Judges 19

[Dante]

The story of a Levite whose concubine runs away and goes back to her father. He waits 4 months and then decides to fetch her. After waiting nearly 6 days to take her back home, he and his servant and this woman finally set out to return to the Mt. Ephraim area. En route to their home they pass through Jerusalem. It's late in the evening, and they are looking for a place to crash for the night. Finding no where, they press forward until they get close to a town called Gibeah. After the sun has set, and no one will take them in they happen upon an old man who is happy to oblige. While everyone is up still and having a good time in the old man's house there comes a knock on the door. A group of men (referred to as Sons of Belial) surround the place and demand the traveling Levite come out so they can gang bang the dude. Refusing to let the Levite be defiled in that way, the old man offers his daughter and the Levite's concubine for the group of men to rape. All night long the men rape these two women. As far as I can tell, both women died as a result of the all-night gang rape. The women's bodies are found on the door step of the house the following morning. The Levite is so ticked off that his concubine (whom he offered in his place) was raped that he personally took a knife and chopped her up in to twelve pieces and had her body scattered in all directions in the land of Israel.

[Sean]

?

[kclee4jc]

And so the the tribes of Israel went to Benjamin demanding that they turn over the sons of Belial. Benjamin refused. Israel enquired of the Lord whether to go up against their Brother Benjamin and the Lord said to go and fight. Two days Benjamin prevailed against them. Once again Israel goes to the temple and enquires of God whether to go up agains them. Third day Israel prevails then offers sacrifices and repents and mourns for their brother Benjamin that is cut off from them.

Have always been fascinated by this account.

[FlamingZword]

It was an ugly incident, which should not have happened but it did.
unlike other historical books (In other countries) history is distorted to make the nation look good.
I know, I have read the same history sides from two sides and I am amazed that each country tries to hide the dirt on their side of the conflict.

[TJJJ]

Why did the Lord lt them lose twice before He allowed them to win?

[KeptByTheWord]

There are a lot of things that took place both in the OT and NT that I don't understand. I'm not afraid to say that. I recognize that we may have only bits and pieces of the story too. There are always two sides to every coin, and how do we know if both sides have been represented, or only one?

I have come to a peace with things such as this that don't make sense. God, in His righteousness, who created this world with both good and evil coexisting, has a higher plan when such things take place, than we may ever understand. I find peace in that knowledge, even with the events that took place in the OT, NT, and even today when such things happen that seem to make no sense to me.

[Sean]

The book of Judges is about a backsliding, leaderless Israel. The last verse of the book is a summary of the whole book...

Judges 21:25

25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

[Disciple4life]

Maybe we don't know the whole story or maybe we are reading it through our current customs and manners. Hmm....

[Dante]

It just disgusts me that the Levite had no value for human life. He tossed her out to be raped so he wouldn't have to be gang banged, and then he chopped her dead body up in to pieces and had them sent in the various directions of the twelve tribes. Disgusting!

[Sean]

That stuff is on tv and netflix all day long....LOL