Day 75. Judges 19-21

Our reading for today begins and ends with that statement that "there was no king in Israel" (19:1 and 21:25). The Book of Judges as a whole is intended to explain why Israel, which had been a theocracy--a confederacy of tribes ruled by God through his representatives--needed an earthly king. The judges are, at best, a stop-gap arrangement; in the end the Israelite confederacy breaks down in outright civil war, which begins with the rape and murder of the Levite's concubine.
In Old Testament times men were allowed to have as many wives as they wished and could support. A concubine (19:2) would have had legal status under the Law, but not on a par with the primary wife. The word "concubine" in this context means something like "secondary wife."
The treatment of the concubine is brutal and heartless, but failure of the moral requirement to show hospitality to strangers is an equally grave offense. The reluctance of the people of Gibeah to take in the Levite and his party and provide for them is the first sign of trouble (19:15).
The attack upon the old man's house and the demand of the men of Gibeah that he give up his guest so that they may have "intercourse with him" (19:22), recalls the story of Lot in Sodom found in Genesis 19:1-11. The outrage against the customs of hospitality is as much the crime here as the rape of concubine. The depravity of that act—shocking even by ancient standards--is a demonstration of the level to which the people of Israel have sunk. Where people ignore law and custom and do what is good in their own sight, this sort of thing will happen. Vengeance on the part of the community is necessary to restore balance and order to society.
So the Levite summons the whole people of Israel "from Dan to Beer-sheba" to take part in a vendetta against the tribe of Benjamin. (The phrase "from Dan to Beer-sheba" means the whole of Israel, from north to south. Mizpah is a central location near Jerusalem where the Israelite confederacy met in solemn assembly to decide matters touching on the life of the whole nation.) Only a comparative few members of the tribe of Benjamin took part in the actual crime—but this is another case of the whole group suffering for a part of it.
But the rape and murder of the Levite's concubine becomes the spark that ignites a blood feud that eventually widens into a civil war. All of Israel is summoned to the cause of justice. But the men of Benjamin initially hold their own against the host arrayed against them. (We noted earlier that as a group descendents of Benjamin were disposed toward being left-handed. The seven hundred left-handed Benjaminites with their slings who could throw a stone at a hair and not miss (20:16) would indeed have been a formidable foe in battle.
And there is crisis of leadership in Israel, as there was after the death of Joshua. There is no commander to lead them, the war goes against the superior forces of the confederacy for a time. But at last the city of Gibeah is taken my stealth, its women and children are "devoted"—slaughtered without survivor—and the remaining Benjaminites are routed into the wilderness, where they remain for some time, landless outlaws.
But now there is a change of heart among the Israelite leadership. The tribe of Benjamin faces extinction and the nation faces a symbolic problem. There had been twelve tribes and the number had historical and magical importance for the people. Being twelve in number, representing the sons of Jacob, was part of their identity.
So war is proclaimed against a town that had not joined in the campaign against the Benjaminites, and the "four hundred young virgins who had never slept with a man" (21:12) were taken for as wives for the remaining Benjaminites. When the number proves insufficient, the abduction of more young women from a festival at Shiloh is arranged so that there "may be heirs for the survivors of Benjamin, in order that a tribe may not be blotted out from Israel" (21:17).
So with this unhallowed solution the Book of Judges ends. The situation is dismal. The writer offers the observation that "all the people did right in their own eyes" (21:25). The Law of Moses, which should guide the lives of the People of the Promise, is disregarded. Individualism has triumphed over community. The scene is set for the selection of king. But before we go on with the history of the confederacy, we hear the story of Ruth, a romantic interlude that again demonstrates the openness of Israel in this period to those foreigners who want to become a part of it.