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Judges 19:1-30 King James Version with Strong's Concordance (STRONG)

1 And it came to pass in those days, H3117 when there was no king H4428 in Israel, H3478 that there was a certain H376 Levite H3881 sojourning H1481 on the side H3411 of mount H2022 Ephraim, H669 who took H3947 to him a concubine H802 H6370 out of Bethlehemjudah. H1035 H3063

2 And his concubine H6370 played the whore H2181 against him, and went away H3212 from him unto her father's H1 house H1004 to Bethlehemjudah, H1035 H3063 and was there four H702 whole months. H2320 H3117

3 And her husband H376 arose, H6965 and went H3212 after H310 her, to speak H1696 friendly H3820 unto her, and to bring her again, H7725 having his servant H5288 with him, and a couple H6776 of asses: H2543 and she brought H935 him into her father's H1 house: H1004 and when the father H1 of the damsel H5291 saw H7200 him, he rejoiced H8055 to meet H7125 him.

4 And his father in law, H2859 the damsel's H5291 father, H1 retained H2388 him; and he abode H3427 with him three H7969 days: H3117 so they did eat H398 and drink, H8354 and lodged H3885 there.

5 And it came to pass on the fourth H7243 day, H3117 when they arose early H7925 in the morning, H1242 that he rose up H6965 to depart: H3212 and the damsel's H5291 father H1 said H559 unto his son in law, H2860 Comfort H5582 thine heart H3820 with a morsel H6595 of bread, H3899 and afterward H310 go your way. H3212

6 And they sat down, H3427 and did eat H398 and drink H8354 both H8147 of them together: H3162 for the damsel's H5291 father H1 had said H559 unto the man, H376 Be content, H2974 I pray thee, and tarry all night, H3885 and let thine heart H3820 be merry. H3190

7 And when the man H376 rose up H6965 to depart, H3212 his father in law H2859 urged H6484 him: therefore he lodged H3885 there again. H7725

8 And he arose early H7925 in the morning H1242 on the fifth H2549 day H3117 to depart: H3212 and the damsel's H5291 father H1 said, H559 Comfort H5582 thine heart, H3824 I pray thee. And they tarried H4102 until afternoon, H3117 H5186 and they did eat H398 both H8147 of them.

9 And when the man H376 rose up H6965 to depart, H3212 he, and his concubine, H6370 and his servant, H5288 his father in law, H2859 the damsel's H5291 father, H1 said H559 unto him, Behold, now the day H3117 draweth H7503 toward evening, H6150 I pray you tarry all night: H3885 behold, the day H3117 groweth to an end, H2583 lodge H3885 here, that thine heart H3824 may be merry; H3190 and to morrow H4279 get you early H7925 on your way, H1870 that thou mayest go H1980 home. H168

10 But the man H376 would H14 not tarry that night, H3885 but he rose up H6965 and departed, H3212 and came H935 over against H5227 Jebus, H2982 which is Jerusalem; H3389 and there were with him two H6776 asses H2543 saddled, H2280 his concubine H6370 also was with him.

11 And when they were by Jebus, H2982 the day H3117 was far H3966 spent; H7286 and the servant H5288 said H559 unto his master, H113 Come, H3212 I pray thee, and let us turn in H5493 into this city H5892 of the Jebusites, H2983 and lodge H3885 in it.

12 And his master H113 said H559 unto him, We will not turn aside H5493 hither into the city H5892 of a stranger, H5237 that is not of the children H1121 of Israel; H3478 we will pass over H5674 to Gibeah. H1390

13 And he said H559 unto his servant, H5288 Come, H3212 and let us draw near H7126 to one H259 of these places H4725 to lodge all night, H3885 in Gibeah, H1390 or in Ramah. H7414

14 And they passed on H5674 and went their way; H3212 and the sun H8121 went down H935 upon them when they were by H681 Gibeah, H1390 which belongeth to Benjamin. H1144

15 And they turned aside H5493 thither, to go in H935 and to lodge H3885 in Gibeah: H1390 and when he went in, H935 he sat him down H3427 in a street H7339 of the city: H5892 for there was no man H376 that took H622 them into his house H1004 to lodging. H3885

16 And, behold, there came H935 an old H2205 man H376 from his work H4639 out of the field H7704 at even, H6153 which was also H376 of mount H2022 Ephraim; H669 and he sojourned H1481 in Gibeah: H1390 but the men H582 of the place H4725 were Benjamites. H1145

17 And when he had lifted up H5375 his eyes, H5869 he saw H7200 a wayfaring H732 man H376 in the street H7339 of the city: H5892 and the old H2205 man H376 said, H559 Whither goest H3212 thou? and whence H370 comest H935 thou?

18 And he said H559 unto him, We are passing H5674 from Bethlehemjudah H1035 H3063 toward the side H3411 of mount H2022 Ephraim; H669 from thence am I: and I went H3212 to Bethlehemjudah, H1035 H3063 but I am now going H1980 to the house H1004 of the LORD; H3068 and there is no man H376 that receiveth H622 me to house. H1004

19 Yet there is H3426 both straw H8401 and provender H4554 for our asses; H2543 and there is bread H3899 and wine H3196 also for me, and for thy handmaid, H519 and for the young man H5288 which is with thy servants: H5650 there is no want H4270 of any thing. H1697

20 And the old H2205 man H376 said, H559 Peace H7965 be with thee; howsoever H7535 let all thy wants H4270 lie upon me; only lodge H3885 not in the street. H7339

21 So he brought H935 him into his house, H1004 and gave provender H1101 unto the asses: H2543 and they washed H7364 their feet, H7272 and did eat H398 and drink. H8354

22 Now as they were making their hearts H3820 merry, H3190 behold, the men H582 of the city, H5892 certain H582 sons H1121 of Belial, H1100 beset H5437 the house H1004 round about, H5437 and beat H1849 at the door, H1817 and spake H559 to the master H1167 of the house, H1004 the old H2205 man, H376 saying, H559 Bring forth H3318 the man H376 that came H935 into thine house, H1004 that we may know H3045 him.

23 And the man, H376 the master H1167 of the house, H1004 went out H3318 unto them, and said H559 unto them, Nay, H408 my brethren, H251 nay, I pray you, do not so wickedly; H7489 seeing H310 that this man H376 is come H935 into mine house, H1004 do H6213 not this folly. H5039

24 Behold, here is my daughter H1323 a maiden, H1330 and his concubine; H6370 them I will bring out H3318 now, and humble H6031 ye them, and do H6213 with them what seemeth H5869 good H2896 unto you: but unto this man H376 do H6213 not so H2063 vile H5039 a thing. H1697

25 But the men H582 would H14 not hearken H8085 to him: so the man H376 took H2388 his concubine, H6370 and brought H3318 her forth H2351 unto them; and they knew H3045 her, and abused H5953 her all the night H3915 until the morning: H1242 and when the day H7837 began to spring, H5927 they let her go. H7971

26 Then came H935 the woman H802 in the dawning H6437 of the day, H1242 and fell down H5307 at the door H6607 of the man's H376 house H1004 where her lord H113 was, till it was light. H216

27 And her lord H113 rose up H6965 in the morning, H1242 and opened H6605 the doors H1817 of the house, H1004 and went out H3318 to go H3212 his way: H1870 and, behold, the woman H802 his concubine H6370 was fallen down H5307 at the door H6607 of the house, H1004 and her hands H3027 were upon the threshold. H5592

28 And he said H559 unto her, Up, H6965 and let us be going. H3212 But none answered. H6030 Then the man H376 took H3947 her up upon an ass, H2543 and the man H376 rose up, H6965 and gat H3212 him unto his place. H4725

29 And when he was come H935 into his house, H1004 he took H3947 a knife, H3979 and laid hold H2388 on his concubine, H6370 and divided H5408 her, together with her bones, H6106 into twelve H8147 H6240 pieces, H5409 and sent H7971 her into all the coasts H1366 of Israel. H3478

30 And it was so, H1961 that all that saw H7200 it said, H559 There was no such deed H2063 done nor seen H7200 from the day H3117 that the children H1121 of Israel H3478 came up H5927 out of the land H776 of Egypt H4714 unto this day: H3117 consider H7760 of it, take advice, H5779 and speak H1696 your minds.

Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on Judges 19

Commentary on Judges 19 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary


Introduction

War of the Congregation with the Tribe of Benjamin on Account of the Crime at Gibeah - Judges 19-20

This account belongs to the times immediately following the death of Joshua, as we may see form the fact that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the contemporary of Joshua, was high priest at that time (Judges 20:28). In Judg 19 we have an account of the infamous crime committed by the inhabitants of Gibeah, which occasioned the war; in Judg 20 the war itself; and in Judg 21 an account of what was afterwards done by the congregation to preserve the tribe of Benjamin, which was almost annihilated by the war.


Verse 1-2

Infamous Crime of the Inhabitants of Gibeah. - Judges 19:1-14. At the time when there was no king in Israel, a Levite, who sojourned (i.e., lived outside a Levitical town) in the more remote parts of the mountains of Ephraim, took to himself a concubine out of Bethlehem in Judah, who proved unfaithful to him, and then returned to her father's house. הר־אפרים ירכּתי , the hinder or outermost parts of the mountains of Ephraim, are the northern extremity of these mountains; according to Judges 19:18, probably the neighbourhood of Shiloh. עליו תּזנה , “ she played the harlot out beyond him, ” i.e., was unfaithful to her husband, and then went away from him, ” back to her father's house.


Verse 3-4

Some time afterwards, namely at the end of four months ( הדשׁים ארבּעה is in apposition to ימים , and defines more precisely the ימים , or days), her husband went after her, “ to speak to her to the heart, ” i.e., to talk to her in a friendly manner (see Genesis 34:3), and to reconcile her to himself again, so that she might return; taking with him his attendant and a couple of asses, for himself and his wife to ride upon. The suffix attached to להשׁיבו refers to לבּה , “to bring back her heart,” to turn her to himself again. The Keri השׁיבהּ is a needless conjecture. “ And she brought him into her father's house, and her father received his son-in-law with joy, and constrained him ( יהזק־בּו , lit . held him fast) to remain there three days. ” It is evident from this that the Levite had succeeded in reconciling his wife.


Verse 5-6

Also on the fourth day, when he was about to depart in the morning, the Levite yielded to the persuasion of his father-in-law, that he would first of all strengthen his heart again with a bit of bread ( לב סעד as in Genesis 18:5; the imperative form with is unusual); and then afterwards, whilst they were eating and drinking, he consented to stay another night.


Verse 7

When he rose up to go, his father-in-law pressed him; then he turned back ( ויּשׁב is quite in place, and is not to be altered into ויּשׁב , according to the lxx and one Heb. Cod.), and remained there for the night.


Verse 8

And even in the morning of the fifth day he suffered himself to be induced to remain till the afternoon. התמהמהוּ is an imperative, “Tarry till the day turns,” i.e., till mid-day is past.


Verse 9-10

When at length he rose up, with his concubine and his attendant, to go away, the father entreated his daughter once more: “ Behold the day has slackened to become evening, spend the night here! Behold the declining of the day, spend the night here, ” etc. חנות inf. of חנה , to bend, incline. The interchange of the plural and singular may be explained from the simple fact that the Levite was about to depart with his wife and attendant, but that their remaining or departing depended upon the decision of the man alone. But the Levite did not consent to remain any longer, but set out upon the road, and came with his companions to before Jebus, i.e., Jerusalem, which is only two hours from Bethlehem (compare Rob . Pal. ii. 375 and 379). עד־נכח , to before Jebus, for the road from Bethlehem to Shiloh went past Jerusalem.


Verses 11-13

But as the day had gone far down when they were by Jebus ( רד , third pers . perf ., either of ירד with י dropped like תּתּה in 2 Samuel 22:41 for נתתּה , or from רדד in the sense of ירד ), the attendant said to his master, “ Come, let us turn aside into this Jebusite city, and pass the night in it .” But his master was unwilling to enter a city of the foreigners ( נכרי( sre is a genitive), where there were none of the sons of Israel, and would pass over to Gibeah. “ Come ( לך = לכה , Numbers 23:13), we will draw near to one of the places (which he immediately names), and pass the night in Gibeah or Ramah .” These two towns, the present Jeba and er Râm , were not a full hour's journey apart, and stood opposite to one another, only about two and a half or three hours from Jerusalem (see at Joshua 18:25, Joshua 18:28).


Verse 14

Then they went forward, and the sun went down upon them as they were near (at) Gibeah of Benjamin.


Verses 15-30

And they turned aside thither to pass the night in Gibeah; and he (the Levite) remained in the market-place of the town, as no one received them into his house to pass the night.

Judges 19:16-19

Behold, there came an old man from the field, who was of the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt as a stranger in Gibeah, the inhabitants of which were Benjaminites (as is observed here, as a preliminary introduction to the account which follows). When he saw the traveller in the market-place of the town, he asked him whither he was going and whence he came; and when he had heard the particulars concerning his descent and his journey, he received him into his house. ואת־בּית י הלך אני (Judges 19:18), “ and I walk at the house of Jehovah, and no one receives me into his house ” ( Seb. Schm ., etc.); not “I am going to the house of Jehovah” ( Ros., Berth ., etc.), for את הלך does not signify to go to a place, for which the simple accusative is used either with or without ה local. It either means “to go through a place” (Deuteronomy 1:19, etc.), or “to go with a person,” or, when applied to things, “to go about with anything” (see Job 31:5, and Ges . Thes. p. 378). Moreover, in this instance the Levite was not going to the house of Jehovah (i.e., the tabernacle), but, as he expressly told the old man, from Bethlehem to the outermost sides of the mountains of Ephraim. The words in question explain the reason why he was staying in the market-place. Because he served at the house of Jehovah, no one in Gibeah would receive him into his house,

(Note: As Seb. Schmidt correctly observes, “the argument is taken from the indignity shown him: the Lord thinks me worthy to minister to Him, as a Levite, in His house, and there is not one of the people of the Lord who thinks me worthy to receive his hospitality.”)

although, as he adds in Judges 19:19, he had everything with him that was requisite for his wants. “ We have both straw and fodder for our asses, and bread and wine for me and thy maid, and for the young man with thy servants. No want of anything at all, ” so as to cause him to be burdensome to his host. By the words “thy maid” and “thy servants” he means himself and his concubine, describing himself and his wife, according to the obsequious style of the East in olden times, as servants of the man from whom he was expecting a welcome.

Judges 19:20

The old man replied, “Peace to thee,” assuring him of a welcome by this style of greeting; “ only all thy wants upon me, ” i.e., let me provide for them. Thus the friendly host declined the offer made by his guest to provide for himself. “ Only do not pass the night in the market-place.

Judges 19:21

He then took him into his house, mixed fodder for his asses ( יבול from בּלל , a denom . verb from בּליל , to make a mixture, to give fodder to the beasts), and waited upon his guest with washing of feet, food, and drink (see Genesis 18:4., Judges 19:2).

Judges 19:22

Whilst they were enjoying themselves, some worthless men of the city surrounded the house, knocking continuously at the door ( התדּפּק , a form indicative of gradual increase), and demanding of the master of the house that he would bring out the man who had entered his house, that they might know him,-the very same demand that the Sodomites had made of Lot (Genesis 19:6.). The construct state בני־בליּעל אנשׁי is used instead of בּני־בל אנשׁים (Deuteronomy 13:14, etc.), because בליעל בני is regarded as one idea: people of worthless fellows. Other cases of the same kind are given by Ewald , Lehrb. §289, c .

Judges 19:23-24

The old man sought, as Lot had done, to defend his guests from such a shameful crime by appealing to the sacred rights of hospitality, and by giving up his own virgin daughter and the concubine of his guest (see the remarks on Genesis 19:7-8). נבלה , folly , used to denote shameful licentiousness and whoredom, as in Genesis 34:7 and Deuteronomy 22:21. אותם ענּוּ , “humble them.” The masculine is used in אותם and להם as the more general gender, instead of the more definite feminine, as in Genesis 39:9; Exodus 1:21, etc.

Judges 19:25

But as the people would not listen to this proposal, the man (no doubt the master of the house, according to Judges 19:24) took his (the guest's) concubine (of course with the consent of his guest) and led her out to them, and they abused her the whole night. It is not stated how it was that they were satisfied with this; probably because they felt too weak to enforce their demand. בּ התעלּל , to exercise his power or wantonness upon a person (see Exodus 10:2).

Judges 19:26

When the morning drew on (i.e., at the first dawn of day), the woman fell down before the door of the house in which אדוניה , “her lord,” i.e., her husband, was, and lay there till it was light, i.e., till sunrise.

Judges 19:27-28

There her husband found her, when he opened the house-door to go his way (having given up all thought of receiving her back again from the barbarous crowd), “ lying before the house-door, and her hands upon the threshold ” (i.e., with outstretched arms), and giving no answer to his word, having died, that is to say, in consequence of the ill-treatment of the night. He then took the corpse upon his ass to carry it to his place, i.e., to his home.

Judges 19:29-30

As soon as he arrived there, he cut up the body, according to its bones (as they cut slaughtered animals in pieces: see at Leviticus 1:6), into twelve pieces, and sent them (the corpse in its pieces) into the whole of the territory of Israel, i.e., to all the twelve tribes, in the hope that every one who saw it would say: No such thing has happened or been seen since the coming up of Israel out of Egypt until this day. Give ye heed to it ( שׁימוּ for לב שׂימוּ ); make up your minds and say on, i.e., decide how this unparalleled wickedness is to be punished. Sending the dissected pieces of the corpse to the tribes was a symbolical act, by which the crime committed upon the murdered woman was placed before the eyes of the whole nation, to summon it to punish the crime, and was naturally associated with a verbal explanation of the matter by the bearer of the pieces. See the analogous proceeding on the part of Saul (1 Samuel 11:7), and the Scythian custom related by Lucian in Toxaris, c. 48, that whoever was unable to procure satisfaction for an injury that he had received, cut an ox in pieces and sent it round, whereupon all who were willing to help him to obtain redress took a piece, and swore that they would stand by him to the utmost of their strength. The perfects ואמר - והיה (Judges 19:30) are not used for the imperfects c. vav consec . ויּאמר - ויהי , as Hitzig supposes, but as simple perfects ( perfecta conseq .), expressing the result which the Levite expected from his conduct; and we have simply to supply לאמר before והיה , which is often omitted in lively narrative or animated conversation (compare, for example, Exodus 8:5 with Judges 7:2). The perfects are used by the historian instead of imperfects with a simple vav , which are commonly employed in clauses indicating intention, “because what he foresaw would certainly take place, floated before his mind as a thing already done” ( Rosenmüller ). The moral indignation, which the Levite expected on the part of all the tribes at such a crime as this, and their resolution to avenge it, are thereby exhibited not merely as an uncertain conjecture, but a fact that was sure to occur, and concerning which, as Judg 20 clearly shows, he had not deceived himself.