The following story from The Book of Judges is an example of how far into the darkness a people can go when they reject God's word. It can be seen as Israel's version of Sodom and Gomorrah described in The Life of Abraham.
At that time Israel had no king. Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. But she cheated on him. She left him and went back to her parents’ home in Bethlehem.
(Jdg 19:1–2).
A concubine was considered a servant girl. She was considered a wife in the legal sense of the term, but only a second-class citizen in the family. Their children would be second class in terms of the children's right to receive an inheritance from their father. God never approved of having concubines, see the comment to the
7th commandment in the The Ten Commandments. Living a life of Polygamy
lifestyle is an example of a man-made rule and isn't from God.
After she had been there for four months, her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys. She took him to her parents’ home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. His
father-in-law (the woman’s father) made him stay; so he stayed with him for several days and ate, drank and slept there. Eventually the man left and went towards Jebus (that's, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine. When they were near Jebus and the day was nearly gone, the servant told his master that he would stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night there. His master said they wouldn't go to any city whose people weren't Israelites. They should move on to
Gibeah. They should try to reach Gibeah or Ramah and spend the night in either of these places. So they went on, and the sun was setting as they approached Gibeah in Benjamin. There they stopped to spend the night. They went and sat down in the city square, but no one took them in for the night. (Jdg 19:3–15).
It was very important to show hospitality in this part of the world. Even so, no one
in this city was willing to do that. The reason was that they didn't want to take
responsible for their safety because they knew what would happen.
That evening an old man from the hill country of Ephraim who lived in Gibeah
(the inhabitants of the place were Benjamites) came in from his work in the fields. Looking and seeing the traveler in the town square, the old man asked who they were. The Levite answered who they were. He also said no one had taken him in for the night. They had both straw and fodder for their donkeys, and bread and wine for themselves; him, the woman, and the young man who was with them. They needed nothing, just shelter for the night. (Jdg 19:16–19).
The old man said that they were welcome to his house and he wanted to provide
them with what they needed. He warned them for spending the night in the square. (Jdg 19:20).
The old man knew that the city had given itself over to sexual perversion and therefore warned them to stay out in the square.
The old man took him into his house and fed his donkeys. After they had washed their feet, they were given something to eat and drink. While they were enjoying themselves, some of the evil men of the city surrounded the house. They pounded on the door and shouted to the old man who owned the house to bring out the man who had come to their house so they could have sex with him. The owner of the house came out and told them not to do this outrageous thing. He offered to them his virgin daughter and the concubine. He would bring them out to them and they could use them and do with them what they wanted. But as for the man, they shouldn't do anything so outrageous. But the men in the city wouldn't listen to him. So the Levite took his concubine and sent her out to them, and they raped her and abused her all night, and at dawn they released her. (Jdg 19:21–25).
Of course, offering his daughter and concubine was very wrong.
At dawn the woman went back to the house where her husband lived, fell down at the door and lay there until daylight. When her master got up in the morning and opened the door of the house and went out to continue on his way, his concubine lay there, slumped in the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. He told her to get up; that they had to go. But there was no answer. (Jdg 19:26–28a).
When she didn't answer, he realized she was dead.
Then the man put her on his donkey and went home. When he got home, he took a knife and cut his concubine limb by limb in twelve pieces and sent them to all the territories of Israel. All who saw it said to one another that such a thing had never been seen or done since the day the Israelites came out of Egypt. They had to do something about it. (Jdg 19:28b–30).
It was a culture in Israel to send pieces of a sacrificed animal to tribal areas of Israel when calling for war. Doing that to a human was horrible.
Then all Israel gathered together as one and assembled before the Lord. The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of God’s people, 400,000 men armed with swords. The Benjamites heard about it. The Levite
explained that he and his concubine came to Gibeah to spend the night. During the night the men from Gibeah came after him and surrounded the house with the intention of killing him. They raped his concubine and she died. The Levite then took his concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent a piece to each region of Israel’s inheritance because they had committed this outrageous act. (Jdg 20:1–6).
It's unwise to only listen to one side of a story without listening to the other side and not checking all the facts (Proverbs 18:17). The Levite said nothing that, to save his own skin, he forced his concubine out into the crowd where she was raped all night. It's a very common thing for people to magnify the sins of others while minimizing or ignoring their own.
The Levite then asked the men what they should do about it. They decided to go up to Gibeah in the order decided by drawing lots. A tenth from all the tribes of Israel would receive provisions for the army. Then, when the army arrived at Gibeah, the army was able to give them what they deserved. (Jdg 20:7–10).
They say they are going to war. The result would be a civil war in Israel. They had hitherto acted in anger without asking the Lord what to do.
So all the Israelites gathered and united as one against the city. The tribes of Israel sent messengers throughout the tribe of Benjamin asking them to hand over these wicked men in Gibeah to them so they could kill them and purge the evil from Israel. (Jdg 20:11–13a).
The Israelites didn't want to start a civil war. They asked the Benjamites to bring the guilty men over to them for punishment. But the Benjamites wouldn't listen to them. They gathered at Gibeah to fight against the Israelites. (Jdg 20:13b–14).
The Benjamites should instead have started an investigation to find out what had really happened. If it resulted in these men being guilty, they should have handed
them over to the Israelites for punishment or punished them themselves. Instead, they decided to fight for their right to live their lives the way they wanted.
The Benjamites immediately mobilized 26,000 swordsmen from their cities, in addition to 700 able young men from those who lived in Gibeah. Israel, besides
Benjamin, mustered 400,000 men of the sword, all ready for battle. The Israelites inquired God which of them would go up first to fight against the Benjamites. The Lord answered that Judah should go first. The next morning the Israelites got up and camped near Gibeah. The Israelites went out to fight the Benjamites and took up battle positions against them at Gibeah. The Benjamites came out of Gibeah and killed 22,000 Israelites on the battlefield that day. But the Israelites encouraged each other and again took their positions where they had placed themselves on the first day. The Israelites went up and wept before the Lord until evening, and they inquired the Lord whether they should go up again to fight against the Benjamites. The Lord answered that they would go up against them. Then the Israelites approached Benjamin on the second day. This time, when the Benjamites came out of Gibeah to stand against them, they cut down another
18,000 Israelites, all armed with swords. (Jdg 20:15–25).
Note that the Lord hadn't promised them victory. Even the Israelites had gone away from God and didn't follow him as they should. Their response to this sin was
somewhat hypocritical and inconsistent. They hadn't acted before when they should have acted, see for example Man-Made Religion, but decided to act this time.
Then all the Israelites, the whole army, sat down and wept before the Lord. They fasted that day until evening and offered Burnt Offerings and Peace Offerings to the Lord. And the Israelites inquired the Lord. At that time the ark of the covenant of God was there, and Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, ministered before it. They asked whether they should go up again to fight the Benjamites or not.
The Lord replied that they would go and this time he would give the
Benjamites into their hands. (Jdg 20:26–28).
This time the Israelites were more sincere in their hearts, they fasted and offered sacrifices. They understood that they must come before the Lord and examine their own hearts. Now came the promise of victory.
Then Israel laid an ambush around Gibeah. They went up against the Benjamites on the third day and stood against Gibeah as they had done before. The Benjamites
came out to meet them and were drawn away from the city. They began to inflict casualties to the Israelites as before, so that about 30 men fell in the open field and on the roads. Then 10,000 of Israel’s talented young men made a frontal attack on Gibeah. The Lord defeated Benjamin before Israel, and that day the Israelites struck down 25,100 Benjamites, all armed with swords. Those who had been in ambush suddenly rushed into Gibeah, spread out, and put the whole city to the sword. The Israelites had arranged the ambush to send up a great cloud of smoke from the city, and then the Israelites would counterattack. But when the pillar of smoke began to rise from the city, the Benjamites turned and saw the whole city go up in smoke. Then the Israelites counterattacked, and the Benjamites were terrified because they realized that disaster had come on them. So they fled before the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness, but they couldn't escape the battle. And the Israelites who came out of the cities cut them down. On that day 25,000
Benjamite swordsmen fell, all valiant fighters. But 600 of them turned and fled into the wilderness to a rock, where they remained for four months. The men of Israel went back to Benjamin and put all the cities to the sword, also the animals and everything else they found. All the cities they came across they set on fire. (Jdg 20:29–48).
No women and no children were spared. Only 600 men remained of the Benjamites.
The men of Israel had taken an oath that not one of them would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite. They now understood that this meant that the tribe of Benjamin would be wiped out, since these remaining Benjamites then only could marry women from other nations, meaning that they would be assimilated into those nations. They wanted to provide wives from Israel to these Benjamites
and therefore tried to find a way out from this oath. They had taken another oath
that anyone who failed to assemble before the Lord for the battle was to be put to death. They discovered that no one from Jabesh Gilead had come to the camp for the assembly. So they sent 12,000 fighting men with instructions to go to Jabesh Gilead and put to the sword those living there including the women and children, except for the women who were virgins. They found 400 young women who had never slept with a man, and they took them to the camp at Shiloh. Then the whole assembly sent an offer of peace to the 600 remaining Benjamites. They returned and were given the women of Jabesh Gilead who had been spared. But there weren't enough for all of them. There was an annual festival of the Lord in Shiloh. They instructed the Benjamites to go and hide in the vineyards and watch. When the young women of Shiloh came out to join in the dancing, they should rush from the vineyards, and each of them seize one of them to be their wives. Then they should return to the land of Benjamin. The Israelites would then not be guilty of breaking the first oath since they didn't give their daughters to them, they were taken by the Benjamites. This was also what the Benjamites did. (Jdg 21:1–24).
It wasn't wise at all to take those two oaths (Proverbs 20:25, Num 30:2
(3 in some translations)). When they realized that, they came up with their own rules to circumvent the first oath. We shouldn't take an oath at all
(Mat 5:33–37, James 5:12).
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes. (Jdg 21:25)
What an Israelite proclaimed was right for him irrespective of what other Israelites thought was right, or even irrespective of what is right in the word of God. This is also the case for many people in our time. We make our own rules.
See also The Book of Judges.
