Just before Joshua died he summoned all of the leaders of Israel and renewed their covenant with God.

“Then the people answered, “Far be it from us to forsake the Lord to serve other gods! It was the Lord our God himself who brought us and our parents up out of Egypt, from that land of slavery, and performed those great signs before our eyes. He protected us on our entire journey and among all the nations through which we traveled. And the Lord drove out before us all the nations, including the Amorites, who lived in the land. We too will serve the Lord, because he is our God.” Joshua 24:16-18

But by Judges 2:10-12 Israel was in trouble.

“After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger.”

Israel’s Decline

The book of Judges opened on a high note, with Israel asking God how they should go about subduing the Canaanites and take possession of the Promised Land. When they obeyed the Lord they had success, but over time they were less motivated to do what God required of them. They let the Canaanites live among them instead of driving them out and the spiral began.

The tribe of Dan never fully conquered the land allotted to them.“The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country, not allowing them to come down to the plain.” (Judges 1:34) So Dan moved north and captured Laish in yesterday’s reading. They conquered that defenseless town and settled on land God hadn’t given them. Then they became idolaters.

The tribes began to turn on each other and there was a succession of civil wars.

The priests were not properly supported by the Israelites. Some of them traveled the countryside looking for work, like the young Levite who helped Micah’s family, and later the tribe of Dan, worship idols.

The status of women declined. In Judges 4 a respected woman judge named Deborah led Israel, but in Judges 19 a woman was treated worse than an animal.

The Levite and His Concubine

A Levite living in Ephraim acquired a concubine from Bethlehem. Most translations say she was unfaithful to him, others say she was angry with him. But whatever happened, she ran away from him and back to her father’s home. She had been gone for four months when “her husband went to persuade her to return.” Judges 19:3

The Levite’s father-in-law welcomed him and gave him extravagant hospitality. In fact, he didn’t want the man to leave with his daughter and he kept them at his house for five days. Even then he tried to keep the couple with him, “but, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem) with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine.” Judges 19:10

The Levite didn’t want to spend the night among non-Israelites, so they pressed on past Jebus and stopped for the night in Gibeah a town in Benjamin. They went to the town square where they might expect to find hospitality for the night and an old Ephraimite invited them in.

Judges 19 and Genesis 19

Judges 19:20-24 echoes what we read back in Genesis 19 when two angels came to warn Lot of the pending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Wicked men in Sodom wanted to have sex with the angels, but Lot defended them. The old man did the same for the Levite in Gibeah.

“No, my friends, don’t be so vile. Since this man is my guest, don’t do this outrageous thing.” Judges 19:23

Lot offered his daughters in Sodom, and the host offered his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine in Gibeah. The angels kept Lot’s daughters safe, but the Levite shoved his concubine through the door and let the men rape and abuse her all night. She crawled back to the house where he was staying and died just before dawn with her hands on the threshold.

An Abusive Levite

This story could be a case study in domestic abuse. The unhappy young concubine ran back home to get away from her abusive husband, and her father let her stay, to protect her. The husband arrived, was charming and persuasive, and managed to woo her back. Despite her father’s misgivings, she went away with the man and suffered worse abuse than before.

When the Levite found his battered wife on the doorstep the next morning, he showed no remorse or sorrow. He carried her corpse away, mutilated it, and then sent the pieces to all parts of Israel.

Nothing this shocking had ever happened in Israel before.

Israel Responds

400,000 armed Israelites came to Mizpah from every corner of the land in response to this horror story.

“Then the Israelites said, ‘Tell us how this awful thing happened.’” Judges 20:3

The Levite told the story, managing to make himself the innocent victim. He said the vile men of Gibeah wanted to kill him, but instead they raped and killed his concubine. He left out the part where he handed his wife over to the killers. Then he invited his countrymen to decide the outcome of this sordid affair.

“Now, all you Israelites, speak up and tell me what you have decided to do.” Judges 20:7

They decided to go to war with Benjamin; 400,000 Israelites were going to fight 26,700 Benjamites.

War with Benjamin

“The tribes of Israel sent messengers through the tribe of Benjamin, saying, ‘What about this awful crime that was committed among you? Now turn those wicked men of Gibeah over to us so that we may put them to death and purge the evil from Israel.’ But the Benjamites would not listen to their fellow Israelites.” Judges 20:12-13

The Israelites consulted with God twice about whether they should go into the battle with Benjamin and twice he told them to go, but he didn’t say anything about the outcome. In the first two battles Israel was driven back by Benjamin and lost 40,000 troops. They spent two nights weeping before the Lord.

The third time Israel asked God whether they should fight, he told them he would deliver Benjamin into their hands. The Israelites set up ambushes and drew Benjamin out of Gibeah. While the Benjamites were fighting in the fields, the Israelites set Gibeah on fire.

The Benjamites fought valiantly, but 25,000 of them died that day. 600 of them fled into the wilderness and hid for the next four months. Meanwhile, the Israelites devastated the rest of Benjamin, killing all the people and burning down its towns.

Israelite Remorse

In their anger against Benjamin, the Israelites had agreed never to give their daughters to marry Benjamites. After everything settled down the Israelites realized that they had nearly destroyed a sister tribe and left them with no means of rebuilding their numbers. They were appalled at what they had done.

“Lord God of Israel,” they cried, “why has this happened to Israel? Why should one tribe be missing from Israel today?” Judges 21:3

The Israelites took inventory of who had participated in the vow never to give their daughters to Benjamin. They discovered that no one from the town of Jabesh in Gilead had been at that meeting so the men of Jabesh had not excluded their daughters from marrying Benjamites. The Israelites sent 12,000 soldiers to Jabesh where they killed everyone in the town and kidnapped 400 virgin girls.

Next, the Israelites sent a message of peace to the 600 Benjamites hiding at the Rock of Rimmon, inviting them to come and choose brides for themselves. The young women had no choice in the matter, 400 were “married” that day.

Making Peace with Benjamin

They were still 200 brides short for the Benjamites, however. Since the Israelites had vowed not to give their daughters to Benjamites they arranged for them to kidnap girls attending a festival in Shiloh. There was a provision in the Law of Moses that said a man who raped an unsuspecting virgin while she was in the fields had to marry her. So that’s what the Benjamites did.

When the girls’ fathers and brothers complained, the Israelites said, “Do us the favor of helping [the Benjamites], because we did not get wives for them during the war. You will not be guilty of breaking your oath because you did not give your daughters to them.” Judges 21:22

The Benjamites took their new wives and went home and the rest of the Israelites went home, too.

The book of Judges closes with the sober statement: “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit.”

Israel, custodians of the Law of Moses, had become a lawless nation.