Judges 19:9

_AND WHEN THE MAN ROSE UP TO DEPART, HE, AND HIS CONCUBINE, AND HIS SERVANT, HIS FATHER IN LAW, THE DAMSEL'S FATHER, SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, NOW THE DAY DRAWETH TOWARD EVENING, I PRAY YOU TARRY ALL NIGHT: BEHOLD, THE DAY GROWETH TO AN END, LODGE HERE, THAT THINE HEART MAY BE MERRY; AND TO MORROW GET YOU EARLY ON YOUR WAY, THAT THOU MAYEST GO HOME._ The day draweth toward evening - Hebrew, 'the pitching time of day.' Travellers who set out at day-break usually halt about the middle of the afternoon the first evening, to enjoy rest and refreshment. It was then too late a time to commence a journey. But duty, perhaps, obliged the Levite to indulge no further delay....

Verse Judges 19:9. _THE DAY GROWETH TO AN END_] חנות היום _chanoth haiyom_, "the day is about to pitch its tent;" that is, it was near the time in which travellers ordinarily pitched their tents, to take up their lodging for the night....

This is a perfect picture of the manners of the time. It is probable that the father showed more than usual hospitality, in order to ensure the kind treatment of his daughter by her husband. These particulars are given to account for their journey running so far into the evening, which was the immediate cause of the horrible catastrophe which followed....

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 WHEN THE MAN ROSE UP TO DEPART, HE AND HIS CONCUBINE, AND HIS SERVANT,.... Rose up from table, having comfortably refreshed themselves: HIS FATHER IN LAW, THE DAMSEL'S FATHER, SAID UNTO HIM, BEHOLD, NOW THE DAY DRAWETH TOWARDS EVENING; or is "remiss", or "weak" n; that is, the heat, light, and strength of the sun abated, and became weaker and more remiss, as it does the more it declines, and is nearer setting: I PRAY YOU TARRY ALL NIGHT; suggesting, it was a very improper time to set out in on a journey: BEHOLD, THE DAY GROWETH TO AN END; or "behold, it is the encampment of the day" o, when the day or sun seems to be pitching its tent, and going to rest; or it being the time when an army on the march stops and pitches their tents, in order to continue all night; or when men go to their tents and habitations, and lie down and take their rest: LODGE HERE, THAT THINE HEART MAY BE ME...

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

_Behold, now the day draweth toward evening … behold, the day groweth to an end_ lit. _the day sinks to become evening … the camping-time_(_?) of the day_. The doubling of phrases points to a conflation of sources, while the phrases themselves are too high-flown for a prose narrative. Some mss. of the LXX read _Behold, the day is declined_(Judges 19:8) _toward evening, lodge thou here to-day also_. Probably this is nearer to the original....

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