“However, the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long; only at dawn did they let her go. At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her husband was, and she was still there when it grew light.”-Judges 19:25-26
Alrighty, I don’t know of any other way to start this post but to say that the utter wickedness of human nature is on full display here.
We’re told the old man handed over the Levite’s concubine to the men of Gibeah (with the Levite’s permission I might add).
And then she was repeatedly gang-raped over and over and over again all night long…
And the abuse didn’t stop until daybreak.
Interestingly, there isn’t any mention of the old man’s daughter.
But we’re told afterwards the concubine somehow managed to crawl her way back to the doorstep of where her husband was hiding…
The same husband who had betrayed her to the rapists…
Once the concubine reached the house’s doorstep, she reached her hands towards the locked door and then passed out from her injuries.
In the early morning, when the Levite stepped outside to leave he found his woman lying on the ground.
He tried to rouse her but when he couldn’t he realized she was dead.
So he picked up her corpse, tossed it on top of one of his two donkeys like a sack of potatoes and headed home.
What the Hebrew men of Gibeah did to this concubine was indeed horrifying.
But we can’t overlook the cold and hardened heart of the Levite who so casually let his concubine be handed over to a group of violent rapists.
It makes one wonder why in the heck did the Levite go back to fetch his concubine in the first place after she angrily left him and went home to her father?
He was motivated only by selfishness plain and simple.
He figured it’d be better to have her company than not have it.
He was also probably feeling a bit embarrassed.
Who wouldn’t be if one’s wife just picked up and left them?
What I find amazing is that he traveled all the way to Bethlehem with gifts to win her hand back.
But in spite of going through all that trouble, at the end of the day we see he didn’t have a repentant heart.
When push came to shove, we see that he had zero intention to love and protect her.
So horrific was this incident that the prophet Hosea would bring it up hundreds of years later.
“They have deeply corrupted themselves,
as in the days of Giv’ah.
He will remember their guilt,
and he will punish their sins.”
-Hosea 9:9
Similar to the story of Lot when the men of the city wanted to have sex with the Angels and Lot offered his daughters. Wonderful world for women.
The Laws of Moses have liberated women far more than any feminist movement has.