J
U D G E S
CHAP. XIX.
The
three remaining chapters of this book contain a most tragical story of the
wickedness of the men of Gibeah, patronised by the tribe of Benjamin, for
which that tribe was severely chastised and almost entirely cut off by the
rest of the tribes. This seems to have been done not long after the death of
Joshua, for it was when there was no king, no judge, in Israel (ver. 1, and ch.
xxi. 25), and Phinehas was then high priest, ch. xx. 28. These
particular iniquities, the Danites' idolatry, and the Benjamites' immorality,
let in that general apostasy, ch. iii. 7. The abuse of the Levite's
concubine is here very particularly related. I. Her adulterous elopement from
him, ver. 1, 2. II. His reconciliation to her, and the journey he took to
fetch her home, ver. 3. III. Her father's kind entertainment of him, ver. 4-9.
IV. The abuse he met with at Gibeah, where, being benighted, he was forced to
stop. 1. He was neglected by the men of Gibeah (ver. 10-15) and entertained by
an Ephraimite that sojourned among them, ver. 16-21. 2. They set upon him in
his quarters, as the Sodomites did on Lot's quests, ver. 22-24. 3. They
villainously forced his concubine to death, ver. 25-28. V. The course he took
to send notice of this to all the tribes of Israel, ver. 29, 30.
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Elopement
of the Levite's Concubine; The Levite Reconciled to His Concubine;
The Levite Benighted at Gibeah.
B. C.
1410.
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1 And it came to pass in
those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain
Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine
out of Beth-lehem-judah. 2 And his concubine played the whore
against him, and went away from him unto her father's house to Beth-lehem-judah,
and was there four whole months. 3 And her husband arose, and went
after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again, having
his servant with him, and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her
father's house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet
him. 4 And his father in law, the damsel's father, retained him;
and he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and lodged
there. 5 And it came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose
early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel's father said
unto his son in law, Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward
go your way. 6 And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of
them together: for the damsel's father had said unto the man, Be content, I
pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be merry. 7
And when the man rose up to depart, his father in law urged him: therefore he
lodged there again. 8 And he arose early in the morning on the
fifth day to depart: and the damsel's father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray
thee. And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.
9 And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine, and his servant,
his father in law, the damsel's father, said unto him, Behold, now the day
draweth toward evening, I pray you tarry all night: behold, the day groweth to
an end, lodge here, that thine heart may be merry; and to morrow get you early
on your way, that thou mayest go home. 10 But the man would not
tarry that night, but he rose up and departed, and came over against Jebus,
which is Jerusalem; and there were with him two asses saddled,
his concubine also was with him. 11 And when they were
by Jebus, the day was far spent; and the servant said unto his master, Come, I
pray thee, and let us turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in
it. 12 And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither
into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel; we
will pass over to Gibeah. 13 And he said unto his servant, Come,
and let us draw near to one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or
in Ramah. 14 And they passed on and went their way; and the sun
went down upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongeth to
Benjamin. 15 And they turned aside thither, to go in and to
lodge in Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the city:
for there was no man that took them into his house to lodging.
The domestic affairs of this Levite would not have been related thus largely
but to make way for the following story of the injuries done him, in which the
whole nation interested themselves. Bishop Hall's first remark upon this story
is, That there is no complain of a public ordered state but there is a
Levite at one end of it, either as an agent or as a patient. In Micah's
idolatry a Levite was active; in the wickedness of Gibeah a Levite was
passive; no tribe shall sooner feel the want of government than that of
Levi; and, in all the book of Judges, no mention is made of any of that
tribe, but of these two. This Levite was of Mount Ephraim, v. 1. He
married a wife of Bethlehem-Judah. She is called his concubine, because
she was not endowed, for perhaps he had nothing to endow her with, being
himself a sojourner and not settled; but it does not appear that he had any
other wife, and the margin calls her a wife, a concubine, v. 1.
She came from the same city that Micah's Levite came from, as if
Bethlehem-Judah owed a double ill turn to Mount Ephraim, for she was as bad
for a Levite's wife as the other for a Levite.
I. This Levite's concubine played the whore and eloped from her husband, v.
2. The Chaldee reads it only that she carried herself insolently to him,
or despised him, and, he being displeased at it, she went away from
him, and (which was not fair) was received and entertained at her father's
house. Had her husband turned her out of doors unjustly, her father ought to
have pitied her affliction; but, when she treacherously departed from her
husband to embrace the bosom of a stranger, her father ought not to have
countenanced her sin. Perhaps she would not have violated her duty to her
husband if she had not known too well where she should be kindly received.
Children's ruin is often owing very much to parents' indulgence.
II. The Levite went himself to court her return. It was a sign there was no
king, no judge, in Israel, else she would have been prosecuted and put to
death as an adulteress; but, instead of that, she is addressed in the kindest
manner by her injured husband, who takes a long journey on purpose to beseech
her to be reconciled, v. 3. If he had put her away, it would have been
a crime in him to return to her again, Jer. iii. 1. But, she having gone away,
it was a virtue in him to forgive the offence, and, though the party wronged,
to make the first motion to her to be friends again. It is part of the
character of the wisdom from above that it is gentle and easy to be entreated.
He spoke friendly to her, or comfortably (for so the Hebrew
phrase of speaking to the heart commonly signifies), which intimates
that she was in sorrow, penitent fore what she had done amiss, which probably
he heard of when he came to fetch her back. Thus God promises concerning
adulterous Israel (Hos. ii. 14), I will bring her into the wilderness, and
speak comfortably to her.
III. Her father made him very welcome, and, by his extraordinary kindness to
him, endeavoured to atone for the countenance he had given his daughter in
withdrawing from him, and to confirm him in his disposition to be reconciled
to her. 1. He entertains him kindly, rejoices to see him (v. 3),
treats him generously for three days, v. 4. And the Levite, to show
that he was perfectly reconciled, accepted his kindness, and we do not find
that he upbraided him or his daughter with what had been amiss, but was as
easy and as pleasant as at his first wedding-feast. It becomes all, but
especially Levites, to forgive as God does. Every thing among them gave a
hopeful prospect of their living comfortably together for the future; but,
could they have foreseen what befel them within one day or two, how would all
their mirth have been embittered and turned into mourning! When the affairs of
our families are in the best posture we ought to rejoice with trembling,
because we know not what troubles one day may bring forth. We cannot foresee
what evil is near us, but we ought to consider what may be, that we may not be
secure, as if to-morrow must needs be as this day and much more abundant,
Isa. lvi. 12. 2. He is very earnest for his stay, as a further demonstration
of his hearty welcome. The affection he had for him, and the pleasure he took
in his company, proceeded, (1.) From a civil regard to him as his son-in-law
and an ingrafted branch of his own house. Note, Love and duty are due to those
to whom we are related by marriage as well as to those who are bone of our
bone: and those that show kindness as this Levite did may expect to receive
kindness as he did. And, (2.) From a pious respect to him as a Levite, a
servant of God's house; if he was such a Levite as he should be (and nothing
appears to the contrary) he is to be commended for courting his stay, finding
his conversation profitable, and having opportunity to learn from him the good
knowledge of the Lord, hoping also that the Lord will do him good
because he has a Levite to be his son-in-law, and will bless him for his
sake. [1.] He forces him to stay the fourth day, and this was kind; not
knowing when they might be together again, he engages him to stay as long as
he possibly could. The Levite, though nobly treated, was very urgent to be
gone. A good man's heart is where his business is; for as a bird that
wanders from her nest so is the man that wanders form his place. It is a
sign a man has either little to do at home, or little heart to do what he has
to do, when he can take pleasure in being long abroad where he has nothing to
do. It is especially good to see a Levite willing to go home to his few sheep
in the wilderness. Yet this Levite was overcome by importunity and kind
persuasion to stay longer than he intended, v. 5-7. We ought to avoid
the extreme of an over-easy yielding, to the neglect of our duty on the one
hand, and that of moroseness and wilfulness, to the neglect of our friends and
their kindness on the other hand. Our Saviour, after his resurrection, was
prevailed upon to stay with his friends longer than he at first intimated to
be his purpose, Luke xxiv. 28, 29. [2.] He forces him to stay till the
afternoon of the fifth day, and this, as it proved, was unkind, v. 8,
9. He would by no means let him go before dinner, promises him he shall have
dinner early, designing thereby, as he had done the day before, to detain him
another night; but the Levite was intent on the house of the Lord at Shiloh
(v. 18), and, being impatient to get thither, would stay no longer. Had
they set out early, they might have reached some better lodging-place than
that which they were now constrained to take up with, nay, they might have got
to Shiloh. Note, Our friends' designed kindnesses often prove, in the event,
real injuries; what is meant for our welfare becomes a trap. Who knows what
is good for a man in this life? The Levite was unwise in setting out so
late; he might have got home better if he had staid a night longer and taken
the day before him.
IV. In his return home he was forced to lodge at Gibeah, a city in the tribe
of Benjamin, afterwards called Gibeah of Saul, which lay on his road
towards Shiloh and Mount Ephraim. When it drew towards night, and the shadows
of the evening were stretched out, they began to think (as it behoves us to do
when we observe the day of our life hastening towards a period) where they
must lodge. When night came they could not pursue their journey. He that
walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goes. They could not but desire
rest, for which the night was intended, as the day for labour. 1. The servant
proposed that they should lodge in Jebus, afterwards Jerusalem, but as yet in
the possession of Jebusites. "Come," said the servant, "let us
lodge in this city of the Jebusites," v. 11. And, if they had done
so, it is probable they would have had much better usage than they met with in
Gibeah of Benjamin. Debauched and profligate Israelites are worse and much
more dangerous than Canaanites themselves. But the master, as became one of
God's tribe, would by no means quarter, no, not one night, in a city of
strangers (v. 12), not because he questioned his safety among them, but
he was not willing, if he could possibly avoid it, to have so much intimacy
and familiarity with them as a night's lodging came to, nor to be so much
beholden to them. By shunning this place he would witness against the
wickedness of those that contracted friendship and familiarity with these
devoted nations. Let Israelites, Levites especially, associate with
Israelites, and not with the sons of the stranger. 2. Having passed by
Jebus, which was about five or six miles from Bethlehem (the place whence they
came), and not having daylight to bring them to Ramah, they stopped at Gibeah
(v. 13-15); there they sat down in the street, nobody offering them a
lodging. In these countries, at that time, there were no inns, or
public-houses, in which, as with us, travellers might have entertainment for
their money, but they carried entertainment along with them, as this Levite
did (v. 19), and depended upon the courtesy and hospitality of the
inhabitants for a lodging. Let us take occasion hence, when we are in
journeys, to thank God for this, among other conveniences of travelling, that
there are inns to entertain strangers, and in which they may be welcome and
well accommodated for their money. Surely there is no country in the world
wherein one may stay at home with more satisfaction, or go abroad with more
comfort, than in our own nation. This traveller, though a Levite (and to those
of that tribe God had particularly commanded his people to be kind upon all
occasions), met with very cold entertainment at Gibeah: No man took them
into his house. If they had any reason to think he was a Levite perhaps
that made those ill-disposed people the more shy of him. There are those who
will have this laid to their charge at the great day, I was a stranger and
you took me not in.
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The
Levite Entertained at Gibeah.
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B.
C. 1410.
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16 And, behold, there
came an old man from his work out of the field at even, which was also
of mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were
Benjamites. 17 And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a
wayfaring man in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest
thou? and whence comest thou? 18 And he said unto him, We are
passing from Beth-lehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am
I: and I went to Beth-lehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of
the LORD;
and there is no man that receiveth me to house. 19 Yet
there is both straw and provender for our asses; and there is bread and wine
also for me, and for thy handmaid, and for the young man which is with
thy servants: there is no want of any thing. 20 And the old
man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let all thy wants lie
upon me; only lodge not in the street. 21 So he brought him into
his house, and gave provender unto the asses: and they washed their feet, and
did eat and drink.
Though there as not one of Gibeah, yet it proved there was one in
Gibeah, that showed some civility to this distressed Levite, who was glad that
any one took notice of him. It was strange that some of those wicked people,
who, when it was dark, designed so ill to him and his concubine, did not,
under pretence of kindness, invite them in, that they might have a fairer
opportunity of perpetrating their villany; but either they had not wit enough
to be so designing, or not wickedness enough to be so deceiving. Or, perhaps,
none of them separately thought of such a wickedness, till in the black and
dark night they got together to contrive what mischief they should do. Bad
people in confederacy make one another much worse than any of them would be by
themselves. When the Levite, and his wife, and servant, were beginning to fear
that they must lie in the street all night (and as good have laid in a den of
lions) they were at length invited into a house, and we are here told,
I. Who that kind man was that invited them. 1. He was a man of Mount Ephraim,
and only sojourned in Gibeah, v. 16. Of all the tribes of Israel, the
Benjamites had most reason to be kind to poor travellers, for their ancestor,
Benjamin, was born upon the road, his mother being then upon a journey, and
very near to this place, Gen. xxxv. 16, 17. Yet they were hard-hearted to a
traveller in distress, while an honest Ephraimite had compassion on him, and,
no doubt, was the more kind to him, when, upon enquiry, he found that he was
his countryman, of Mount Ephraim likewise. He that was himself but a sojourner
in Gibeah was the more compassionate to a wayfaring man, for he knew the
heart of a stranger, Exod. xxiii. 9; Deut. x. 19. Good people, that look
upon themselves but as strangers and sojourners in this world, should for this
reason be tender to one another, because they all belong to the same better
country and are not at home here. 2. He was an old man, one that retained some
of the expiring virtue of an Israelite. The rising generation was entirely
corrupted; if there was any good remaining among them, it was only with those
that were old and going off. 3. He was coming home from his work out of the
field at eventide. The evening calls home labourers, Ps. civ. 23. But, it
should seem, this was the only labourer that this evening brought home to
Gibeah. The rest had given themselves up to sloth and luxury, and no marvel
there was among them, as in Sodom, abundance of uncleanness, when there was
among them, as in Sodom, abundance of idleness, Ezek. xvi. 49. But he that was
honestly diligent in his business all day was disposed to be generously
hospitable to these poor strangers at night. Let men labour, that they may
have to give, Eph. iv. 28. It appears from v. 21 that he was a man
of some substance, and yet had been himself at work in the field. No man's
estate will privilege him in idleness.
II. How free and generous he was in his invitation. He did not stay till they
applied to him to beg for a night's lodging; but when he saw them (v.
17) enquired into their circumstances, and anticipated them with his kindness.
Thus our good God answers before we call. Note, A charitable disposition
expects only opportunity, not importunity, to do good, and will succour upon
sight, unsought unto. Hence we read of a bountiful eye, Prov. xxii. 9.
If Gibeah was like Sodom, this old man was like Lot in Sodom, who sat in
the gate to invite strangers, Gen. xix. 1. Thus Job opened his doors to
the traveller, and would not suffer him to lodge in the street, Job
xxxi. 32. Observe, 1. How ready he was to give credit to the Levite's account
of himself when he saw no reason at all to question the truth of it. Charity
is not apt to distrust, but hopeth all things (1 Cor. xiii. 7) and will
not make use of Nabal's excuse for his churlishness to David, Many servants
now-a-days break away from their masters, 1 Sam. xxv. 10. The Levite, in
his account of himself, professed that he was now going to the house of the
Lord (v. 18), for there he designed to attend, either with a
trespass-offering for the sins of his family, or with a peace-offering for the
mercies of his family, or both, before he went to his own house. And, if the
men of Gibeah had any intimation of his being bound that way, probably they
would therefore be disinclined to entertain him. The Samaritans would not
receive Christ because his face was towards Jerusalem, Luke ix. 53. But for
this reason, because he was a Levite and was now going to the house of the
Lord, this good old man was the more kind to him. Thus he received a disciples
in the name of a disciple, a servant of God for his Master's sake. 2.
How free he was to give him entertainment. The Levite was himself provided
with all necessaries (v. 19), wanted nothing but a lodging, but his
generous host would be himself at the charge of his entertainment (v.
20): Let all thy wants be upon me; so he brought him into his house,
v. 21. Thus God will, some way or other, raise up friends for his
people and ministers, even when they seem forlorn.
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The
Wickedness of Gibeah; The Israelites Roused to Revenge.
B. C.
1410.
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22 Now as they
were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain sons of
Belial, beset the house round about, and beat at the door, and spake to
the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came
into thine house, that we may know him. 23 And the man, the master
of the house, went out unto them, and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay,
I pray you, do not so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine
house, do not this folly. 24 Behold, here is my daughter a
maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and
do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a
thing. 25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took
his concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her, and abused
her all the night until the morning: and when the day began to spring, they
let her go. 26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and
fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it
was light. 27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the
doors of the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his
concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her hands were
upon the threshold. 28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be
going. But none answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the
man rose up, and gat him unto his place. 29 And when he was come
into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided
her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all
the coasts of Israel. 30 And it was so, that all that saw it said,
There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel
came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice,
and speak your minds.
Here is, I. The great wickedness of the men of Gibeah. One could not imagine
that ever it should enter into the heart of men that had the use of human
reason, of Israelites that had the benefit of divine revelation, to be so very
wicked. "Lord, what is man!" said David, "what a mean
creature is he!" "Lord, what is man," may we say upon the
reading of this story, "what a vile creature is he, when he is given up
to his own heart's lusts!" The sinners are here called sons of Belial,
that is, ungovernable men, men that would endure no yoke, children of the
devil (for he is Belial), resembling him, and joining with him in rebellion
against God and his government. Sons of Benjamin, of whom Moses had said, The
beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him (Deut. xxxiii. 12), have
become such sons of Belial that an honest man cannot lodge in safety among
them. The sufferers were a Levite and his wife, and that kind man that gave
them entertainment. We are strangers upon earth, and must expect strange
usage. It is said they were making their hearts merry when this trouble
came upon them, v. 22. If the mirth was innocent, it teaches us of what
uncertain continuance all our creature comforts and enjoyments are; when we
are ever so well pleased with our friends, we know not how near our enemies
are; nor, if it be well with us this hour, can we be sure it will be so the
next. If the mirth was sinful and excessive, let it be a warning to us to keep
a strict guard upon ourselves, that we grow not intemperate in the use of
lawful things, nor be transported into indecencies by our cheerfulness; for the
end of that mirth is heaviness. God can soon change the note of those that
are making their hearts merry, and turn their laughter into mourning and their
joy into heaviness. Let us see what the wickedness of these Benjamites was.
1. They made a rude and insolent assault, in the night, upon the habitation of
an honest man, that not only lived peaceably among them, but kept a good house
and was a blessing and ornament to their city. They beset the house round,
and, to the great terror of those within, beat as hard as they could at the
door, v. 22. A man's house is his castle, in which he ought to be both
safe and quiet, and, where there is law, it is taken under the special
protection of it; but there was no king in Israel to keep the peace and secure
honest men from the sons of violence.
2. They had a particular spite at the strangers that were within their gates,
that only desired a night's lodging among them, contrary to the laws of
hospitality, which all civilized nations have accounted sacred, and which the
master of the house pleaded with them (v. 23): Seeing that this man
has come into my house. Those are base and abject spirits indeed that will
trample upon the helpless, and use a man the worse for his being a stranger,
whom they know no ill of.
3. They designed in the most filthy and abominable manner (not to be thought
of without horror and detestation) to abuse the Levite, whom perhaps they had
observed to be young and comely: Bring him forth that we may know him.
We should certainly have concluded they meant only to enquire whence he came,
and to know his character, but that the good man of the house, who understood
their meaning too well, by his answer lets us know that they designed the
gratification of that most unnatural and worse than brutish lust which was
expressly forbidden by the law of Moses, and called an abomination,
Lev. xviii. 22. Those that are guilty of it are ranked in the New Testament
among the worst and vilest of sinners (1 Tim. i. 10), and such as shall not
inherit the kingdom of God, 1 Cor. vi. 9. Now, (1.) This was the sin of
Sodom, and is thence called Sodomy. The Dead Sea, which was the
standing monument of God's vengeance upon Sodom, for its filthiness, was one
of the boundaries of Canaan, and lay not many miles off from Gibeah. We may
suppose the men of Gibeah had seen it many a time, and yet would not take
warning by it, but did worse than Sodom (Ezek. xvi. 48), and sinned just after
the similitude of their transgression. Who would have expected (says
bishop Hall) such extreme abomination to come out of the loins of Jacob? Even
the worst pagans were saints to them. What did it avail them that they had the
ark of God in Shiloh when they had Sodom in their streets--God's law in their
fringes, but the devil in their hearts? Nothing but hell itself can yield a
worse creature than a depraved Israelite. (2.) This was the punishment of
their idolatry, that sin to which they were, above all others, most addicted.
Because they liked not to retain God in their knowledge, therefore he gave
them up to these vile affections, by which they dishonoured themselves as they
had by their idolatry dishonoured him and turned his glory into shame, Rom. i.
24, 28. See and admire, in this instance, the patience of God. Why were not
these sons of Belial struck blind, as the Sodomites were? Why were not fire
and brimstone rained from heaven upon their city? It was because God would
leave it to Israel to punish them by the sword, and would reserve his own
punishment of them for the future state, in which those that go after
strange flesh shall suffer the vengeance of eternal fire, Jude 7.
4. They were deaf to the reproofs and reasoning of the good man of the house,
who, being well acquainted (we may suppose) with the story of Lot and the
Sodomites, set himself to imitate Lot, v. 23, 24. Compare Gen. xix.
6-8. He went out to them as Lot did, spoke civilly to them, called them
brethren, begged of them to desist, pleaded the protection of his house which
his guests were under, and represented to them the great wickedness of their
attempt: "Do not so wickedly, so very wickedly." He calls it folly
and a vile thing. But in one thing he conformed too far to Lot's
example (as we are apt in imitating good men to follow them even in their
false steps), in offering them his daughter to do what they would with. He had
not power thus to prostitute his daughter, nor ought he to have done this evil
that good might come. But this wicked proposal of his may be in part excused
from the great surprise and terror he was in, his concern for his guests, and
his having too close a regard to what Lot did in the like case, especially not
finding that the angels who were by reproved him for it. And perhaps he hoped
that his mentioning this as a more natural gratification of their lust would
have sent them back to their common harlots. But they would not hearken to
him, v. 25. Headstrong lusts are like the deaf adder that stoppeth
her ear; they sear the conscience and make it insensible.
5. They got the Levite's wife among them, and abused her to death, v.
25. They slighted the old man's offer of his daughter to their lust, either
because she was not handsome or because they knew her to be one of great
gravity and modesty: but, when the Levite brought them his concubine, they
took her with them by force to the place appointed for their filthiness.
Josephus, in his narrative of this story, makes her to be the person they had
a design upon when they beset the house, and says nothing of their villainous
design upon the Levite himself. They saw her (he says) in the street, when
they came into the town, and were smitten with her beauty; and perhaps, though
she was reconciled to her husband, her looks did not bespeak her to be one of
the most modest. Many bring mischief of this kind upon themselves by their
loose carriage and behaviour; a little spark may kindle a great fire. One
would think the Levite should have followed them, to see what became of his
wife, but it is probable he durst not, lest they should do him a mischief. In
the miserable end of this woman, we may see the righteous hand of God
punishing her for her former uncleanness, when she played the whore against
her husband, v. 2. Though her father had countenanced her, her husband
had forgiven her, and the fault was forgotten now that the quarrel was made
up, yet God remembered it against her when he suffered these wicked men thus
wretchedly to abuse her; how unrighteous soever they were in their treatment
of her, in permitting it the Lord was righteous. Her punishment answered her
sin, Culpa libido fuit, poena libido fuit--Lust was her sin, and lust was
her punishment. By the law of Moses she was to have been put to death for
her adultery. She escaped that punishment from men, yet vengeance pursued her;
for, if there was no king in Israel, yet there was a God in Israel, a God that
judgeth in the earth. We must not think it enough to make our peace with men,
whom by our sins we have wronged, but are concerned, by repentance and faith,
to make our peace with God, who sees not as men see, nor makes so light of sin
as men often do. The justice of God in this matter does not at all extenuate
the horrid wickedness of these men of Gibeah, than which nothing could be more
barbarous and inhuman.
II. The notice that was sent of this wickedness to all the tribes of Israel.
The poor abused woman made towards her husband's lodgings as soon as ever the
approach of the day-light obliged these sons of Belial to let her go (for
these works of darkness hate and dread the light), v. 25. Down she fell
at the door, with her hands on the threshold, begging pardon (as it were) for
her former transgression, and in that posture of a penitent, with her mouth in
the dust, she expired. There he found her (v. 26, 27), supposed her
asleep, or overcome with shame and confusion for what had happened, but soon
perceived she was dead (v. 28), took up her dead body, which, we may
suppose, had all over it marks of the hands, the blows, and other abuses, she
had received. On this sad occasion he waived his purpose of going to Shiloh,
and went directly home. He that went out in hopes to return rejoicing came in
again melancholy and disconsolate, sat down and considered, "Is this an
injury fit to be passed by?" He cannot call for fire from heaven to
consume the men of Gibeah, as those angels did who were, after the same
manner, insulted by the Sodomites. There was no king in Israel, nor (for aught
that appears) any sanhedrim, or great council, to appeal to, and demand
justice from. Phinehas is high priest, but he attends closely to the business
of the sanctuary, and will be no judge or divider. He has therefore no other
way left him than to appeal to the people: let the community be judge. Though
they had no general stated assembly of all the tribes, yet it is probable that
each tribe had a meeting of their chiefs within itself. To each of the tribes,
in their respective meetings, he sent by special messengers a remonstrance of
the wrong that was done him, in all its aggravating circumstances, and with it
a piece of his wife's dead body (v. 29), both to confirm the truth of
the story and to affect them the more with it. He divided it into twelve
pieces, according to the bones, so some read it, that is, by the
joints, sending one to each tribe, even to Benjamin among the rest, with the
hope that some among them would be moved to join in punishing so great a
villany, and the more warmly because committed by some of their own tribe. It
did indeed look very barbarous thus to mangle a dead body, which, having been
so wretchedly dishonoured, ought to have been decently interred; but the
Levite designed hereby, not only to represent their barbarous usage of his
wife, whom they had better have cut in pieces thus than have used as they did,
but also to express his own passionate concern and thereby to excite the like
in them. And it had the desired effect. All that saw the pieces of the dead
body, and were told how the matter was, expressed the same sentiments upon it.
1. That the men of Gibeah had been guilty of a very heinous piece of
wickedness, the like to which had never been known before in Israel, v.
30. It was a complicated crime, loaded and blackened with all possible
aggravations. They were not such fools as to make a mock at this sin, or turn
the story off with a jest. 2. That a general assembly of all Israel should be
called, to debate what was fit to be done for the punishment of this
wickedness, that a stop might be put to this threatening inundation of
debauchery, and the wrath of God might not be poured upon the whole nation for
it. It is not a common case, and therefore they stir up one another to come
together upon the occasion with this: Consider of it, take advice, and
speak your minds. We have here the three great rules by which those that
sit in council ought to go in every arduous affair. (1.) Let every man retire
into himself, and weigh the matter impartially and fully in his own thoughts,
and seriously and calmly consider it, without prejudice on either side, before
he speaks upon it. (2.) Let them freely talk it over, and every man take
advice of his friend, know his opinion and his reasons, and weigh them. (3.)
Then let every man speak his mind, and give his vote according to his
conscience. In the multitude of such counsellors there is safety.
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