Day 83, Judges 17-19

Readings like today make me question why I am even doing this. I am working through the Bible to gain knowledge, learn the history, and build a better relationship with God and Jesus. Then shit like this comes up and I wonder where the hell they even were. All the wars, and battles, and murders, etc. were pretty bad; but today was just insane!

Today started out with a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim. He said to his mother that he had stolen eleven hundred shekels of silver from her. After hearing his mother mutter a curse about the silver and whoever took it, he was motivated to return it. Then his mother said, “The Lord bless you, my son” in hopes of counteracting the curse.

After returning the silver, his mother consecrated it to the Lord for her son to make a carved image and a cast idol. She gave two hundred shekels of silver to a silversmith who made them into an image and an idol. They were put in Micah’s house.

So Micah made a shrine, an ephod, and some idols, and installed one of his sons as his priest. In those days, Israel had no king, so everyone did what they saw fit and was right in their own eyes.

A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah left that town in search of a new place to stay. On his way he came to Micah’s house. Micah told him to live with him and be the priest and he would provide everything for him: food, clothes, and ten shekels of silver a year.

The Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man became to him like one of his sons. Micah was happy and said, “Now I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my priest.”

There was still no king for Israel and the Danites were still seeking a place of their own to settle; for they had not yet come into their inheritance among the tribes of Israel. They sent five warriors to spy out the land.

The men came unto Micah’s house and stayed the night there. They met the young Levite priest and asked him to inquire to God about their journey and if it would be successful. The priest answered them, “Go in peace. Your journey has the Lord’s approval.”

They left Micah’s house and continued on their journey. They came to the land of Laish, where the people were living in safety, unsuspecting and secure. Since their land lacked nothing, they were prosperous. They were also a long ways away from anyone, and had no relationships with other people.

When the men returned, they agreed to go and attack the people of Laish and take over their land. Six hundred men from the clan of the Danites set out. They crossed Micah’s house again and stopped there. The five men who had stayed there before went inside and took the carved image, the ephod, the other household gods, and the cast idol.

When they did this, the priest asked them what they were doing. They told him to be quiet and go with them for it was better for the priest to serve an entire tribe and clan than just one man’s household. The priest was glad and went with them.

Except Micah found out and sent his men out to fight them. They basically told him to shut up or they would kill him, so Micah went back home.

They continued on their way to Laish where they attacked the people with the sword and burned their city down. There was no one to rescue them because they lived so far away.

The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. They named it Dan after their forefather, who was born to Israel.

Israel still had no king. A Levite lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim and took a concubine from Bethlehem. But she was unfaithful to him and left him to go back to her father’s house. She was there four months when her husband went to persuade her to come back to him.

When he got there, his father-in-law gladly welcomed him and convinced him to stay with them. He stayed there for three days. On the fourth day he got up to leave and convinced him to stay again. This happened two more times, but finally on the evening of the sixth day they left.

They traveled along passing up one city to stay the night because it was an alien city. They would try to reach Gibeah whose people were Israelites. They reached Gibeah as the sun set and sat in the city square, but no one would take them into their house.

Later that night, an old man came in from working in the fields and saw them sitting there. He invited them to stay at his house. While they were enjoying themselves at the man’s house, some of the wicked men of the city surrounded the house.

*Wicked Men: The Hebrew for this expression refers to the morally depraved. Elsewhere the expression is associated with idolatry, drunkenness, and rebellion. Here the reference is to homosexuality.

The men pounded on the door and shouted to the old man to bring out the man who was staying there so they could have sex with him. What!? Seriously this happened? “Hi, welcome to town. Now we’re going to rape you.” WTH!

*Bring out the man: The sexual perversion of these wicked men is yet another example of the decadence of an age when “everyone did as he saw fit.” Homosexuality was common among the Canaanites.

The man went outside and told them not to be so vile. The man was his guest and asked them not to do the disgraceful thing. Here I’m thinking, wow that’s really nice and brave to protect the travelers as his guests, right? Nope, he offered up his virgin daughter and the man’s concubine!

“Look, here is my virgin daughter, and his concubine. I will bring them out to you now, and you can use them and do to them whatever you wish. But to this man, don’t do such a disgraceful thing.”

This entire part was incredibly difficult to comprehend. What was wrong with these people? What father would offer up his daughter like that? Or a man offer a woman? You’d think they would sooner die than let that happen to a woman they loved. I’m just shaking my head at this insanity, and am totally disgusted with all of this. Regrettably continuing on…

The men would not listen to him. So the man took his concubine and sent her outside to them. They raped her and abused her throughout the night, and at dawn they let her go. At daybreak the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, fell down at the door, and lay there until daylight.

*The tragedy of this story lies not only in the decadence of Gibeah, but also in the callous selfishness of men who would betray defenseless women to be brutally violated for a whole night.

When her master got up in the morning, opened the door and stepped out to continue on his way, there lay his concubine. Continue on his way? As in he assumed she was dead and was just going to leave her?

When he saw her he told her to get up, but she did not move. He placed her on a donkey and set out for their home.

When he reached home, he took a knife and cut her up, limb by limb, into twelve parts and sent them into all areas of Israel. What!?

*Dismembering the concubine’s body and sending parts to each of the twelve tribes was intended to awaken Israel from its moral lethargy and to marshal the tribes to face up to their responsibility. It is ironic that the one who issued such a call was himself so selfish and insensitive.

Everyone who saw this said, “Such a thing has never been seen or done, not since the day the Israelites came up out of Egypt. Think about it! Consider it! Tell us what to do!”