Texts of Terror: A Concubine Dismembered

An unnamed woman, a concubine of a Levite, was betrayed, raped, tortured, murdered, and dismembered by a priest. The extravagance of violence in this story highlights how male power and brutality can lead to female helplessness, abuse, and even annihilation. (Judges 19)

Transcript

Today’s text of terror is about a young woman—a girl, as the Bible identifies her— whose story is almost too horrific to believe.

I give you a warning that there is rape, sexual brutality, death, and desecration in this story. It is not for young ears. Nor is it for the faint of heart.

It’s a lengthy story, and we will take the time to read the whole chapter to pay honor to this young woman and bear witness to her life, abuse, and death. I will make some comments along the way to provide explanations and clarification and to make observations.

Judges 19 (New English Translation)

1 In those days, Israel had no king. There was a Levite living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

We are introduced to a man who is a Levite, which means he is from the Jewish tribe that God appointed to be priests to serve God and to teach His people to obey God’s laws.

We are also introduced to the Levite’s concubine. As far as historians can tell, a concubine was a legally married woman; however, she is a second-class wife with fewer protections and much less honor than a full wife.

2 However, she got angry at him and went home to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah.

Some Bible translations, such as the New International Version, translate this verse as “But she was unfaithful to him.” The root word is not clear, hence the divergent translations. However, as the rest of the story unfolds, it seems more plausible that she found her husband’s behaviors distasteful and was angry with him.

When she had been there four months, 3 her husband came after her, hoping he could convince her to return. He brought with him his servant and a pair of donkeys.

When she brought him into her father’s house and the girl’s father saw him, he greeted him warmly. 4 His father-in-law, the girl’s father, persuaded him to stay with him for three days, and they ate and drank together, and spent the night there.

5 On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have a bite to eat for some energy, then you can go.” 6 So the two of them sat down and had a meal together. Then the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not stay another night and have a good time?” 7 When the man got ready to leave, his father-in-law convinced him to stay another night.

This was hospitality at its best, and the Levite enjoyed it!

8 He woke up early in the morning on the fifth day so he could leave, but the girl’s father said, “Get some energy! Wait until later in the day to leave.” So they ate a meal together. 9 When the man got ready to leave with his concubine and his servant, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look! The day is almost over. Stay another night! Since the day is over, stay another night here and have a good time. You can get up early tomorrow and start your trip home.”

10 But the man did not want to stay another night. He left and traveled as far as Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). He had with him a pair of saddled donkeys and his concubine.

11 When they got near Jebus, it was getting quite late and the servant said to his master, “Come on, let’s stop at this Jebusite city and spend the night in it.” 12 But his master said to him, “We should not stop at a foreign city where non-Israelites live. We will travel on to Gibeah.” 13 He said to his servant, “Come on, we will go into one of the other towns and spend the night in Gibeah or Ramah.”

The servant must have been very concerned about the situation or he would not have spoken up. But once again the Levite would not yield to another’s good advice.

14 So they traveled on, and the sun went down when they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin. 15 They stopped there and decided to spend the night in Gibeah. They came into the city and sat down in the town square, but no one invited them to spend the night.

There were no hotels then, so strangers traveling through a town were totally dependent upon the hospitality of the townspeople. Hospitality was such a high value in Middle Eastern culture, that travelers could expect it. To not extend hospitality would be a shameful thing.

16 But then an old man passed by, returning at the end of the day from his work in the field. The man was from the Ephraimite hill country; he was living temporarily in Gibeah. (The residents of the town were Benjaminites.) 17 When he looked up and saw the traveler in the town square, the old man said, “Where are you heading? Where do you come from?”

18 The Levite said to him, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. That’s where I’m from. I had business in Bethlehem in Judah, but now I’m heading home. But no one has invited me into their home. 19 We have enough straw and grain for our donkeys, and there is enough food and wine for me, your female servant, and the young man who is with your servants. We lack nothing.”

20 The old man said, “Everything is just fine. I will take care of all your needs. But don’t spend the night in the town square.” 21 So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. They washed their feet and had a meal.

22 They were having a good time, when suddenly some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and kept beating on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can take carnal knowledge of him.”

Although they did not offer hospitality to the Levite, the men of the town had surely seen him in the square and watched him enter the old man’s house. Their plan was to get the Levite and have sex with him.

23 The man who owned the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers! Don’t do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Don’t do such a disgraceful thing! 24 Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine. I will send them out and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like. But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

It is unclear whether the host is objecting to the Benjaminites violating the ethic of hospitality or to their intentions to homosexual rape. What is clear is the host’s disregard for the safety and welfare of the women in his house! He would offer them up to be sexually violated so that his male guest can be protected. Hospitality was more important than his daughter’s sexual purity. Preventing the rape of a man was more important than preventing the rape of women.

25 The men refused to listen to him, so the Levite grabbed his concubine and made her go outside.

He forcefully seized her and gave her over to the evil men of Gibeah. He knew what they were going to do to her, because it was the very thing that he was saving himself from!

They raped her and abused her all night long until morning. They let her go at dawn. 26 The woman arrived back at daybreak and was sprawled out on the doorstep of the house where her master was staying until it became light.

Somehow she was able to make it back to the old man’s house. We are not told why she didn’t go inside. We just see her there “sprawled out on the doorstep” with her hand clutching the threshold as though she was afraid to be dragged away again. The concubine is now identified as a woman rather than a girl as earlier in the narrative. The Levite is now identified as her master, the man who commands her—not her husband, the man who came to woo her back to himself.

27 When her master got up in the morning, opened the doors of the house, and went outside to start on his journey, there was the woman, his concubine, sprawled out on the doorstep of the house with her hands on the threshold.

How was he able to go to bed and sleep that night knowing what the men of Gibeah were doing to his concubine? How could he just resume his journey as though nothing had happened? Did he even have a thought to check up on her? Would he have just gone home without another thought for his concubine if she hadn’t found her way back to the old man’s house?

28 He said to her, “Get up, let’s leave.” But there was no response. He put her on the donkey and went home.

How insensitive and callous are his words. Did he really expect her to stand up by herself and start walking after what she had been through? As it was in the dark of the night, so it was in bright light of morning: The Levite had no concern for his concubine’s wellbeing.

The narrator does not tell us whether the concubine is dead or alive. He merely reported that “there was no response” from her. The Levite did not seem to deem it necessary to either get her the medical care she needed or to preserve the dignity of her corpse.

29 When he got home, he took a knife, grasped his concubine, and carved her up into twelve pieces. Then he sent the pieces throughout Israel.

Once again, he took hold of her—seized her to do her harm. If she was still alive when he put her on his donkey, it is hoped that she was now dead before he cut her up. Or was it that this Levite killed her. In either case, instead of giving her proper burial rites, he desecrated her body and sent the various parts of her body to the 12 tribes of Israel.

30 Everyone who saw the sight said, “Nothing like this has happened or been witnessed during the entire time since the Israelites left the land of Egypt! Take careful note of it! Discuss it and speak!”

No matter how many times I’ve read this chapter, the horror of what this young woman experienced has not diminished. I have shed many tears of pain, sorrow, and despair. But most of all, I have been filled with indignation and burning anger against the Levite, the old man, and the men of Gibeah. They exemplify what Elaine Heath described in her article for the Priscilla Papers journal entitled “The Levite’s Concubine.” She concluded,

“At its core, violence against women is the logical conclusion of patriarchy. Patriarchy is an ideology, a system of beliefs, values, and behaviors that systematically privileges men at the expense of women. It assumes that men are inherently superior to women.”

What do I do with that much frustration and anger? What do you do? Today, in our communities, our country, and all around the world, we still see the tyranny of patriarchy, where the lives of women and children are seen and treated as less valuable than men’s lives and men’s honor. Domestic violence, sexual assault, sex trafficking, and murder are still very much a part of our world today!

The Levite used his concubine’s body to get revenge on the Benjaminites—he knew the Israelites would be moved to anger and take action. He was angry not for the rape and death of his concubine but for the impudent treatment he received in Gibeah. How dare they not give him hospitality? How dare they threaten to rape him? He was deeply offended!

If her rape and death moved him, why did he not demonstrate more care and compassion for her before, during, and after the horrific event? Instead, he consistently behaved as a self-centered, self-important man who had to have his way.

In Judges 20-21, we see the result of his revenge. The Levite gives this testimony, “The leaders of Gibeah attacked me and at night surrounded the house where I was staying. They wanted to kill me; instead, they abused my concubine so badly that she died.” He did not mention the threat of homosexual rape. He did not reveal his part in the rape and death of his concubine.

The men of Israel were so angry that 400,000 soldiers went up to fight the Benjaminites at Gibeah. In this civil war, more than 65,000 soldiers were killed: 25,100 Benjaminites and 40,000 from the other tribes. In addition, all the women, children, and men of Benjamin were slaughtered so that their tribe was almost wiped out! Only 600 Benjaminite men survived.

One subgroup of Israelites did not join the war, so they were completely killed off, except for 400 virgins who were spared so they could be given to the surviving Benjaminites as wives. Then 200 virgins were kidnapped by the remaining Benjaminite survivors.

Ironically, the avenging of the concubine’s death did not result in the liberation of other women but instead brought about the subjugation of 600 innocent virgins.

The self-righteous anger of the Levite and of the Israelite soldiers led them to perpetrate atrocities not only against the guilty men of Gibeah but also against innocent people. When the vengeful rampage finally ended, easily more than 100,000 people had been killed. We don’t know the exact number because only the number of soldiers who died was reported to us. We are not given the number of women, children, and non-fighting men who were killed.

Unchecked anger multiplies anger. Vengeance easily spires out of control. And using violence to try to end violence only perpetuates more violence.

The Apostle Paul reminded the first-century Christians and us in Romans 12:17-19, saying:

17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord.

Elaine Heath wrote,

“We Christians who are appalled at Gibeah make the same mistake the rest of Israel made in declaring war on Benjamin if we simply take up arms against patriarchy and march in to do a matricentric version of pillage, plunder, and rape. Gendered hierarchy is not the answer. Nor is violence.”

In other words, using the patriarchal weapons of power and control to subjugate men will only perpetuate sexism and injustice—even if now it is women who have the power and control.

If we can learn anything from this Levite and the men of Israel, it is this: “Everyone did as they saw fit,” and the results were disastrous! Don’t do what they did.

Don’t try to right a wrong in your own wisdom or in your own power.

The Levite, who should have led the people of Israel to seek God’s counsel on what to do about the evilness at Gibeah, did not turn to God.

The men of Israel already declared war against the Benjaminites and only went to ask God about their battle strategies. Only after the death of 22,000 of their men did they ask God whether they should be fighting this civil war.

The ravages of patriarchy are still with us today, and women are still too often at the mercy of men.

Lord, God and creator of both men and women, what should we do? Counsel us. Guide us. Help us. And give us victory over evil.