

_AND, BEHOLD, THERE CAME AN OLD MAN FROM HIS WORK OUT OF THE FIELD AT EVEN, WHICH WAS ALSO OF MOUNT EPHRAIM; AND HE SOJOURNED IN GIBEAH: BUT THE MEN OF THE PLACE WERE BENJAMITES._ There came an old man from his work ... which was also of mount Ephraim - and perhaps his hospitality was quickened by learning the stranger's occupation, and that he was on his return to his duties at Shiloh....

WHICH WAS ALSO OF MOUNT EPHRAIM - i. e., of the country of the Levite. This single giver of hospitality was himself a stranger and sojourner at Gibeah....

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, BEHOLD, THERE CAME AN OLD MAN FROM HIS WORK OUT OF THE FIELD AT EVEN,.... Which is the time that men come from their labour, and take their rest; and this man, though a man in years, and of some substance, as appears by what follows, yet attended the business of his calling, which was very commendable in him: WHICH WAS ALSO OF MOUNT EPHRAIM; as the Levite was, which when the old man understood, he was the more ready no doubt to receive him into his house: AND HE SOJOURNED IN GIBEAH; he was not a native of the place, and yet more kind to strangers than such as were; nor does he appear to be a Levite, though it was a Levitical city; on what account he sojourned here is not manifest: BUT THE MEN OF THE PLACE WERE BENJAMITES: for as yet the number of Levites were not large, others dwelt in the cities besides them, even such as were of the tribe to which they belonged....

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

_and he sojourned_ Cf. Judges 17:7 _n._The only person that paid any attention to the travellers was not a native of the place: it was the same at Sodom, Genesis 19:1 f. The last words of the verse are a topographical gloss, cf. Judges 21:19....

The Crime at Gibeah and Its Punishment Judges 19:1 to Judges 21:25 _The Levite and His Concubine Judges 19:1-30_ 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 Beth-lehem-judah. 2 And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there four whole months. 3 And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet

THE WICKEDNESS OF GIBEAH A Levite and his concubine meet with foul treatment at Gibeah, a town of Benjamin. The indignation of the other tribes is roused against the Benjamites. This chapter gives the cause of the war between the rest of the tribes and Benjamin, with which the remainder of Judges is concerned. It is difficult to determine the period to which this war should be assigned. In Judges 20 there is no recognised leader or judge in Israel, but all the tribes (quite differently from elsewhere) act together 'as one man' (Judges 20:1); and the numbers given (Judges 20:2; Judges 20:15) imply a very large population; though an army app

LIFE WITHOUT LAW JUDGES _PHILIP SMITH_ CHAPTER 19 V1 At that time, *Israel’s people had no king. A man from Levi’s *tribe lived in the hills. These were where Ephraim’s *tribe was. The part where he lived was a long way from the main places. He took a *concubine from Bethlehem. This was in the area where Judah’s *tribe lived. V2 But she was not loyal to him. She left him. And she went back to her father’s house in Bethlehem-Judah. After she had been there for 4 months, V3 her husband went there. He went because he wanted to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two *mules. She took him into her father’s house. When her father saw him, he welcomed him gladly. V4 The girl’s father made him stay. He stayed with the father for three days. He ate and he drank. He also