Points that I am left pondering regarding the Levite and his concubine:

1) Was this the same Levite who became priest for Micah the idol maker? There is an interesting coincidence that the Levite who lived with Micah had gone to the mountains of Ephraim from Bethlehem, and the Levite’s concubine, in today’s portion, was from Bethlehem. 19:1 and 17:7

2) The NKJV bible says the concubine “played the harlot against him and went away from him to her father’s house”. The Israel Bible says simply that she “deserted him, leaving him for her father’s house”. When I look into the Hebrew, using the BLB, I see the parsing of the word rendered “harlot” in English can mean “to be prostitute or act as a prostitute”, “to commit adultery”, or “to be unfaithful to God”, or “to be a cult prostitute”. Hmm…. looking back at point/question #1 – was this Levite the same Levite who became the priest for an idolatrous, pagan family? Did she desert him because he forced her into becoming a temple (cult) prostitute? It doesn’t say that but I found it odd that she had chosen to leave him and go home to her father. Why would she do that if she was at fault for whoring?

3) At first it is sort of heartwarming that this Levite would go after his concubine after four months to win her back. By the end of the story I am wondering why he bothered. His actions in Gibeah seem to reveal he didn’t care one whit about her – first he gives her to a mob of rapists and then he doesn’t even notice that she is dead? He just sidesteps around her, or steps over her, and says, “get up, we’re leaving”? It literally makes my stomach turn seeing the coldness toward her after what she experienced because of him. It makes me go back to points 1 and 2 to consider those possibilities. Regardless, she was clearly treated like a disposable piece of property.

4) This land was dangerous to travel in at night yet the Levite still left his father-in-law’s house in the afternoon knowing full well they would not make it home by nightfall.

5) Cutting her body into pieces and sending the pieces to each of the 12 tribes. He wasn’t just being gruesome. I see this as a way of holding all of Israel accountable and calling them to action for the horrific actions of one city in one tribe. We can see a bit more clearly the reason he did this, in 1 Samuel 11:7. It’s the same idea. “So he (Saul) took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout all the territory of Israel by the hands of his messengers saying, ‘Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen.’ And the fear of Yehovah fell on the people, and they came out as one man.” The Levite was saying, whoever does not come out to fight against this evil in Israel, the same will become of them (or their wives and daughters) because evil spreads. Immediately we see the whole nation of Israel responding to this very clear message by gathering before Yehovah at Mizpah.

We then see this very thing befall Jabesh Gilead when it is realized that they did not go up to Mizpah. I take this to mean that they did not go fight against Benjamin in Gibeah as well since the tribes gathered at Mizpah (20:1) where it was determined how they would handle Benjamin and where they swore they would not give Benjamin their women for wives. They also made an oath that anyone who did not go up to Mizpah would be put to death (21:5).

I find the solution for the shortage of wives to be interesting. Effective at keeping their bloodline within Israel. But very interesting indeed.

• 
  Judith Damminga
  April 12, 2019 at 9:19 am  /

  Hi Edie,

  I was also wandering about the concubine and how the Leviete reacted to her. But I also recegnised the story of Lot with the angels that Lot was aslo willing to handover his daughters to the men of the city. Maybe putting these two stories together and looking at the same themes would shine some light on the story?

  but it is interesting indeed to say the least!