Judges 19 is the start of a three chapter second epilogue (19-21) to the book of the judges (the first epilogue being chapters 17-18). The first and last sentence of these 3 chapters repeats a key idea this second epilogue is meant to illustrate: in those days, there was no king in Israel.

When the author of the book of Judges wrote in the last verse of chapter 21 that “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes”, the author was not just pointing to the fact that these events occurred during the times where there was no earthly king ruling over Israel. It seems that the author was echoing the words of Moses in Deut 12:8 where Moses told the people:

“You shall not do at all as we are doing here today - every man doing whatever is right in his own eyes”.

Perhaps the author was alluding to the fact that the people of God had forsaken their covenant with God and had gone against God’s laws.

If we think about it, the first 16 chapters of the book of Judges doesn’t really elaborate on the evils that the children did in the sight of the Lord. In the first 16 chapters, typically, the author will state that the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and then spend most of the time detailing how the judges were raised up and how they delivered the people. 

This is perhaps the reason for the two epilogues that come at the end of the book of judges. They give the reader a sense of the deep corruption and evil that the people had committed, that was previously largely glossed over in the first 16 chapters.

In this addendum from 19 - 21, the story is of the depravity of the men of Gibeah and how their sin nearly lead to the destruction of an entire tribe of God’s people. 

In chapter 19 the author of the story quickly lets us know that the city that the man and his concubine decided to spend the night in Gibeah.

The scene is set up for the reader to immediately notice the parallels between this occasion and the incident of Lot receiving the two angels in Sodom:

1. There were foreigners coming into a city 

2. These foreigners were looking to spend the night in the open square of the city

3. A hospitable resident of the city welcomes them into his house and treats them kindly 

4. Perverted men of the city surround the house of the hospitable resident and asks him to bring out his guests that the perverted men may know them carnally.

5. Two women are offered to the peverted men.

The equation of the depravity of the Sodomites with the men of Gibeah shocks the reader, and intends to let us understand the extent of corruption the people were in.

For me, whilst the depravity of the men of Gibeah is shocking, I was also particularly struggling to reconcile the actions of the Levite. On one hand the first part of the story appears to show that the Levite was so loving and forgiving of his wife even after she played the harlot against him, that he was willing to go to her, be patient with her, speak kindly to her and bring her back.

On the other hand, at Gibeah, the men sacrificed his concubine to the men of Gibeah to protect himself. Verse 27 tells us that he arose - meaning that he had fallen asleep, whilst he knew his concubine was being abused outside all night. The first thing he said to her was “Get up and let us be going” - Those words do not seem to be to be the words of a loving husband.

I also always assumed that the concubine had died in the morning at the doorstep, but on a fresh read this time, I realise the bible doesn’t so clearly say that she was already dead when the Levite found her. The bible just says that she did not answer the Levite when he spoke to her. Perhaps she was unconscious, or perhaps she was too exhausted, but she was still alive at the time she was found in the morning. 

If that is the case, then it adds another twisted layer to the story - for then it would be an open question - was the woman beyond saving by the time of the morning when the Levite found her, or did the Levite in fact not bother at all to try to save her and instead allowed her to slowly die because he just wanted to get home?

All these things put together, gives us a picture of a man whose motivations are highly suspect and let us not forget that he is a levite - supposedly a person set apart to the service of the Lord!

Today, we know that the world is growing increasingly corrupt. Even more depraved acts have been committed by the people of this world. Given this, let us offer a prayer for the victims of such depravity, and pray that God will bring them into His grace of salvation.