Judges 19
19
The Outrage of Gibeah
1These were the days when there was no king ruling in Israel.
Now there was a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim. He took as his mistress # 19:1 Or “concubine.” a woman from Bethlehem in Judah, 2but she eventually was unfaithful. She deserted him and returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem where she stayed for four months.
3The Levite # 19:3 Or “Her husband.” However, the English terminology for marriage does not fit the cultural relationship presented in chs. 19–20. set out with his servant and a pair of donkeys to find her, win back her heart, and try to persuade her to return home with him. She received him into her father’s house, and when the girl’s father saw him, he received him warmly. 4His father-in-law, the girl’s father, pressed him to stay, so the Levite stayed with him three days, and they ate and drank together.
5On the fourth day, early in the morning, he started to leave, but his father-in-law, the girl’s father, insisted, “Eat something first to give you strength for your journey; then you can leave.” 6After the two of them sat down and had breakfast together, the girl’s father said to the Levite, “You might as well stay overnight and enjoy yourself.” 7The Levite started to leave, but his mistress’ father kept urging him to stay until he turned back and spent another night there.
8Early in the morning of the fifth day, he was about to leave when the girl’s father said, “Come, have breakfast.” They ate together and lingered there until past noon. 9Then the Levite, his mistress, and his attendant started to leave. But his mistress’ father said to him, “Look, the day is almost gone; stay another night here and enjoy yourself. Tomorrow, you can start early on your journey and head for home.”
10But the Levite refused; he and his two donkeys, his servant, and his mistress set out and traveled as far as the vicinity of Jebus—that is, Jerusalem. 11Late in the day, they were near Jebus, and the servant said to his master, “Let’s go into this town of the Jebusites and spend the night there.”
12His master said to him, “No. They are not of Israel. We will not enter a town of foreigners. We will go on to Gibeah. 13Come,” he said to his attendant, “we’ll go to another town and spend the night either in Gibeah or in Ramah.” 14So they traveled on, and as the sun set, they were near Gibeah in the territory of Benjamin.
15They turned off there and entered Gibeah to spend the night. The Levite, his servant, and his mistress sat down in the town square, but nobody invited them indoors to spend the night. 16In the evening, an old man came into town from working in his field. This man was from the hill country of Ephraim and resided at Gibeah, where the townspeople were of the tribe of Benjamin. 17He happened to see the travelers sitting in the town square. The old man inquired, “Where do you come from? And where are you headed?”
18The Levite replied, “We’re just passing through. We’re traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the other end of the hill country of Ephraim, where I live. I just made a journey to Bethlehem of Judah, and now we’re on our way to the House of Yahweh, # 19:18 Or “on our way to my house” (LXX). If the Hebrew is to be preferred, “the House of Yahweh” stood at Shiloh. but nobody has offered us hospitality. 19We have plenty of straw and feed for our donkeys, and bread and wine for me and the woman and for the attendant with us. All we need is a roof over our heads; we lack nothing.”
20“Rest easy,” said the old man. “I’ll take care of all your needs. You won’t need to spend the night in the square.” 21So the old man took them into his house. He prepared fodder for the donkeys; then they washed their feet, and they ate and drank together.
The Depraved Men of Gibeah
22They were enjoying themselves when suddenly some perverted and depraved men # 19:22 Or “sons of Belial,” an evil spirit that dwelt in the underworld. of the town surrounded the house and pounded on the door. They called to the aged owner of the house, “Bring out the man you invited into your house so that we can have sex with him.” 23The owner of the house went out to reason with them. “Please, my friends,” he said. “Don’t commit such a wicked act. This man is my guest! Do not perpetrate this outrage. 24Look, here are the man’s mistress and my virgin daughter—let me bring them out to you. Do what you wish with them. Have your pleasure with them, but don’t do such an outrageous thing to this man.” 25But the men refused to listen to him, so the Levite seized his mistress and pushed her out to them. They raped her repeatedly all night until morning and finally let her go when dawn broke.
26At sunrise the woman staggered back to the house where her master had spent the night and collapsed at the entrance of the man’s house. 27When the Levite arose in the morning, he opened the doors of the house to start on his journey, and he saw his mistress lying at the entrance of the house with her hands on the threshold. 28“Get up,” he said to her, “it’s time to go.” But there was no response, for she was dead. # 19:28 The last clause, implied in the Hebrew, is taken from the Septuagint. The man placed her body on the donkey and set out for home. 29When he arrived home, he took a sword, cut the corpse of his mistress limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent them, one for each tribe, throughout Israel. 30And everyone who saw this horrible display, cried out, “Never have we seen such brutality take place from the day we came up from the land of Egypt to this day. We need to decide what we should do about this!”
Trenutno izabrano:
Judges 19: TPT
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