Levite Narrative

Another narrative from when Israel had no king is recorded in this chapter. In this story, a Levite traveling through the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem-Judah (v. 1). This concubine left him and went to her father’s house for four months (v. 2). The Levite went after her to speak nicely to her and bring her home, and when her father saw him, he rejoiced at the sight (v. 3). For three days the Levite stayed there, and during this time they ate and drank (v. 4). The Levite wanted to leave on the fourth day, but the concubine’s father urged him to stay longer (v. 5). This continued until the evening of the fifth day, but the Levite would not be persuaded and his entourage departed to Jerusalem (v. 6-10). Once they were in Jerusalem, the Levite’s servant recommended that they lodge there (v. 11). The Levite refused because it was a foreign city, so he desired to stay in either Gibeah or Ramah (v. 12-13). They decided to travel to Gibeah of Benjamin, but when they arrived, they had to stay in the street because no one took them in (v. 14-15). While they settled in the streets, an old man came from the fields and offered to take the Levite and his entourage in (v. 16-20). He accepted this offer,
22). The old man pleaded with them to not do what they had planned, but to instead take his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine (v. 23-24). They opted to take the concubine, and they raped and abused her for the entire night until they released her in the morning (v. 25). The woman fell down at the door of the old man’s house, and the Levite found her (v. 26-27). When she would not respond to him, he took her into the house and cut her up into twelve pieces to send to the twelve tribes (v. 28-29). The deed was so horrific that nothing like it had ever been seen since Israel came out of Egypt (v.