And sent her into all the coasts of Israel— No doubt, he enjoined the bearers of this sacrifice to relate all the circumstances of it; upon which a general indignation animated the tribes. They agreed that no such deed had been done or seen among them since they were a people; for it was a mixture of adultery and murder, with a vile attempt at sodomy upon a stranger, upon a Levite, a person consecrated to the divine service. Determined properly to avenge it, they said, as if with one consent, consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds; which words are a prelude to what we find in the next chapter. A modern critic supposes, that the Levite's division of the body of his concubine was an anathema or devotion to the Lord, and that sending of the parts to each tribe clearly signified, that he invited them to revenge him, and to punish the guilty, on pain of being subjected to the curse. This writer compares the action of the Levite with that of Saul in after time, as mentioned 1 Samuel 11.; and, indeed, there is some conformity between them. The question then is, whether the Levite's proceeding laid the tribes under an indispensable necessity to espouse his cause and resentment on pain of the divine malediction? See Martin's Explication des Textes Difficiles, p. 118-130.
REFLECTIONS.—Behold another Lot in another Sodom! we have here,
1. The tumultuous assembly of the men of Gibeah. This should have been a city of the Levites; but, perhaps not being sufficiently numerous, the Benjamites, in whose tribe it lay, yet inhabited it; and a vile set of wretches they were, sons of Belial, who neither feared God nor regarded man, intent only upon the indulgence of their brutal lusts, and stopping at nothing to gratify them. In defiance of all laws, human and divine, they beset the house, demand the stranger, and dare avow their infamous designs upon him. Note; (1.) Continuance in lewdness breeds barefaced impudence. (2.) When a sinner is given up to his own heart's lust, he easily sinks into the most unnatural crimes which are shocking but to mention.
2. The good man of the house goes out to expostutate with them, pleads the rights of hospitality and the wickedness of their demands, nay proffers to bring them (a very sinful proposal, indeed, which never can be vindicated) his own daughter, and the Levite's concubine, that he might, by a lesser evil, divert them from a greater; but they are deaf to remonstrance, and their heart is fully set in them to do evil. Note; (1.) Sinners often grow desperate in wickedness, and, like the raging sea, neither will bear restraint nor hear admonition. (2.) We must never commit one evil to avoid a greater, but choose the greatest suffering preferably to the least sin.
3. The Levite's concubine, probably more handsome than the old man's daughter, being thrust out to them, they seize her; and, perhaps, seeing the old man resolute to gratify them no farther, they make her the object of their brutal lust. All night they abused her, till the dawning day casting unwelcome light on such deeds of darkness, they left her, and retired. Her strength exhausted, her spirit sunk with grief and shame, her body covered with mortal bruises, and murdered with this inhuman treatment, she just crawls to the door, falls down, and dies. Note; (1.) Perhaps the lust which had been her sin is now, in just judgment, made her punishment. (2.) They who have ruined the objects of their guilty pleasure may think lightly of their crimes, but will surely meet an avenging God.
4. In the morning the Levite arises to go; and, seeing his wife in this posture, thinks her ashamed of what had passed, or asleep on the ground, and therefore bids her arise: but he soon finds his mistake; she is dead. Hereupon he quietly takes her on his beast, glad to escape with his own life from such a scene of abominations; home he hastens, instead of going to Shiloh, as he proposed: and as there was no kind of general council, from whom he could seek redress, he takes a method which could not but tend to make every Israelite shudder with horror; he divided the dead body into twelve parts, and sent one to each tribe, with an account of what had passed, referring it to them to consider what punishment such atrocious wickedness deserved: one part was probably sent to Benjamin, as well as the other tribes, in case some might be found different from their brethren; or else two parts were for Manasseh, whose lot was divided.
5. Struck with indignation and horror at the deed, the whole body of the people, as one man, declare their sense of such an unparalleled crime. A solemn assembly is resolved upon, where they might meet to determine the punishment of the offenders; and in the mean time the matter is recommended to the serious consideration of each man, that, when they met in council, they might be ready to resolve upon a proper method of proceeding. Note; (1.) Even where the provocation is great, we do well to proceed with deliberation, lest our anger bias our resolutions. (2.) They, who would obtain God's blessing on the land, must seek to purge iniquity from it by executing justice on the criminals.