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Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
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Matthew Henry |
J U D G E S
CHAP. XIX.
The three remaining chapters of this book contain a most tragical story
of the wickedness of the men of Gibeah, patronised by the tribe of
Benjamin, for which that tribe was severely chastised and almost
entirely cut off by the rest of the tribes. This seems to have been
done not long after the death of Joshua, for it was when there was no
king, no judge, in Israel
and Phinehas was then high priest,
These particular iniquities, the Danites’ idolatry, and the Benjamites’
immorality, let in that general apostasy,
The abuse of the Levite’s concubine is here very particularly related.
I. Her adulterous elopement from him,
II. His reconciliation to her, and the journey he took to fetch her
home,
III. Her father’s kind entertainment of him,
IV. The abuse he met with at Gibeah, where, being benighted, he was
forced to stop.
1. He was neglected by the men of Gibeah
and entertained by an Ephraimite that sojourned among them,
2. They set upon him in his quarters, as the Sodomites did on Lot’s
quests,
3. They villainously forced his concubine to death,
V. The course he took to send notice of this to all the tribes of
Israel,
| Elopement of the Levite’s Concubine; The Levite Reconciled to His Concubine; The Levite Benighted at Gibeah. | B. C. 1410. |
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1 And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king
in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side
of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of
Beth-lehem-judah.
2 And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away
from him unto her father’s house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there
four whole months.
3 And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak friendly
unto her, and to bring her again, having his servant with him,
and a couple of asses: and she brought him into her father’s
house: and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to
meet him.
4 And his father in law, the damsel’s father, retained him; and
he abode with him three days: so they did eat and drink, and
lodged there.
5 And it came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose early
in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s
father said unto his son in law, Comfort thine heart with a
morsel of bread, and afterward go your way.
6 And they sat down, and did eat and drink both of them
together: for the damsel’s father had said unto the man, Be
content, I pray thee, and tarry all night, and let thine heart be
merry.
7 And when the man rose up to depart, his father in law urged
him: therefore he lodged there again.
8 And he arose early in the morning on the fifth day to depart:
and the damsel’s father said, Comfort thine heart, I pray thee.
And they tarried until afternoon, and they did eat both of them.
9 And when the man rose up to depart, he, and his concubine,
and his servant, his father in law, the damsel’s father, said
unto him, Behold, now the day draweth toward evening, I pray you
tarry all night: behold, the day groweth to an end, lodge here,
that thine heart may be merry; and to morrow get you early on
your way, that thou mayest go home.
10 But the man would not tarry that night, but he rose up and
departed, and came over against Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and
there were with him two asses saddled, his concubine also was
with him.
11 And when they were by Jebus, the day was far spent; and
the servant said unto his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us
turn in into this city of the Jebusites, and lodge in it.
12 And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither
into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of
Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.
13 And he said unto his servant, Come, and let us draw near to
one of these places to lodge all night, in Gibeah, or in Ramah.
14 And they passed on and went their way; and the sun went down
upon them when they were by Gibeah, which belongeth to
Benjamin.
15 And they turned aside thither, to go in and to lodge in
Gibeah: and when he went in, he sat him down in a street of the
city: for there was no man that took them into his house to
lodging.
The domestic affairs of this Levite would not have been related thus
largely but to make way for the following story of the injuries done
him, in which the whole nation interested themselves. Bishop Hall’s
first remark upon this story is, That there is no complain of a
public ordered state but there is a Levite at one end of it, either as
an agent or as a patient. In Micah’s idolatry a Levite was active;
in the wickedness of Gibeah a Levite was passive; no tribe shall
sooner feel the want of government than that of Levi; and, in all
the book of Judges, no mention is made of any of that tribe, but of
these two. This Levite was of Mount Ephraim,
v. 1.
He married a wife of Bethlehem-Judah. She is called his
concubine, because she was not endowed, for perhaps he had
nothing to endow her with, being himself a sojourner and not settled;
but it does not appear that he had any other wife, and the margin calls
her a wife, a concubine,
v. 1.
She came from the same city that Micah’s Levite came from, as if
Bethlehem-Judah owed a double ill turn to Mount Ephraim, for she was as
bad for a Levite’s wife as the other for a Levite.
I. This Levite’s concubine played the whore and eloped from her
husband,
v. 2.
The Chaldee reads it only that she carried herself insolently to
him, or despised him, and, he being displeased at it, she
went away from him, and (which was not fair) was received and
entertained at her father’s house. Had her husband turned her out of
doors unjustly, her father ought to have pitied her affliction; but,
when she treacherously departed from her husband to embrace the bosom
of a stranger, her father ought not to have countenanced her sin.
Perhaps she would not have violated her duty to her husband if she had
not known too well where she should be kindly received. Children’s ruin
is often owing very much to parents’ indulgence.
II. The Levite went himself to court her return. It was a sign there
was no king, no judge, in Israel, else she would have been prosecuted
and put to death as an adulteress; but, instead of that, she is
addressed in the kindest manner by her injured husband, who takes a
long journey on purpose to beseech her to be reconciled,
v. 3.
If he had put her away, it would have been a crime in him to return to
her again,
But, she having gone away, it was a virtue in him to forgive the
offence, and, though the party wronged, to make the first motion to her
to be friends again. It is part of the character of the wisdom from
above that it is gentle and easy to be entreated. He spoke
friendly to her, or comfortably (for so the Hebrew phrase
of speaking to the heart commonly signifies), which intimates
that she was in sorrow, penitent fore what she had done amiss, which
probably he heard of when he came to fetch her back. Thus God promises
concerning adulterous Israel
(Hos. ii. 14),
I will bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to
her.
III. Her father made him very welcome, and, by his extraordinary
kindness to him, endeavoured to atone for the countenance he had given
his daughter in withdrawing from him, and to confirm him in his
disposition to be reconciled to her.
1. He entertains him kindly, rejoices to see him
(v. 3),
treats him generously for three days,
v. 4.
And the Levite, to show that he was perfectly reconciled, accepted his
kindness, and we do not find that he upbraided him or his daughter with
what had been amiss, but was as easy and as pleasant as at his first
wedding-feast. It becomes all, but especially Levites, to forgive as
God does. Every thing among them gave a hopeful prospect of their
living comfortably together for the future; but, could they have
foreseen what befel them within one day or two, how would all their
mirth have been embittered and turned into mourning! When the affairs
of our families are in the best posture we ought to rejoice with
trembling, because we know not what troubles one day may bring forth.
We cannot foresee what evil is near us, but we ought to consider what
may be, that we may not be secure, as if to-morrow must needs be as
this day and much more abundant,
Isa. lvi. 12.
2. He is very earnest for his stay, as a further demonstration of his
hearty welcome. The affection he had for him, and the pleasure he took
in his company, proceeded,
(1.) From a civil regard to him as his son-in-law and an ingrafted
branch of his own house. Note, Love and duty are due to those to whom
we are related by marriage as well as to those who are bone of our
bone: and those that show kindness as this Levite did may expect to
receive kindness as he did. And,
(2.) From a pious respect to him as a Levite, a servant of God’s house;
if he was such a Levite as he should be (and nothing appears to the
contrary) he is to be commended for courting his stay, finding his
conversation profitable, and having opportunity to learn from him the
good knowledge of the Lord, hoping also that the Lord will do
him good because he has a Levite to be his son-in-law, and will
bless him for his sake.
[1.] He forces him to stay the fourth day, and this was kind; not
knowing when they might be together again, he engages him to stay as
long as he possibly could. The Levite, though nobly treated, was very
urgent to be gone. A good man’s heart is where his business is; for
as a bird that wanders from her nest so is the man that wanders form
his place. It is a sign a man has either little to do at home, or
little heart to do what he has to do, when he can take pleasure in
being long abroad where he has nothing to do. It is especially good to
see a Levite willing to go home to his few sheep in the wilderness. Yet
this Levite was overcome by importunity and kind persuasion to stay
longer than he intended,
We ought to avoid the extreme of an over-easy yielding, to the neglect
of our duty on the one hand, and that of moroseness and wilfulness, to
the neglect of our friends and their kindness on the other hand. Our
Saviour, after his resurrection, was prevailed upon to stay with his
friends longer than he at first intimated to be his purpose,
[2.] He forces him to stay till the afternoon of the fifth day, and
this, as it proved, was unkind,
He would by no means let him go before dinner, promises him he shall
have dinner early, designing thereby, as he had done the day before, to
detain him another night; but the Levite was intent on the house of
the Lord at Shiloh
(v. 18),
and, being impatient to get thither, would stay no longer. Had they set
out early, they might have reached some better lodging-place than that
which they were now constrained to take up with, nay, they might have
got to Shiloh. Note, Our friends’ designed kindnesses often prove, in
the event, real injuries; what is meant for our welfare becomes a trap.
Who knows what is good for a man in this life? The Levite was
unwise in setting out so late; he might have got home better if he had
staid a night longer and taken the day before him.
IV. In his return home he was forced to lodge at Gibeah, a city in the
tribe of Benjamin, afterwards called Gibeah of Saul, which lay
on his road towards Shiloh and Mount Ephraim. When it drew towards
night, and the shadows of the evening were stretched out, they began to
think (as it behoves us to do when we observe the day of our life
hastening towards a period) where they must lodge. When night came they
could not pursue their journey. He that walketh in darkness knoweth
not whither he goes. They could not but desire rest, for which the
night was intended, as the day for labour.
1. The servant proposed that they should lodge in Jebus, afterwards
Jerusalem, but as yet in the possession of Jebusites. “Come,” said the
servant, “let us lodge in this city of the Jebusites,”
And, if they had done so, it is probable they would have had much
better usage than they met with in Gibeah of Benjamin. Debauched and
profligate Israelites are worse and much more dangerous than Canaanites
themselves. But the master, as became one of God’s tribe, would by no
means quarter, no, not one night, in a city of strangers
(v. 12),
not because he questioned his safety among them, but he was not
willing, if he could possibly avoid it, to have so much intimacy and
familiarity with them as a night’s lodging came to, nor to be so much
beholden to them. By shunning this place he would witness against the
wickedness of those that contracted friendship and familiarity with
these devoted nations. Let Israelites, Levites especially, associate
with Israelites, and not with the sons of the stranger.
2. Having passed by Jebus, which was about five or six miles from
Bethlehem (the place whence they came), and not having daylight to
bring them to Ramah, they stopped at Gibeah
(v. 13-15);
there they sat down in the street, nobody offering them a lodging. In
these countries, at that time, there were no inns, or public-houses, in
which, as with us, travellers might have entertainment for their money,
but they carried entertainment along with them, as this Levite did
(v. 19),
and depended upon the courtesy and hospitality of the inhabitants for a
lodging. Let us take occasion hence, when we are in journeys, to thank
God for this, among other conveniences of travelling, that there are
inns to entertain strangers, and in which they may be welcome and well
accommodated for their money. Surely there is no country in the world
wherein one may stay at home with more satisfaction, or go abroad with
more comfort, than in our own nation. This traveller, though a Levite
(and to those of that tribe God had particularly commanded his people
to be kind upon all occasions), met with very cold entertainment at
Gibeah: No man took them into his house. If they had any reason
to think he was a Levite perhaps that made those ill-disposed people
the more shy of him. There are those who will have this laid to their
charge at the great day, I was a stranger and you took me not
in.
| The Levite Entertained at Gibeah. | B. C. 1410. |
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16 And, behold, there came an old man from his work out of the
field at even, which was also of mount Ephraim; and he
sojourned in Gibeah: but the men of the place were Benjamites.
17 And when he had lifted up his eyes, he saw a wayfaring man
in the street of the city: and the old man said, Whither goest
thou? and whence comest thou?
18 And he said unto him, We are passing from Beth-lehem-judah
toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went
to Beth-lehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD;
and there is no man that receiveth me to house.
19 Yet there is both straw and provender for our asses; and
there is bread and wine also for me, and for thy handmaid, and
for the young man which is with thy servants: there is no
want of any thing.
20 And the old man said, Peace be with thee; howsoever let
all thy wants lie upon me; only lodge not in the street.
21 So he brought him into his house, and gave provender unto
the asses: and they washed their feet, and did eat and drink.
Though there as not one of Gibeah, yet it proved there was one
in Gibeah, that showed some civility to this distressed Levite,
who was glad that any one took notice of him. It was strange that some
of those wicked people, who, when it was dark, designed so ill to him
and his concubine, did not, under pretence of kindness, invite them in,
that they might have a fairer opportunity of perpetrating their
villany; but either they had not wit enough to be so designing, or not
wickedness enough to be so deceiving. Or, perhaps, none of them
separately thought of such a wickedness, till in the black and dark
night they got together to contrive what mischief they should do. Bad
people in confederacy make one another much worse than any of them
would be by themselves. When the Levite, and his wife, and servant,
were beginning to fear that they must lie in the street all night (and
as good have laid in a den of lions) they were at length invited into a
house, and we are here told,
I. Who that kind man was that invited them.
1. He was a man of Mount Ephraim, and only sojourned in Gibeah,
Of all the tribes of Israel, the Benjamites had most reason to be kind
to poor travellers, for their ancestor, Benjamin, was born upon the
road, his mother being then upon a journey, and very near to this
place,
Yet they were hard-hearted to a traveller in distress, while an honest
Ephraimite had compassion on him, and, no doubt, was the more kind to
him, when, upon enquiry, he found that he was his countryman, of Mount
Ephraim likewise. He that was himself but a sojourner in Gibeah was the
more compassionate to a wayfaring man, for he knew the heart of a
stranger,
Exod. xxiii. 9; Deut. x. 19.
Good people, that look upon themselves but as strangers and sojourners
in this world, should for this reason be tender to one another, because
they all belong to the same better country and are not at home here.
2. He was an old man, one that retained some of the expiring virtue of
an Israelite. The rising generation was entirely corrupted; if there
was any good remaining among them, it was only with those that were old
and going off.
3. He was coming home from his work out of the field at eventide. The
evening calls home labourers,
But, it should seem, this was the only labourer that this evening
brought home to Gibeah. The rest had given themselves up to sloth and
luxury, and no marvel there was among them, as in Sodom, abundance of
uncleanness, when there was among them, as in Sodom, abundance of
idleness,
But he that was honestly diligent in his business all day was disposed
to be generously hospitable to these poor strangers at night. Let men
labour, that they may have to give,
Eph. iv. 28.
It appears from
that he was a man of some substance, and yet had been himself at work
in the field. No man’s estate will privilege him in idleness.
II. How free and generous he was in his invitation. He did not stay
till they applied to him to beg for a night’s lodging; but when he saw
them
(v. 17)
enquired into their circumstances, and anticipated them with his
kindness. Thus our good God answers before we call. Note, A charitable
disposition expects only opportunity, not importunity, to do good, and
will succour upon sight, unsought unto. Hence we read of a bountiful
eye,
Prov. xxii. 9.
If Gibeah was like Sodom, this old man was like Lot in Sodom, who
sat in the gate to invite strangers,
Thus Job opened his doors to the traveller, and would not suffer
him to lodge in the street,
Job xxxi. 32.
Observe,
1. How ready he was to give credit to the Levite’s account of himself
when he saw no reason at all to question the truth of it. Charity is
not apt to distrust, but hopeth all things
and will not make use of Nabal’s excuse for his churlishness to David,
Many servants now-a-days break away from their masters,
1 Sam. xxv. 10.
The Levite, in his account of himself, professed that he was now going
to the house of the Lord
(v. 18),
for there he designed to attend, either with a trespass-offering for
the sins of his family, or with a peace-offering for the mercies of his
family, or both, before he went to his own house. And, if the men of
Gibeah had any intimation of his being bound that way, probably they
would therefore be disinclined to entertain him. The Samaritans would
not receive Christ because his face was towards Jerusalem,
But for this reason, because he was a Levite and was now going to the
house of the Lord, this good old man was the more kind to him. Thus he
received a disciples in the name of a disciple, a servant of God
for his Master’s sake.
2. How free he was to give him entertainment. The Levite was himself
provided with all necessaries
(v. 19),
wanted nothing but a lodging, but his generous host would be himself at
the charge of his entertainment
(v. 20):
Let all thy wants be upon me; so he brought him into his
house,
v. 21.
Thus God will, some way or other, raise up friends for his people and
ministers, even when they seem forlorn.
| The Wickedness of Gibeah; The Israelites Roused to Revenge. | B. C. 1410. |
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22 Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the
men of the city, certain sons of Belial, beset the house round
about, and beat at the door, and spake to the master of the
house, the old man, saying, Bring forth the man that came into
thine house, that we may know him.
23 And the man, the master of the house, went out unto them,
and said unto them, Nay, my brethren, nay, I pray you, do not
so wickedly; seeing that this man is come into mine house, do
not this folly.
24 Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine;
them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them
what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a
thing.
25 But the men would not hearken to him: so the man took his
concubine, and brought her forth unto them; and they knew her,
and abused her all the night until the morning: and when the day
began to spring, they let her go.
26 Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down
at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was
light.
27 And her lord rose up in the morning, and opened the doors of
the house, and went out to go his way: and, behold, the woman his
concubine was fallen down at the door of the house, and her
hands were upon the threshold.
28 And he said unto her, Up, and let us be going. But none
answered. Then the man took her up upon an ass, and the man
rose up, and gat him unto his place.
29 And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and
laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her
bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of
Israel.
30 And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such
deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came
up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take
advice, and speak your minds.
Here is,
I. The great wickedness of the men of Gibeah. One could not imagine
that ever it should enter into the heart of men that had the use of
human reason, of Israelites that had the benefit of divine revelation,
to be so very wicked. “Lord, what is man!” said David, “what a
mean creature is he!” “Lord, what is man,” may we say upon the
reading of this story, “what a vile creature is he, when he is given up
to his own heart’s lusts!” The sinners are here called sons of
Belial, that is, ungovernable men, men that would endure no yoke,
children of the devil (for he is Belial), resembling him, and joining
with him in rebellion against God and his government. Sons of Benjamin,
of whom Moses had said, The beloved of the Lord shall dwell in
safety by him
have become such sons of Belial that an honest man cannot lodge in
safety among them. The sufferers were a Levite and his wife, and that
kind man that gave them entertainment. We are strangers upon earth, and
must expect strange usage. It is said they were making their hearts
merry when this trouble came upon them,
If the mirth was innocent, it teaches us of what uncertain continuance
all our creature comforts and enjoyments are; when we are ever so well
pleased with our friends, we know not how near our enemies are; nor, if
it be well with us this hour, can we be sure it will be so the next. If
the mirth was sinful and excessive, let it be a warning to us to keep a
strict guard upon ourselves, that we grow not intemperate in the use of
lawful things, nor be transported into indecencies by our cheerfulness;
for the end of that mirth is heaviness. God can soon change the
note of those that are making their hearts merry, and turn their
laughter into mourning and their joy into heaviness. Let us see what
the wickedness of these Benjamites was.
1. They made a rude and insolent assault, in the night, upon the
habitation of an honest man, that not only lived peaceably among them,
but kept a good house and was a blessing and ornament to their city.
They beset the house round, and, to the great terror of those within,
beat as hard as they could at the door,
A man’s house is his castle, in which he ought to be both safe and
quiet, and, where there is law, it is taken under the special
protection of it; but there was no king in Israel to keep the peace and
secure honest men from the sons of violence.
2. They had a particular spite at the strangers that were within their
gates, that only desired a night’s lodging among them, contrary to the
laws of hospitality, which all civilized nations have accounted sacred,
and which the master of the house pleaded with them
(v. 23):
Seeing that this man has come into my house. Those are base and
abject spirits indeed that will trample upon the helpless, and use a
man the worse for his being a stranger, whom they know no ill of.
3. They designed in the most filthy and abominable manner (not to be
thought of without horror and detestation) to abuse the Levite, whom
perhaps they had observed to be young and comely: Bring him forth
that we may know him. We should certainly have concluded they meant
only to enquire whence he came, and to know his character, but that the
good man of the house, who understood their meaning too well, by his
answer lets us know that they designed the gratification of that most
unnatural and worse than brutish lust which was expressly forbidden by
the law of Moses, and called an abomination,
Lev. xviii. 22.
Those that are guilty of it are ranked in the New Testament among the
worst and vilest of sinners
(1 Tim. i. 10),
and such as shall not inherit the kingdom of God,
1 Cor. vi. 9.
Now,
(1.) This was the sin of Sodom, and is thence called Sodomy. The
Dead Sea, which was the standing monument of God’s vengeance upon
Sodom, for its filthiness, was one of the boundaries of Canaan, and lay
not many miles off from Gibeah. We may suppose the men of Gibeah had
seen it many a time, and yet would not take warning by it, but did
worse than Sodom
and sinned just after the similitude of their transgression. Who
would have expected (says bishop Hall) such extreme abomination to come
out of the loins of Jacob? Even the worst pagans were saints to them.
What did it avail them that they had the ark of God in Shiloh when they
had Sodom in their streets–God’s law in their fringes, but the devil
in their hearts? Nothing but hell itself can yield a worse creature
than a depraved Israelite.
(2.) This was the punishment of their idolatry, that sin to which they
were, above all others, most addicted. Because they liked not to
retain God in their knowledge, therefore he gave them up to these vile
affections, by which they dishonoured themselves as they had by their
idolatry dishonoured him and turned his glory into shame,
See and admire, in this instance, the patience of God. Why were not
these sons of Belial struck blind, as the Sodomites were? Why were not
fire and brimstone rained from heaven upon their city? It was because
God would leave it to Israel to punish them by the sword, and would
reserve his own punishment of them for the future state, in which those
that go after strange flesh shall suffer the vengeance of
eternal fire,
Jude 7.
4. They were deaf to the reproofs and reasoning of the good man of the
house, who, being well acquainted (we may suppose) with the story of
Lot and the Sodomites, set himself to imitate Lot,
Compare
He went out to them as Lot did, spoke civilly to them, called them
brethren, begged of them to desist, pleaded the protection of his house
which his guests were under, and represented to them the great
wickedness of their attempt: “Do not so wickedly, so very wickedly.” He
calls it folly and a vile thing. But in one thing he
conformed too far to Lot’s example (as we are apt in imitating good men
to follow them even in their false steps), in offering them his
daughter to do what they would with. He had not power thus to
prostitute his daughter, nor ought he to have done this evil that good
might come. But this wicked proposal of his may be in part excused from
the great surprise and terror he was in, his concern for his guests,
and his having too close a regard to what Lot did in the like case,
especially not finding that the angels who were by reproved him for it.
And perhaps he hoped that his mentioning this as a more natural
gratification of their lust would have sent them back to their common
harlots. But they would not hearken to him,
v. 25.
Headstrong lusts are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear; they
sear the conscience and make it insensible.
5. They got the Levite’s wife among them, and abused her to death,
They slighted the old man’s offer of his daughter to their lust, either
because she was not handsome or because they knew her to be one of
great gravity and modesty: but, when the Levite brought them his
concubine, they took her with them by force to the place appointed for
their filthiness. Josephus, in his narrative of this story, makes her
to be the person they had a design upon when they beset the house, and
says nothing of their villainous design upon the Levite himself. They
saw her (he says) in the street, when they came into the town, and were
smitten with her beauty; and perhaps, though she was reconciled to her
husband, her looks did not bespeak her to be one of the most modest.
Many bring mischief of this kind upon themselves by their loose
carriage and behaviour; a little spark may kindle a great fire. One
would think the Levite should have followed them, to see what became of
his wife, but it is probable he durst not, lest they should do him a
mischief. In the miserable end of this woman, we may see the righteous
hand of God punishing her for her former uncleanness, when she played
the whore against her husband,
v. 2.
Though her father had countenanced her, her husband had forgiven her,
and the fault was forgotten now that the quarrel was made up, yet God
remembered it against her when he suffered these wicked men thus
wretchedly to abuse her; how unrighteous soever they were in their
treatment of her, in permitting it the Lord was righteous. Her
punishment answered her sin, Culpa libido fuit, poena libido
fuit–Lust was her sin, and lust was her punishment. By the law of
Moses she was to have been put to death for her adultery. She escaped
that punishment from men, yet vengeance pursued her; for, if there was
no king in Israel, yet there was a God in Israel, a God that judgeth in
the earth. We must not think it enough to make our peace with men, whom
by our sins we have wronged, but are concerned, by repentance and
faith, to make our peace with God, who sees not as men see, nor makes
so light of sin as men often do. The justice of God in this matter does
not at all extenuate the horrid wickedness of these men of Gibeah, than
which nothing could be more barbarous and inhuman.
II. The notice that was sent of this wickedness to all the tribes of
Israel. The poor abused woman made towards her husband’s lodgings as
soon as ever the approach of the day-light obliged these sons of Belial
to let her go (for these works of darkness hate and dread the light),
Down she fell at the door, with her hands on the threshold, begging
pardon (as it were) for her former transgression, and in that posture
of a penitent, with her mouth in the dust, she expired. There he found
her
(v. 26, 27),
supposed her asleep, or overcome with shame and confusion for what had
happened, but soon perceived she was dead
(v. 28),
took up her dead body, which, we may suppose, had all over it marks of
the hands, the blows, and other abuses, she had received. On this sad
occasion he waived his purpose of going to Shiloh, and went directly
home. He that went out in hopes to return rejoicing came in again
melancholy and disconsolate, sat down and considered, “Is this an
injury fit to be passed by?” He cannot call for fire from heaven to
consume the men of Gibeah, as those angels did who were, after the same
manner, insulted by the Sodomites. There was no king in Israel, nor
(for aught that appears) any sanhedrim, or great council, to appeal to,
and demand justice from. Phinehas is high priest, but he attends
closely to the business of the sanctuary, and will be no judge or
divider. He has therefore no other way left him than to appeal to the
people: let the community be judge. Though they had no general stated
assembly of all the tribes, yet it is probable that each tribe had a
meeting of their chiefs within itself. To each of the tribes, in their
respective meetings, he sent by special messengers a remonstrance of
the wrong that was done him, in all its aggravating circumstances, and
with it a piece of his wife’s dead body
(v. 29),
both to confirm the truth of the story and to affect them the more with
it. He divided it into twelve pieces, according to the bones, so
some read it, that is, by the joints, sending one to each tribe, even
to Benjamin among the rest, with the hope that some among them would be
moved to join in punishing so great a villany, and the more warmly
because committed by some of their own tribe. It did indeed look very
barbarous thus to mangle a dead body, which, having been so wretchedly
dishonoured, ought to have been decently interred; but the Levite
designed hereby, not only to represent their barbarous usage of his
wife, whom they had better have cut in pieces thus than have used as
they did, but also to express his own passionate concern and thereby to
excite the like in them. And it had the desired effect. All that saw
the pieces of the dead body, and were told how the matter was,
expressed the same sentiments upon it.
1. That the men of Gibeah had been guilty of a very heinous piece of
wickedness, the like to which had never been known before in Israel,
It was a complicated crime, loaded and blackened with all possible
aggravations. They were not such fools as to make a mock at this sin,
or turn the story off with a jest.
2. That a general assembly of all Israel should be called, to debate
what was fit to be done for the punishment of this wickedness, that a
stop might be put to this threatening inundation of debauchery, and the
wrath of God might not be poured upon the whole nation for it. It is
not a common case, and therefore they stir up one another to come
together upon the occasion with this: Consider of it, take advice,
and speak your minds. We have here the three great rules by which
those that sit in council ought to go in every arduous affair.
(1.) Let every man retire into himself, and weigh the matter
impartially and fully in his own thoughts, and seriously and calmly
consider it, without prejudice on either side, before he speaks upon
it.
(2.) Let them freely talk it over, and every man take advice of his
friend, know his opinion and his reasons, and weigh them.
(3.) Then let every man speak his mind, and give his vote according to
his conscience. In the multitude of such counsellors there is
safety.
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