Judges 19

[The story is fully narrated in the comment.] The second episode recorded in chs. 19-21 appears, from 20 : 28, to have occurred in the time of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, which is also in the second generation after Moses and Aaron. The natural inference is that both these events recorded in the second portion of the book are to be referred in point of time to the earlier chapters of the first portion. They show us very plainly that after the death of Moses and Joshua there was a great relapse in the moral life of the nation. S. L.—They illustrate the lawlessness and confusion which ensued in a time when every man did that which was right in his own eyes. No part of the Bible forms such painful reading as this. Idolatry, impurity, and cruelty mark the period. D. F.—The decline of the national faith, and the dissolution of manners, were fearfully exemplified in certain other transactions which occurred before the time of the Judges. The crime of Benjamin was of a more cruel nature, and as directly opopposite to the principles of the moral law as to the spirit of the national union. It led to a bloody civil war, and almost to the total annihilation of the guilty tribe. It is a history of bloody crime, wild justice, and still wilder mercy. Milman.

It is certainly not without a purpose that we have in Holy Scripture from time to time exhibitions of sin in its most repulsive and revolting forms. At the time of this history the community of Gibeah was sunk to the level of the vilest heathenism. Hospitality to strangers, though those strangers were their own flesh and blood, there was none; pity for the homeless and weary, though one of them was a woman, there was none either; respect for neighbors and fellow-townsmen, common decency and humanity, and every feeling which distinguishes a man from a wild beast or a devil, had wholly left their vile breasts, and, people of God as they were by privilege and covenant, they were in their abandonedness wholly the children of the devil. The example thus recorded with unflinching truth is needed for every generation. Let the fear of God be once extinct in the human breast, and reverence for man and for a man’s own nature will inevitably perish too. The spirit of man is fed by the Spirit of God. Extinguish the spiritual, and nothing of man remains but the corrupt flesh. It is in the cultivation of spiritual affections, in the constant strengthening of the moral sense, in steady resistance to the first beginnings of sin, and in steadfast cleaving to God, that man’s safety lies. It is in the maintenance of religion that the safety of society consists. Without the fear of God man would soon become a devil, and earth would become a hell. A. C. H.

19:1. A Levite. It has been claimed that the Book of Judges knows nothing of the calling of the tribe of Levi, as appointed in the Pentateuch. On the contrary, it is a prominent and remarkable fact that the Levites appear in these incidents of the Book of Judges in exactly that position which Deuteronomy assumes, when it always classes them with the strangers on account of their poverty. The position occupied by the Levites both before and after the times of David would be quite inexplicable, if the law had not previously separated this tribe to the service of the sanctuary. O.—A concubine. A lawful but a secondary wife; as in verse 3 he is expressly called her “husband,” and verse 4 her father his father-in-law. Such connections were not disreputable in those times, being tolerated in the law and countenanced by the practice of the best of men. Bush.

13-15. Having passed by Jebus, which was about five or six miles from Bethlehem (the place whence they came), and not having daylight to bring them to Ramah, they stopped at Gibeah; there they sat down in the street, nobody offering them a lodging. In these countries at that time there were no inns or public houses, in which travellers might have entertainment for their money; but they carried entertainment along with them, as this Levite did here, and depended upon the courtesy and hospitality of the inhabitants for a lodging. H.

16-21. Gibeah was a second Sodom: even there also is another Lot; which is therefore so much more hospitable to strangers, because himself was a stranger. This good old man of Gibeah came home late from his work in the fields: the sun was set ere he gave over; and now, seeing this man a stranger, an Israelite, a Levite, about to take up his lodging in the street, he proffers him the kindness of his house-room. But one man was at his work in all Gibeah; the rest were quaffing and revelling. That one man ends his work with a charitable entertainment; the other end their play in a brutish beastliness and violence. Bp. II.

22-25. Idolatry touched all the infirmities of the human heart. The splendid festival of the idol-worshipper veiled the most voluptuous practices, and initiated into the most infamous mysteries. The heart of the Israelite was of flesh, like that of other men. Idolatry was an appeal to his susceptibility of sensual impressions and pleasures. It offered a ready aliment to the secret and wavering passions of the rebellious Hebrews. Hence their frequent lapses into the vilest rites of their idolatrous neighbors, despite the clear proofs with which they had been favored of the unity and sovereignty of the Divine Being. That madness of debauchery, which was exhibited in the city of Gibeah, reveals the true source of so obstinate an attachment to the idolatry which consecrated such vices. E. C. W.

29,30. To our ideas there is something peculiarly shocking in the procedure, but it was doubtless in accordance with the notions of the times, and as there was no supreme magistrate to whom to appeal for redress, it was probably the most effectual method of rousing the nation to take up the Levite’s cause as one that concerned them all. The whole nation accordingly instantly understood it as a universal anathema, and entered into an indissoluble covenant to see justice done to the injured Levite. Bush.

20:1. From Dan even to Beer-sheba, with the land of Gilead. From the utmost borders of the land in every direction. By the land of Gilead is meant the trans-Jordanic region, where were planted the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half tribe of Manasseh. The convention seems not to have been summoned together by any superintending head, but by the consent and agreement, as it were, of one common heart, prompted by a holy zeal for the Lord of hosts and the honor of Israel. Bush.

The Levite appealed for retribution to the tribes in a general court, and they assembled at once in convention at Mizpeh, and heard the appeal to their justice. They carefully examined into the facts of the case. They found certain of the inhabitants of Gibeah guilty, not only of a violation of the rights of hospitality and humanity, but of a breach and violation of the common right of the tribes to a safe passage through the whole country. It was not so much an injury to any private persons, as to the tribes of Ephraim and Judah to which the Levite and his wife belonged. It was an injury to all the tribes in common, since the case of Ephraim and Judah might become the case of any of them. No man in all Israel could have any security in travelling, if such open outrage and violence were suffered to go unpunished. But the tribes were independent of each other. Benjamin was a sovereign state. Neither Judah nor Ephraim could call the inhabitants of Gibeah to account. This was, therefore, a case calling for the interposition of the states-general. Yet even they could not proceed directly against the guilty parties. That would have been in derogation of the sovereignty of Benjamin. Therefore, having by investigation satisfied themselves of the facts in the case, they sent a summons to the tribe of Benjamin to deliver up the delinquents, that they might be dealt with according to law. Benjamin declined a compliance with this summons, and determined rather to dissolve the union of the states than submit to the will of the nation, though expressed in a deliberate, dispassionate, and constitutional manner. This changed the entire case. It was no longer the murder of a private person by some ill-disposed individuals of the city of Gibeah, but an open rebellion of the whole tribe of Benjamin. The authority of the national union was opposed and set at naught. The rest of the tribes declared them in a state of rebellion, and proceeded against them accordingly. E. C. W.

13. The children of Benjamin would not hearken.** Thus in effect bringing the whole tribe to be partakers of the guilt of the men of Gibeah. By thus refusing to comply with the just and reasonable requisition of their brethren they virtually said, “We will stand by them in what they have done; nay, we would ourselves have acted the same part had we been present.” It is difficult to conceive a case of more hardened and aggravated depravity than this. Bush.—Who would not have looked that the hands of Benjamin should have been first on Gibeah; and that they should have readily sent the heads of the offenders for a second service after the fragments of the concubine? But now instead of punishing the sin, they patronize the actors, and will rather die in resisting justice than live and prosper in furthering it! The abetting of evil is worse than the commission; this may be on infirmity, but that must be on resolution. Easy punishment is too much favor to sin; connivance is much worse; but the defence of it, and that unto blood, is intolerable. Bp. II.

14. It is impossible to suppose that the whole tribe of Benjamin really sympathized with the foul deed of the men of Gibeah. Had the men of Gibeah belonged to the tribe of Ephraim or Judah, the Benjamites would no doubt have been forward to join in their punishment. But because the offenders were Benjamites, immediately all these right feelings were stifled, and in their stead the one selfish feeling that Benjamin would be dishonored among the tribes, and that they themselves would be degraded in their fellow tribesmen’s shame, was allowed to prevail. They were blind to what duty and self-interest alike required of them; and under the guidance of temper and stubborn pride, they rushed on to their own destruction, braving the wrath of a body nearly sixteen times as powerful as themselves, and withal tarnishing their own reputation by identifying themselves with the basest villainy. A. C. H.—Benjamin dared in arms to oppose both a righteous cause, which God Himself would espouse for the honor of His justice, and also vastly superior numbers. But God permitted Benjamin’s infatuated obstinacy, so as to subserve His purpose of chastising Israel first by Benjamin, and then sorely judging Benjamin by Israel. A. R. F.

18. Which of us shall go up first.** They do not ask whether they shall go up at all, which ought to have been their first inquiry. But confiding in the justness of their cause, they take it for granted that all is right in resorting to arms against their brethren, and merely inquire who should take the lead in the expedition. For wise reasons the Most High was pleased to leave them to learn at least their precipitate in this respect, by the event. He says in reply, not as our translation has it, “Judah (shall go up) first,” but simply Judah (is) in the precedency, i.e., “Judah has already been constituted leader of the tribes.” Bush.

19-25. It was more just that Israel should rise against Benjamin than that Benjamin should rise for Gibeah, by how much it is better to punish offenders than to shelter the offenders from punishment; and yet the wickedness of Benjamin sped better for the time than the honesty of Israel. Twice was the better part foiled by the less and worse: the good cause was sent back with shame; the evil returned with victory and triumph. They fought in a holy quarrel, but with confidence in themselves; for presuming of victory they ask of God, not what should be their success, but who should be their captain. Number and innocence made them too secure: it was just therefore with God to let them feel that even good zeal cannot bear our presumption: and that victory lies not in the cause, but in the God that owns it. Bp. H.

22. They forgot that their own hands were not altogether clean, and that success does not always attend a multitude. They did not pray for success, as if all depended on God, nor did He promise it in answering them “Go up.” When the Israelites, after their first failure, “encouraged themselves, and set their battle again in array” in the same place as before, they evidently were acting under the influence of pique and wounded pride: they will on the same spot avenge their mortification and defeat, retrieve their credit, and humble their Benjamite brethren. They “encouraged themselves,” but not in the Lord their God, as David did when greatly distressed; their ground of confidence still was in the justice of their cause and the numbers of their army. They needed yet to be taught by one chastisement more to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God. A. R. F.

23. Went up and wept before the Lord.** All their arrangements for battle had been previously made (verse 22), and they seem now to have consulted God, as some consult the Scriptures, to establish a previously formed opinion. It was not to learn their duty, but to obtain sanction for a measure upon which they had already resolved. They should have deferred making preparations till after they had made their confession and taken counsel. Their tears and lamentations under these circumstances did not secure them from defeat; and as in their self-confidence they made no inquiry as to success, nor invoked assistance, God gave them no promise on that score. Bush.

The eleven tribes went, not at God’s command,—certainly not as regards the color and quality of the execution of the command,—but rather with his permission. Go and fall, forty thousand of you, before the faces of your guilty brethren; find your own passion checked: be humbled first yourselves, and then let the proud, the obstinate, the guilty, perish at your hand. You and they are—almost—alike guilty, in my sight. Herrick.

23-28. But God having showed them that he was under no obligation to succeed their enterprise, that he neither needed them nor was tied to them, that they were more indebted to him for the honor of being ministers of his justice than he to them for the service, now they became humble petitioners for success. Before, they only consulted God’s oracle, Who shall go up first? And, Shall we go up? But now they implored his favor, fasted and prayed, and offered

burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, to make an atonement for sin, and an acknowledgment of their dependence upon God, as an expression of their desire toward him. And when they were in this frame and thus sought the Lord, then he not only ordered them to go up against the Benjamites the third time, but gave them a promise of victory, To-morrow I will deliver them into thine hand. H.

35. The Lord smote.** In this verse the sacred writer relates the event of the battle in general terms. In the sequel he resumes the story, giving the particulars of the battle, and the consequences of the victory more in detail. Bush.

48. The Benjamites were smitten with the edge of the sword, and all their cities were set on fire. All this fearful catastrophe sprang from one sin, perpetrated by one city, which was screened from punishment by its fellows. A. R. F.—So that of all the tribe of Benjamin there remained none alive but six hundred men that took shelter in the rock Rimmon, and lay close there four months (verse 47). This affair of Gibeah is twice spoken of by the prophet Hosea, as the beginning of the corruption of Israel, and a pattern to all that followed (ch. 9: 9), They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah, and ch. 10: 9, Thou hast sinned from the days of Gibeah, and it is added, that the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not, that is, did not at first, overtake them.* H.

21: 1. A circumstance not mentioned before is now brought forward, as is another in verse 5, on which the events about to be narrated in this chapter depend, viz., that the men of Israel had taken two solemn oaths at Mizpeh (ch. 20: 1)—the one that no Israelite would give his daughter in marriage to a Benjamite; the other that whosoever did not come up to the national assembly there should be put to death. A. C. H.

2-4. They lifted up their voices and wept sore, for the entire destruction of one whole tribe; for this was the complaint they poured out before God, There is one tribe lacking. God had taken care of every tribe; their number twelve was that which they were known by; every tribe had his station appointed in the camp, and his stone in the high priest’s breastplate; every tribe had his blessing, both from Jacob and Moses; and it would be an intolerable reproach to them if they should lose one out of twelve; especially Benjamin, the youngest, who was particularly dear to Jacob, their common ancestor, and whom all the rest ought to have been in a particular manner tender of. In this trouble they offered burnt-offerings and peace-offerings to give thanks for their victory, and also to atone for their own folly in the pursuit of it and to implore the Divine favor in their present strait. H.

Cruel Measures Taken to Provide Wives for the Remnant of Benjamites: 1. By the Massacre at Jabesh-Gilead; 2. By the Seizure of Two Hundred Maidens at Shiloh.

Ch. 21 : 5-23.

Jabesh-Gilead was a city of the half-tribe of Manasseh, east of Jordan, situated on a hill near Mount Gilead, about fifteen miles east of Jordan, and about an equal distance south of Gadara. It was not far from the lake of Gennesaret. Bush.—The massacre of the people of Jabesh-Gilead was a cruel expedient to extricate the Israelites from a difficulty, in which their superstitious observance of an unlawful oath had involved them; and is a sad instance of the iniquity and barbarity of the times. Stackhouse.—The indiscriminate massacre of the people of Jabesh-Gilead, and the rape of the virgins at Shiloh, were certainly stamped with marks of injustice and cruelty; and must be condemned on those principles which the Scriptures have elsewhere furnished, though in the brevity of the sacred history they are recorded without comment. Gray.—So ends this sad history of sin, shame, sorrow, and slaughter. The providence of God alone, working in connection with His everlasting covenant, saved for better times Israel from the utter destruction which Israel’s own corruption deserved and otherwise must have entailed. A. R. F.

23-25. In the close of all, we have (1), The settling of the tribe of Benjamin again. The few that remained returned to the inheritance of that tribe. And soon after, from among them sprang Ehud, who was famous in his generation, the second judge of Israel. (2) The disbanding and dispersing of the army of Israel (verse 24). They did not set up for a standing army, nor pretend to make any alterations or establishments in the government; but when the affair was over for which they were called together, they quietly departed in God’s peace every man to his family. (3) A repetition of the cause of these confusions (verse 25). Though God was their King, every man would be his own master. H.

The Benjamites returned to their inheritance, and repaired their cities. They regained something of their old martial fame, and gave Israel its second judge, Ehud, and its first king, Saul, the son of Kish; but they never recovered from this terrible blow. After hesitating between the two powerful tribes whose territories they parted, and ranging themselves at first on the side of Ephraim, they at last subsided, like the Simconites, into a position entirely subordinate to Judah, and their territory was absorbed in Judea. P. S.

We have a striking evidence of the truthfulness and impartiality of the narrator in this merciless exposure of the sins and misdeeds of his countrymen. No fewer than four times does he impress upon the mind of his readers the fact that in the days when these shameful deeds were done “there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” The lesson here conveyed is the absolute necessity, for the religious and civil welfare of a people, that a firm government should exist, to control by the force of law the excesses of individual will, and to compel within certain limits the action of individuals for the sake of the public good. Law, like the eye of God, is impartial in its look out; its end is to produce order, harmony, and peace. Under the even reign of law eccentric violence is unknown, and its steady but irresistible pressure gives consistency and strength to the whole fabric of society. Under its reign full scope is given to every energy for good, and all the scattered forces of the separate parts are concentrated for the benefit of the whole. Under its wholesome restraints the selfish passions of man are not allowed to injure themselves or others, and the folly of the foolish and the wickedness of the wicked are checked in their injurious courses. Not that which is right in his own eyes, and which self-will desires, but that which the law, the reflection of God’s mind, commands, is the rule by which every man’s actions must be squared. The perfection of a human polity is one in which wise laws govern the whole social movement as surely as the laws of nature govern the material world. It is the interest of all classes of the community to bow to this supremacy of law, and to unite in a firm compact to support the central authority in repressing every act of lawlessness, whether committed by an individual or by a company. It is only thus that social chaos can be avoided, and that civil cosmos, which alone is civilization, can be maintained for the true liberty and welfare of mankind. A. C. H.

We must guard, however, against the impression that such scenes as these describe the whole, or even the chief part, of the history of Israel under the Judges. In the book itself, the intervals during which “the land had rest”

make up a large aggregate of years, though we are apt to overlook them from the brevity of each notice. These hints are in some degree filled up to a finished picture, in the exquisite scenes of rural tranquillity set before us in the Book of Rath. The events there related are merely said to have happened “in the time of the Judges;” but from the genealogies we gather that they fell in the generation after the troubles above related. P. S.—At best the Mosaic system could have had only a feeble influence and a very limited observance. With the developments of the Book of Judges fully in our mind we can understand why David, of spirit so devout and with views of the national character and national want so broad and discriminating, should, on coming to the throne, feel the necessity of making a religious capital powerful and imposing as a home for the ark of the covenant, and of investing the entire Mosaic worship with the richest attractions of ceremonial and song. There was, doubtless, a most imperative need for that re-enforcement to the power of the religious institutions of Moses. H. C.