Judges 19:2

_AND HIS CONCUBINE PLAYED THE WHORE AGAINST HIM, AND WENT AWAY FROM HIM UNTO HER FATHER'S HOUSE TO BETHLEHEMJUDAH, AND WAS THERE FOUR WHOLE MONTHS._ Went away from him unto her father's house. The cause of the separation assigned in our version rendered it unlawful for her husband to take her back (Deuteronomy 24:4); and according to the uniform style of sentiment and practice in the East, she would have been put to death, had she gone to her father's family. Other versions concur with Josephus in representing the reason of the flight from her husband's house to be, that she was disgusted with him through frequent brawls....

Verse Judges 19:2. _PLAYED THE WHORE_] Neither the _Vulgate, Septuagint,_ _Targum_, nor _Josephus_, understand this word as implying any act of conjugal infidelity on the woman's part. They merely state that the _parties disagreed_, and the woman returned to her father's house. Indeed all the circumstances of the case vindicate this view of the subject. If she had been a _whore_, or _adulteress_, it is not very likely that her husband would have gone after her to _speak friendly_, literally, _to speak to her heart_, and entreat her to return. The _Vulgate_ simply states, _quae reliquit eum_, that she _left him_; the _Septuagint_, ωργισθη αυτω, that she _was angry_ _with_ him; the _Targum_ ובסרת עלוהי ubserath alohi, that she _despised him; Josephus_, αλλοτοιως ειχε, that she _was alienated_, or separate...

PLAYED THE WHORE AGAINST HIM - Perhaps only meaning that she ran away from him, and left him, for she returned to her father’s house....

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 HIS CONCUBINE PLAYED THE WHORE AGAINST HIM,.... Was unfaithful to him and his bed, and broke the covenant and agreement between them; or "with him" i, while she was with him in the house; or "before him" k, of which he had knowledge and proof; though some think this is not to be understood of whoredom or adultery, but of her ill usage of him, and departure from him. The Targum is, she despised him; so Kimchi and Ben Gersom interpret it of her declining and turning aside from him, and returning to her father's house, as follows: and indeed, had she been guilty of such a crime, one would think he would never have sought after her to reconcile her, and take her again, since she not only deserved to be put away, but to be put to death according to the law of God: AND WENT AWAY FROM HIM TO HER FATHER'S HOUSE TO BETHLEHEMJUDAH; where she was received, as she knew she should, having a pare...

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

FOUR WHOLE MONTHS. Hebrew "days, four months", so some think. "a year and four months"....

_played the harlot against him_ The text is open to suspicion. LXX. cod. A reads _was angry with him_; this suits the context, which implies a quarrel, but not unfaithfulness, on the woman's part; she left him in anger and returned to her father's house, whither the Levite followed to pacify her (Judges 19:3 f.). How are we to account for the reading of the text? Moore ingeniously suggests that by the transposition of two letters _she was angry_(_te"ĕnaph_) might have become -she committed adultery" (_tin'aph_), which was altered by the Jews to -played the harlot," on the ground that only a wedded wife could be said to commit adultery. It is simpler to suppose that the original _she was angry_was deliberately altered under a misconception of the relationship. _the space of four months_ lit. _days, four months; days_sometimes has the specific sense of a y

AND HIS CONCUBINE PLAYED THE WHORE AGAINST HIM— The Chaldee renders this, _she despised him,_ &c. the LXX, _she separated herself from him,_ with which Josephus agrees. It is probable, that this is the true reading; for one can hardly imagine, that otherwise her husband would have made such haste to follow, and obtain a reconciliation with her....