Judges 19:22

_NOW AS THEY WERE MAKING THEIR HEARTS MERRY, BEHOLD, THE MEN OF THE CITY, CERTAIN SONS OF BELIAL, BESET THE HOUSE ROUND ABOUT, AND BEAT AT THE DOOR, AND SPAKE TO THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE, THE OLD MAN, SAYING, BRING FORTH THE MAN THAT CAME INTO THINE HOUSE, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM._ Certain sons of Belial, beset the house. The narrative of the horrid outrage that was committed, of the proposal of the old man, the unfeeling, careless, and in many respects inexplicable conduct of the Levite toward his wife, disclose a state of morality that would have appeared incredible, did it not rest on the testimony of the sacred historian. Both the one and the other ought to have protected the female inmates of the house, even though at the expense of their lives, or thrown themselves on God's providence. It should be noted that the guilt of such a foul outrage is not fastened on the general population o...

Verse Judges 19:22. _SONS OF BELIAL_] Profligate fellows. Deuteronomy 13:13. _THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM._] See Genesis 19:5. These were genuine sodomites as to their practice; sons of Belial, rascals and miscreants of the deepest dye; worse than brutes, being a compound of beast and devil inseparably blended....

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 ...

NOW AS THEY WERE MAKING THEIR HEARTS MERRY,.... With a glass of wine after supper, and conversing together in a cheerful manner about their country and friends: BEHOLD, THE MEN OF THE CITY, CERTAIN SONS OF BELIAL; very wicked, lawless, ungovernable, worthless, and unprofitable creatures, men under the influence of Satan, and their own lusts: BESET THE HOUSE ROUND ABOUT: that none might escape out of it, especially the Levite, his wife and servant: AND BEAT AT THE DOOR; to get entrance, either by those within opening to them, or by breaking it open: AND SPAKE TO THE MASTER OF THE HOUSE, THE OLD MAN; who, upon this noise and clamour made, came to the door, to inquire what was the meaning of all this: to whom they replied, saying, BRING FORTH THE MAN THAT CAME INTO THY HOUSE, THAT WE MAY KNOW HIM; not what manner of person he was, of what country and profession, whither he was goi

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

SONS OF BELIAL. worthless scoundrels, sons of the devil. DOOR. Like Sodom (Genesis 19:4),. sign of the moral corruption which follows apostasy and accompanies idolatry....

_sons of Belial_ Marg. _sons of worthlessness_, as in Judges 20:13; Deuteronomy 13:13; 1 Samuel 25:17; 1 Samuel 25:25 etc., taking Belial (_belîy-ya-al_) as compounded of _belî = not_and _ya-al_=? _profit_, though a noun _ya-al_does not occur; _worthlessness_is not strong enough: the expression denotes low-minded, unprincipled characters, _vile scoundrels_(Moore), and this is how the LXX understands it. But a different interpretation is given in some ancient versions; Theodotion here and the LXX. cod. A in J

BEHOLD, THE MEN OF THE CITY, &C.— As many circumstances of this horrid affair are very similar to those in Genesis 19., we refer to the comment on that place....

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