The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Concubine” it comes from the Hebrew Word “pilegesh” which means “concubine.”
A Levite’s journey home turns into one of the most horrifying accounts in the entire Bible. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Judges 19.
A Levite living in Mount Ephraim takes a concubine, “pilegesh” in Hebrew, who leaves him and returns to her father’s house in Bethlehemjudah. After some time, the Levite travels there to bring her back, and her father delays their departure repeatedly with generous hospitality, until they finally leave late in the day, arriving near Gibeah, a city belonging to the tribe of Benjamin, as night falls.
An old man traveling home from his fields finds them sitting in the city square, since no one else offers them lodging, and generously takes them into his own house. That night, wicked men of the city surround the house, demanding the old man send out his male guest so they can abuse him. The old man refuses to hand over his guest, offering his own daughter and the Levite’s concubine instead, and the men seize the concubine, abusing her viciously throughout the night until she collapses at the doorstep by morning, and the Levite finds her dead when he opens the door to leave.
In horror and grief, the Levite takes her body home, and in a shocking act meant to alert all Israel to this atrocity, cuts her into twelve pieces, sending one piece to each of Israel’s tribes, declaring that nothing like this has happened since Israel came out of Egypt, and calling the entire nation to consider it carefully and speak their minds about what should be done.
This deeply disturbing account marks perhaps the darkest low point in the entire book of Judges, a vivid picture of just how far Israel’s moral fabric had unraveled during this lawless era. It sets in motion the devastating civil war that follows, showing where a nation drifts when everyone genuinely does whatever seems right in their own eyes.
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