28. The Sin of Gibeah (Judges 19 — 21)
A certain Levite and his concubine were traveling
through the land of Benjamin, and as night approached they sought and received
shelter in the home of an old man of Gibeah. But when the house was beset by
certain “sons of Belial”, evoking unpleasant memories of the
Sodomites (Gen. 19), they realized how unsafe they were. This Levite allowed his
concubine to be abused by the Benjamites — a circumstance which speaks not
much better of him than of those who threatened him.
Finding the woman dead in the morning, he took
her body and divided it into twelve pieces and sent the pieces into all parts of
Israel. Then all the children of Israel were gathered together “as one
man” (20:1,8,11) out of revulsion at this hideous crime. By a comparison
with 1 Samuel 11:7 we see that the people did not so act again in unison until
the days of Samuel, probably 300 years later.
But their unity of action was unfortunately not
preceded by consultation with God. The militia of the eleven tribes, minus
Benjamin — 400,000 strong — made their plans without prayer. Though
they finally asked of God who should go up first to the battle, yet their forces
lost 22,000 men at the hands of the men of Benjamin, who defended Gibeah. This
certainly implies that guilt in Israel was to be found on both sides, not only
with Benjamin.
By various stratagems that need not be detailed
now, the tribe of Benjamin was nearly annihilated. Once bloodshed started no one
knew when to stop. In cutting off those who were guilty by their association,
the rest of Israel used highly unsuitable methods and almost totally destroyed
one of the twelve tribes. The punishment, because of haste and probably a
measure of self-righteousness, was out of all proportion to the crime. In their
zeal the men of Israel imposed by an oath a strict isolation upon those few
Benjamites who remained, no matter what their degree of guilt or
complicity.
The outcome was a terrible feeling of remorse,
and some ironic words:
“O Lord God of Israel, why is this come
to pass in Israel, that there should be today one tribe lacking in
Israel?” (21:3).
The fault was their own, in going too far in
their zeal for purity, and the decimation of Israel, on both sides, was their
punishment. Finally the leaders of this bitter civil war realized that they had
indeed overstepped the bounds of reason. They now took some distinctly unusual
steps, involving reprisals and kidnappings, to remedy, insofar as possible, the
problem.
By these events the whole nation was disciplined
and humbled and made to remember their essential unity as a nation, a unity that
even extreme sins on the part of some should not be allowed to violate. Human
nature has not changed from that day to this, and we often act still as though
there is “no king in Israel”. We need as a brotherhood to remember
that each of us shares in the same inheritance (21:17), and that we must with
care and patience remove the defects of the body. Otherwise, the sword we lift
up against our brethren may do irreparable harm to the whole house of
Israel.