Behold, my daughter, who is a virgin, and his concubine; let me bring them out, and humble ye them, and do to them as is good in your sight; but to this man do not so vile a thing.
A Levite is staying the night in Gibeah, and now the men of the town are pounding on his host's door. The old man's answer — offering them his own daughter and his guest's concubine — shows how far God's people had sunk, and why bargaining with evil never works.
The night in Gibeah repeats an earlier night in Sodom, where a mob surrounded Lot's door and he offered them his daughters. One writer notes the one thing missing here:
Then comes the horrible outbreak. It makes the Levite realise that the Israelite city is as bad as any Canaanite one. The whole thing repeats the outrage at Sodom, but without the angels who kept things safe there. The old man, their host, repeats Lot's offer.
Another writer says the sin here was worse than Sodom's, because these people carried God's name:
A frightful thing followed. The impure passions of men who bore the name of Jehovah matched in horror those of the accursed city. Such things happening in Israel were worse than what happened in Lot's day. As dead flies make the ointment stink, so the corruption of the people of God is the worst of all. What is more, we see no angels stepping in to rescue the righteous.
The old man calls the mob's demand outrageous, then offers an outrage of his own to stop it. One writer traces that back to where he had chosen to live:
When determined wickedness raises its head, notice this old man. He has settled down in the evil city, and the only way he can think of meeting the evil is to appease it. He is ready to sacrifice his own daughter, copying the faithless folly of Lot (vv. 22-24). But this was not within his rights. Nor is it within our rights to make any compromise whatever with evil. Still, if we tie ourselves to evil, it makes cruel demands on us and requires us to surrender what really belongs to God. "O you who love the LORD, hate evil!" is the divine decree (Ps. 97:10)... How can we dare consent to the slightest evil to avoid, as we hope, a greater evil? Are we so foolish as to suppose that we can subdue evil by allowing evil?
The host never turned to God for help. One writer weighs what that cost:
God kept this man from seeing his house defiled by these vile men, but he could see no other way out. The Levite gave up his wife to dishonour. A cry to God, remembering His protection in earlier days, might have prevented it all.
The host makes the offer, but it is the woman's own husband who hands her over. One writer does not spare him:
The Levite, for the sake of his own safety, abandons his concubine to the insane fury of the crowd. The morning finds her dead, her hands stretched out over the violated threshold, pleading and in vain.
The host tells the mob to do what seems good to them. One writer traces that way of thinking back to two causes:
Three hundred years after Moses warned them, we find the people in the Land. But the closing chapters of Judges record a low moral state, marked by gross corruption and violence. That low state came from two causes. First, they had cast off the authority of God as their King. Second, and as a result, every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
Israel rose in outrage after that night. One writer points to what had never stirred them:
Notice that what drew out their unanimous condemnation was not an outrage done to God's name. Where was the right horror at the idolatry of Micah? On the contrary, it was courted and continued down to the captivity. Men then, as now, feel nothing for a lie or a slander against God; they are sensitive when their own rights are touched. But He knows how to wake them up from such disgraceful insensitivity.
Even so, the story does not end in darkness. God did not stop the evil at the door:
God allowed the evil to run its full course. But as the following chapters tell us, He brought glory to Himself out of this frightful evil.
- Cause — no king. Israel had cast off God's authority. So every man did what was right in his own eyes, and Gibeah is where that ends.
- Compromise — no rights. The host offers what was never his to give. You cannot subdue evil by allowing evil.
- Cowardice — no faith. Neither host nor Levite appealed to God, though He had protected His people before. No angels came, because no one asked.
- Conscience — no consistency. Israel stayed calm through idolatry and exploded over an injury to a man. We feel our own rights far more than God's honour.
- Conclusion — no waste. God let the evil run its full course, and still brought glory to Himself out of it.
But the men would not hearken to him; and the man took his concubine, and brought her forth to them; and they knew her, and abused her all the night until the morning; and let her go when the morning-dawn arose.
Judges 19 turns from Israel's religious collapse to its moral collapse. Verse 25 raises two hard questions: how did God's own people sink lower than the nations around them, and what part did the men inside the house play in her death?
The men at the door were not pagans from a Canaanite city. They were Israelites, and that is what makes this scene worse than the one it copies.
A frightful thing followed. The impure passions of men who bore the name of Jehovah equalled in horror those of the accursed city. Such things, happening in Israel, were worse than the history of Lot. As dead flies make the ointment stink, so the corruption of the people of God is the worst of all. Moreover, we do not see any intervention of angels to deliver the just.
The man who should have shielded her is the one who hands her over.
The old man, their host, repeats Lot's offer. The Levite, for his own safety's sake, abandons his concubine to the insane fury of the crowd. The morning finds her dead. Her hands are stretched out over the violated threshold, pleading in vain.
The old man tries to calm the mob by offering his own daughter instead. Choosing a smaller evil to escape a bigger one is still a bargain with evil.
He is ready to sacrifice his own daughter, imitating the faithless folly of Lot (vv. 22-24). But this was not within his rights. Nor is it within our rights to make any compromise whatever with evil. Still, if we are linked with it, it makes cruel demands on us. It demands that we hand over what really belongs to God… How can we dare agree to the slightest evil to avoid (as we hope) a greater evil? Are we so foolish as to suppose that we can subdue evil by allowing evil?
There was a way out of that night, and the Levite never took it.
This outcome might have been avoided by an appeal to God, remembering His protection in earlier days. Could He not, as He had before, have struck the people with blindness? But no cry of anguish went up to Him. From the heart of the Levite to Jehovah, the passage was barred.
Rossier links her death back to the life she had chosen, and forward to what God did with the whole disaster.
This wretched woman had been reclaimed from her earlier life of prostitution, but without repentance or any exercise of conscience. She died from the dreadful results of what she had once craved. God allowed the evil to run its full course. But as the following chapters tell us, out of this frightful evil He brought glory to Himself.
Gibeah did not come out of nowhere. Moses had warned Israel long before, and the collapse here had two roots.
Three hundred years after Moses gave his warning, we find the people in the Land. But the records of the closing chapters of Judges show them in a low moral condition, marked by gross corruption and violence. This low condition came from two causes. First, they had cast off the authority of God as their King. Second, as a result, every man was doing what was right in his own eyes.
The whole nation united against this crime. The same nation had said nothing about the idolatry in the chapters before.
Note that what drew out their unanimous condemnation was not an outrage done to God's name. Where was the just horror at the idolatry of Micah?… Men then, as now, feel nothing for a lie or a slander against God. They are sensitive when their own rights are touched.
Their outrage pointed outward, at Gibeah. It never turned inward.
We may regard this as an unchanging principle: every such shocking exposure among the people of God should bring us all to our knees in sober, real self-judgment. That must come before we ever take part in judging the evil… The sin was Israel's sin, and it showed a corrupt internal state that also required judgment.
- Cause — Israel threw off God's authority first. After that every man did what was right in his own eyes, and Gibeah became possible.
- Compromise — The old man tried to buy off evil with a smaller evil. No one has the right to make that bargain, and it never subdues evil.
- Cowardice — The Levite handed her over to save his own life. He never cried to God for help. She died at the threshold, her hands reaching for a door that never opened.
- Contrast — Israel acted worse than Sodom, and no angels came to rescue anyone. Corruption among God's people is the worst corruption of all.
- Conscience — The nation raged over a wrong done to man after ignoring wrongs done to God. Real judgment of evil starts with self-judgment.