Hospitality In The Middle East

Hospitality can be defined as the practice of entertaining strangers graciously. It was a very important trait in Biblical times. In the New Testament, the Greek word translated as hospitality literally means “love of strangers.” In the Old Testament, Abraham was the host to angels unaware; he invited strangers into his house, washed their feet, prepared fresh meat, had Sarah bake bread, and later accompanied them as they left (Genesis 18: 1-15). Even today a traditional greeting by Bedouin people of the Middle East to their guests is “You are among your family.” This paper will cover five occurrences as they pertain to hospitality: removing the shoes, entering women’s quarters, the Levite and his concubine, the drink of water, and lastly
The visitor was never allowed into the inner, closed-off part of the tent, which was the women’s quarter. When an enemy was at rest in a tent, he was supposed to be completely safe. Sisera was the commander of the army of Jabin, while Jael is the woman who killed Sisera, Israel’s might enemy, by driving a tent nail through his temple while he slept (Judges 4: 17-22). Sisera accepted Jael’s invitation to seek refuge in her tent. She covered him with a mantle, gave him milk to quench his thirst, and promised to stand guard against intruders. Instead, Jael killed Sisera as he
As the Levite man brings his concubine back home, they stop for the night in Gibeah, a town of the Benjamites. They finally are offered hospitality by an old man, but while they are eating, the house is raided and the women are taken away and raped repeatedly. Although badly beaten and raped, yet not dead, the concubine makes it back to the house from which she was taken. She is ultimately butchered, cut into twelve pieces, and these pieces are sent throughout the land. The division of the woman’s body was the call to the twelve tribes to assemble at the central sanctuary. A cycle of violence follows, resulting in the slaughter of many Benjaminite men, women, and children (Judges 20: 35-48). This story illustrates the social and religious chaos the preceded the institution of Israelite