Judges 19:18

_AND WHEN HE HAD LIFTED UP HIS EYES, HE SAW A WAYFARING MAN IN THE STREET OF THE CITY: AND THE OLD MAN SAID, WHITHER GOEST THOU? AND WHENCE COMEST THOU?_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

THE HOUSE OF THE LORD - Probably at Shiloh (marginal references). The Levite was probably one of those who ministered at the tabernacle. His two donkeys and servant show him to have been in good circumstances, and he had a home of his own....

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 HE SAID UNTO HIM, WE ARE PASSING FROM BETHLEHEMJUDAH,.... He answers to his last question first, for this was the place from whence they came: TOWARDS THE SIDE OF MOUNT EPHRAIM: thither they were going, which is an answer to the first question: and then adds, which is more than what was requested, FROM THENCE AM I; that is, he was an inhabitant of a city on one side of Mount Ephraim, but what that city was, he says not, nor is it elsewhere said: AND I WENT TO BETHLEHEMJUDAH; on what account he does not declare, but the above narrative clearly shows for what reason he went thither: BUT I AM NOW GOING TO THE HOUSE OF THE LORD; that is, the tabernacle in Shiloh, there he proposed to go first to offer sacrifice for the success of his journey, and for the reconciliation of his wife to him, and to pray to God for happiness in his family yet to come, and where some think his habitation...

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

GOING. His direction was towards mount Ephraim, not to Shiloh! THE HOUSE OF THE LORD. So Micah's temple was already called. Compare Judges 18:31. THE LORD. Hebrew. _Jehovah._ App-4....

_the farther side_ See on Judges 19:1. _the house of the Lord_ The marg. is to be preferred; the last letter of _bêthî = my house_was taken as the initial of the divine name _Yahweh_. A converse mistake occurs in Jeremiah 6:11, _where fury of Yahweh_has become _my fury_in the LXX There is nothing in the context to suggest that the Levite was going to Shiloh....

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