WHY Is Judges 19 So MESSED UP?! [A Levite and His Concubine]

this video contains distressing subject matter you want to know one of the most messed up stories in the bible it's judges 19. a man's wife or concubine leaves him so he chases after her to get her back on their travels they are confronted by a violent mob and the husband gives up his concubine to the mob they have their way with her all night leaving her half dead and when it's all over the husband comes out and cuts her body into 12 pieces and sends them around the country that's messed up this bible story gets a lot of criticism for the way that women are treated and particularly how the husband treats his concubine but there's something very unique about this particular story that's incredibly rare in the old testament so stick around to find out what that is but first what exactly are you and i supposed to learn from a story like this for starters the main character seems to get away with his wicked act leaving critics to wonder if god condones such violence let's take a closer look so the whole book of judges is set in this strange and violent period of history we're introduced to an unnamed man who has a concubine we don't really know what that means in this story if she's his wife or if she's forced to be with him but her father is described as his father-in-law so it's at least some sort of committed relationship now she is unfaithful and returns home so he travels to go find her and win her back this part of the story is really strange the father-in-law is super excited to see him and convinces him to stay and have a little dinner party and every morning when the man tries to leave the father convinces him to stay this happens again and again back and forth between the man trying to leave and the father convincing him to stay and party on the man eventually takes his concubine and servants and they go on their way after some discussion they stop at a town called gibia along the way and are greeted by no one eventually a mysterious man agrees to let them come and stay the night warning them not to go out at night and just like in the story of sodom and gomorrah an angry mob surrounds the old man's house they demand to have their way with the man who has just entered the town so what does the owner of the house do he offers up his own daughter and the man's concubine that's right not only does he offer up his own daughter to the mob he offers up another man's wife so what does the husband do he grabs his concubine and throws her to the angry mob and the story says that they abused her all night long until dawn when she staggered to the house and fell at the door the man eventually comes out and i kid you not this is all he says when he sees her lying there get up and we will go it's only two words in hebrew a cold and uncaring response when he doesn't get a response he goes inside grabs a knife and cuts her into 12 pieces which he sends to the 12 tribes of israel and do you want to know what might be one of the most messed up parts of this story as if it could get any worse in the original hebrew language it's ambiguous if she was even dead she might have still been alive when the husband cut her up he also lies about what happens after the husband sent these severed body parts to the different parts of israel in the next chapter there's a big meeting of all the tribes about what happened at this meeting the unnamed man tells everyone what happened but he changes the story first he says the mob was trying to kill him instead of have sex with him and look maybe he knew what his fate would become after the mob was done but he conveniently leaves out the part where he grabbed his concubine and threw her outside instead he says they just took her well this starts an all-out war so one of the questions critics have is does the bible silence on the man's actions mean that somehow it's acceptable or condoned i think there's enough details to let you know that in this story there are no heroes the story highlights some of the worst parts of human nature and that strange little episode at the start what's all that about well when the father-in-law begs the man to stay it invites you to imagine how things could have been different if only he had stayed from there the mistreatment of vulnerable people highlights how bad the society of this story had become in fact the whole book of judges demonstrates that the idea of every person doing what was right in their own eyes leads nowhere good and this story is just one chilling example of that there's also historical and political reasons behind a story like this you see at the beginning and end of this tale there's a phrase that runs throughout the entire book of judges and israel had no king it's constantly repeated throughout the book these harrowing tales were to remind their ancient readers that if they had a good leader life would not be as it were in these stories possibly serving as a justification for israel's monarchy but these stories still have wisdom that is timeless even if sometimes it is hard to discern you see there's something unique in this particular story that's very rare in the old testament the narrator appears to give a direct command to the reader in a story it's the narrator's job to tell you what's happening but the old testament is famous for the narrator not giving the reader many details about people motivations and the meaning of particular stories this lack of detail in hebrew bible stories leaves a lot for the imagination to fill in it might seem frustrating because you just want to know why the characters did what they did but this lack of detail actually allows a story to have multiple layers of meaning but this story has a very unique exception to that rule in the old testament the narrator almost never talks directly to the reader the last line in the original hebrew reads in such a way that it could be directed at you the reader a command to consider and speak up if it is a command to the reader it would be one of the few times that occurs in the old testament this story may invite you the reader to consider injustice and speak up against it [Music]

Channel: Bible Unboxed

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Id: oaQsVRcLIZE

Length: 6min 46sec (406 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 05 2020