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a Cn Compare 18.10: Meaning of Heb uncertain
b Meaning of Heb uncertain
c Symmachus: Heb with anyone
d That is Camp of Dan
e Compare 17.4, 5; 18.14: Heb teraphim and the cast metal
f Cn Compare verse 7: Heb with anyone
g Another reading is son of Manasseh
18.1–31 This polemical story of Dan’s migration and rival temple resumes the subject of the final introductory note (1.34).
18.2 Conquest stories often begin with a spy mission (1.24; Josh 2).
18.3 The young Levite’s voice has a recognizable southern accent.
18.5 To inquire of God is to seek an oracle, in this case from a priest, whose job description included supernatural insight into God’s will.
18.6 The answer assures a successful mission.
18.7 The people of Laish are living securely, without defensive fortifications. Far from the Sidonians on the Phoenician coast, nonaligned with Aram on the north, Laish minds its own business (v. 10). Ironically, Laish sounds like the ideal community Israel was meant to be!
18.12 Kiriath-jearim was a border town of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Dan, lying northeast of Zorah and Eshtaol, about eight miles (thirteen kilometers) northwest of Jerusalem. Presumably this is not the Mahaneh-dan mentioned in 13.25.
18.15 They greeted him, i.e., “asked about his well-being” (Hebrew shalom).
18.19 A father and a priest. See note on 17.10. In Num 26.42 the tribe of Dan consists of a single clan, which might consist of a town and its satellite villages.
18.21 The order of march protects the vulnerable members of the migrating community from pursuit and at the same time provides the expedition with a peaceful facade.
18.25 Danites had a reputation for belligerence (Gen 49.17; Deut 33.22). They are hot-tempered (lit. “bitter of soul”) like a bear robbed of her cubs (2 Sam 17.8).
18.28 Far from Sidon…no dealings with Aram echoes v. 7 for emphasis.
18.30 Jonathan is presumably the Levite who has remained unnamed till now. Dan’s priestly family claims descent from Moses (Gershom is Moses’ son according to Ex 2.22). In the Hebrew text a letter has been inserted to turn “Moses” into “Manasseh” (see text note a) to avoid associating Moses with idol worship. Along with Bethel, the temple at Dan became a royal shrine of the Northern Kingdom (1 Kings 12.29–30). Captivity refers to the destruction of the Northern Kingdom by the Assyrians and the exile of the Danites in 722/1 BCE.
18.31 The Danite sanctuary is devalued by reference to Shiloh, regarded by the editors as the one legitimate sanctuary in the premonarchical period (1 Sam 1–4). The narrative consistently emphasizes the illegitimacy of the shrine of Dan. Its silver was dedicated because of a theft (17.2–3), its image was hijacked (17.5–6; 18.16–18, 24), and its priesthood originated in disloyal opportunism (17.9; 18.19–20).
JUDGES 19
The Levite’s Concubine
1In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite, residing in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 2But his concubine became angry witha him, and she went away from him to her father’s house at Bethlehem in Judah, and was there some four months. 3Then her husband set out after her, to speak tenderly to her and bring her back. He had with him his servant and a couple of donkeys. When he reachedb her father’s house, the girl’s father saw him and came with joy to meet him. 4His father-in-law, the girl’s father, made him stay, and he remained with him three days; so they ate and drank, and hec stayed there. 5On the fourth day they got up early in the morning, and he prepared to go; but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Fortify yourself with a bit of food, and after that you may go.” 6So the two men sat and ate and drank together; and the girl’s father said to the man, “Why not spend the night and enjoy yourself?” 7When the man got up to go, his father-in-law kept urging him until he spent the night there again. 8On the fifth day he got up early in the morning to leave; and the girl’s father said, “Fortify yourself.” So they lingeredd until the day declined, and the two of them ate and drank.e 9When the man with his concubine and his servant got up to leave, his father-in-law, the girl’s father, said to him, “Look, the day has worn on until it is almost evening. Spend the night. See, the day has drawn to a close. Spend the night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow you can get up early in the morning for your journey, and go home.”
10But the man would not spend the night; he got up and departed, and arrived opposite Jebus (that is, Jerusalem). He had with him a couple of saddled donkeys, and his concubine was with him. 11When they were near Jebus, the day was far spent, and the servant said to his master, “Come now, let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites, and spend the night in it.” 12But his master said to him, “We will not turn aside into a city of foreigners, who do not belong to the people of Israel; but we will continue on to Gibeah.” 13Then he said to his servant, “Come, let us try to reach one of these places, and spend the night at Gibeah or at Ramah.” 14So they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down on them near Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin. 15They turned aside there, to go in and spend the night at Gibeah. He went in and sat down in the open square of the city, but no one took them in to spend the night.
16Then at evening there was an old man coming from his work in the field. The man was from the hill country of Ephraim, and he was residing in Gibeah. (The people of the place were Benjaminites.) 17When the old man looked up and saw the wayfarer in the open square of the city, he said, “Where are you going and where do you come from?” 18He answered him, “We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, from which I come. I went to Bethlehem in Judah; and I am going to my home.f Nobody has offered to take me in. 19We your servants have straw and fodder for our donkeys, with bread and wine for me and the woman and the young man along with us. We need nothing more.” 20The old man said, “Peace be to you. I will care for all your wants; only do not spend the night in the square.” 21So he brought him into his house, and fed the donkeys; they washed their feet, and ate and drank.
Gibeah’s Crime
22While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.” 23And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. 24Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing.” 25But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine, and put her out to them. They wantonly raped her, and abused her all through the night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. 26As morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.
27In the morning her master got up, opened the doors of the house, and when he went out to go on his way, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28“Get up,” he said to her, “we are going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey; and the man set out for his home. 29When he had entered his house, he took a knife, and grasping his concubine he cut her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. 30Then he commanded the men whom he sent, saying, “Thus shall you say to all the Israelites, ‘Has such a thing ever happenedg since the day that the Israelites came up from the land of Egypt until this day? Consider it, take counsel, and speak out.’”
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a Gk OL: Heb prostituted herself against
b Gk: Heb she brought him to
c Compa
re verse 7 and Gk: Heb they
d Cn: Heb Linger
e Gk: Heb lacks and drank
f Gk Compare 19.29. Heb to the house of the LORD
g Compare Gk: Heb 30And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has not happened or been seen
19.1–21.25 Israel reacts to the outrage of gang rape and murder (ch. 19) in such a way as to compound the tragedy. Civil war nearly obliterates the tribe of Benjamin (ch. 20). In the final scenes, Israel maneuvers to recover from these disastrous consequences. Editors in exile (see Introduction) reworked these painful memories, when, once again, it was time for Israel to make a new start.
19.1 Once again, the phrase no king in Israel laments the lack of a king who would make such horrifying lawlessness unlikely (17.6; 18.1; 21.25). The story of a Levite from the hill country of Ephraim who travels to Bethlehem is a narrative inversion of the preceding story of a Levite from Bethlehem (17.7) who migrates to the hill country of Ephraim (17.8). This northern Levite appears to be well established. He has a concubine, or wife of secondary rank, from Bethlehem.
19.2 Israelite law did not allow for divorce by the wife. She returns to her family of origin (father’s house), but the circumstances are unclear. Did she become angry with him or prostitute herself (see text note b)? Does she become the equivalent of an adulteress by walking out on him?
19.3 The husband seeks reconciliation, suggesting that she is the offended party. A servant and a couple of donkeys give the appearance of prosperous self-sufficiency, in contrast to the circumstances of the young Levite in ch. 17.
19.4–9 The father-in-law will be pleased to see his daughter return with her husband, but his hospitality will create a new crisis. They left much later in the afternoon than was wise.
19.10 The narrator insinuates that the party might have been safe and avoided atrocity at Canaanite Jebus (supposedly the pre-Israelite name for Jerusalem; see 1.21).
19.12 Jerusalem as a city of foreigners is ironically rejected in favor of fellow Israelites. Gibeah, King Saul’s hometown, was a few miles north of Jerusalem.
19.15 Hospitality was a fundamental virtue, and ancient readers would be outraged that no one took them in.
19.16 The only inhabitant of Gibeah to take up the obligation of hospitality is, like the Levite, a resident alien from the hill country of Ephraim (cf. v. 1).
19.19 The Levite has feed for his donkeys and food and wine for his entire party. All he needs is a roof.
19.21 The traveler lets the old man act as host by feeding the animals.
19.22–30 This story has striking similarities to that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Gen 19.4–11). Both stories hinge on a breakdown or misuse of the obligation of hospitality and the threat of homosexual rape.
19.22 They were enjoying themselves verbally echoes 16.25, where the Philistine crowd demands that Samson entertain them. Perverse lot, lit. “sons of Belial,” a malicious character of the mythic underworld (“perdition” in Ps 18.4; 2 Sam 22.5–6). Have intercourse. The Hebrew verb is yada‘, “to know.” If there is any ambiguity about what this means it disappears with the offer of the young women (v. 24).
19.23–24 Vile thing, a loathsome and outrageous act, usually a sexual crime (20.6, 10; Gen 34.7; Deut 22.21; 2 Sam 13.12). The master of the house gives greater weight to the obligation of hospitality to his male guest than to any duty he owes to his guest’s concubine or even his own family (cf. Gen 19.8).
19.25 Although it is not completely clear which man seized his concubine, and put her out, the most natural reading is that the Levite acts to save himself.
19.26 The concubine’s husband (cf. v. 3) is now called her master, perhaps a commentary on how he has treated her. The powerful description of rape creates outrage against Gibeah on the part of readers. The poignant final scene at the door sets the stage for her master’s indifference in the following verses.
19.27–28 The moving image of the woman’s hands on the threshold contrasts with the man’s brusque command. No answer. We are not actually told that she is dead.
19.29 The man utilizes the woman’s (dead?) body as an object to gain publicity for what has taken place. His actions caricature a practice for raising an emergency force that appears elsewhere in the OT and other texts of the ancient Near East. Cf. Saul summoning the militia with twelve parts of an ox (1 Sam 11.7).
JUDGES 20
The Other Tribes Attack Benjamin
1Then all the Israelites came out, from Dan to Beer-sheba, including the land of Gilead, and the congregation assembled in one body before the LORD at Mizpah. 2The chiefs of all the people, of all the tribes of Israel, presented themselves in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand foot-soldiers bearing arms. 3(Now the Benjaminites heard that the people of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) And the Israelites said, “Tell us, how did this criminal act come about?” 4The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered, answered, “I came to Gibeah that belongs to Benjamin, I and my concubine, to spend the night. 5The lords of Gibeah rose up against me, and surrounded the house at night. They intended to kill me, and they raped my concubine until she died. 6Then I took my concubine and cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the whole extent of Israel’s territory; for they have committed a vile outrage in Israel. 7So now, you Israelites, all of you, give your advice and counsel here.”
8All the people got up as one, saying, “We will not any of us go to our tents, nor will any of us return to our houses. 9But now this is what we will do to Gibeah: we will go upa against it by lot. 10We will take ten men of a hundred throughout all the tribes of Israel, and a hundred of a thousand, and a thousand of ten thousand, to bring provisions for the troops, who are going to repayb Gibeah of Benjamin for all the disgrace that they have done in Israel.” 11So all the men of Israel gathered against the city, united as one.
12The tribes of Israel sent men through all the tribe of Benjamin, saying, “What crime is this that has been committed among you? 13Now then, hand over those scoundrels in Gibeah, so that we may put them to death, and purge the evil from Israel.” But the Benjaminites would not listen to their kinsfolk, the Israelites. 14The Benjaminites came together out of the towns to Gibeah, to go out to battle against the Israelites. 15On that day the Benjaminites mustered twenty-six thousand armed men from their towns, besides the inhabitants of Gibeah. 16Of all this force, there were seven hundred picked men who were left-handed; every one could sling a stone at a hair, and not miss. 17And the Israelites, apart from Benjamin, mustered four hundred thousand armed men, all of them warriors.
18The Israelites proceeded to go up to Bethel, where they inquired of God, “Which of us shall go up first to battle against the Benjaminites?” And the LORD answered, “Judah shall go up first.”
19Then the Israelites got up in the morning, and encamped against Gibeah. 20The Israelites went out to battle against Benjamin; and the Israelites drew up the battle line against them at Gibeah. 21The Benjaminites came out of Gibeah, and struck down on that day twenty-two thousand of the Israelites. 23c The Israelites went up and wept before the LORD until the evening; and they inquired of the LORD, “Shall we again draw near to battle against our kinsfolk the Benjaminites?” And the LORD said, “Go up against them.” 22The Israelites took courage, and again formed the battle line in the same place where they had formed it on the first day.
24So the Israelites advanced against the Benjaminites the second day. 25Benjamin moved out against them from Gibeah the second day, and struck down eighteen thousand of the Israelites, all of them armed men. 26Then all the Israelites, the whole army, went back to Bethel and wept, sitting there before the LORD; they fasted that day until evening. Then they offered burnt offerings and sacrifices of well-being before the LORD. 27And the Israelites inquired of the LORD (for the ark of the covenant of God was there in those days, 28and Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron, ministered before it in those days), saying, “Shall we go out once more to battle against our kinsfolk the Benjaminites, or shall we desi
st?” The LORD answered, “Go up, for tomorrow I will give them into your hand.”
29So Israel stationed men in ambush around Gibeah. 30Then the Israelites went up against the Benjaminites on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as before. 31When the Benjaminites went out against the army, they were drawn away from the city. As before they began to inflict casualties on the troops, along the main roads, one of which goes up to Bethel and the other to Gibeah, as well as in the open country, killing about thirty men of Israel. 32The Benjaminites thought, “They are being routed before us, as previously.” But the Israelites said, “Let us retreat and draw them away from the city toward the roads.” 33The main body of the Israelites drew back its battle line to Baal-tamar, while those Israelites who were in ambush rushed out of their place westd of Geba. 34There came against Gibeah ten thousand picked men out of all Israel, and the battle was fierce. But the Benjaminites did not realize that disaster was close upon them.
35The LORD defeated Benjamin before Israel; and the Israelites destroyed twenty-five thousand one hundred men of Benjamin that day, all of them armed.
36Then the Benjaminites saw that they were defeated.e
The Israelites gave ground to Benjamin, because they trusted to the troops in ambush that they had stationed against Gibeah. 37The troops in ambush rushed quickly upon Gibeah. Then they put the whole city to the sword. 38Now the agreement between the main body of Israel and the men in ambush was that when they sent up a cloud of smoke out of the city 39the main body of Israel should turn in battle. But Benjamin had begun to inflict casualties on the Israelites, killing about thirty of them; so they thought, “Surely they are defeated before us, as in the first battle.” 40But when the cloud, a column of smoke, began to rise out of the city, the Benjaminites looked behind them—and there was the whole city going up in smoke toward the sky! 41Then the main body of Israel turned, and the Benjaminites were dismayed, for they saw that disaster was close upon them. 42Therefore they turned away from the Israelites in the direction of the wilderness; but the battle overtook them, and those who came out of the cityf were slaughtering them in between.g 43Cutting downh the Benjaminites, they pursued them from Nohahi and trod them down as far as a place east of Gibeah. 44Eighteen thousand Benjaminites fell, all of them courageous fighters. 45When they turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, five thousand of them were cut down on the main roads, and they were pursued as far as Gidom, and two thousand of them were slain. 46So all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand arms-bearing men, all of them courageous fighters. 47But six hundred turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and remained at the rock of Rimmon for four months. 48Meanwhile, the Israelites turned back against the Benjaminites, and put them to the sword—the city, the people, the animals, and all that remained. Also the remaining towns they set on fire.
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