Judges 19:27

THE CONCUBINE'S BODY DISCOVERED

"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, with her hands upon the threshold. And he said unto her, "Up, and let us be going; but none answered: then he took her up upon the ass; and the man rose up, and gat him unto his place. And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel. 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 it, take counsel, and speak."

"And all that saw it said" (Judges 19:30). Apparently, as Moore noted, "This clause is much more natural in the mouth of the Levite's messengers."[18]

We shall see in the next chapter that an atrocious war resulted from this episode, but a very important aspect of this relates to the purpose of it. It was not for the purpose of avenging the death of the innocent and helpless concubine, but to avenge the trespass of the husband's property rights! and to punish Gibeah for the violation of the laws of hospitality. That their beastly homosexuality should have been severely punished seems never to have occurred to the Israelites!

"There was the woman, his concubine, lying at the house door with her hands on the sill" (Judges 19:27). There is not a more pathetic line in the O.T. than this.

This innocent, harmless young woman, was callously surrendered by her husband to the lustful abuse of an entire company of homosexual brutes, who had carried her away to one of their homes, where their sadistic pleasure tortured her until daylight. She was finally allowed to leave, and she painfully and broken-heartedly made her way, using the last ounce of her ebbing strength to gain what she hoped would be a place of safety, but she fell dead upon the doorstep in the chill of the early morning. It was a mercy of God that she did not survive to hear the unfeeling voice of her lord, ordering her, "Up, let us be going."