Within the Bible, one occasionally finds stories so horrible, one can wonder what their purpose is. Not only is this story utterly bizarre, but it is also absolutely disgusting. A man and his concubine are wandering the streets when they decide to seek shelter for the night, and find a man kind enough to let them stay. That night however, a group of men turn up at the door and demand to see the guest so that they may have sex with him. The owner is unwilling to let his male lodger be raped and so offers up his virgin daughter instead. However, this is still not good enough for the men, so the owner offers them his guest’s concubine and the men accept. The men brutally rape the woman and leave her on the doorstep where she bleeds to death. If that is not enough, when she is found by her husband, he chops her up into twelve pieces which he sends to each of the twelve tribes of Israel.
Judges 19:22-30
The moral of this story? I would hope none1 There was a certain Levite, who dwelt on the side of mount Ephraim, who took a wife of Bethlehem Juda: 2 And she left him and returned to her father's house in Bethlehem, and abode with him four months. 3 And her husband followed her, willing to be reconciled with her, and to speak kindly to her, and to bring her back with him, having with him a servant and two asses: and she received him, and brought him into her father's house. And when his father in law had heard this, and had seen him, he met him with joy, 4 And embraced the man. And the son in law tarried in the house of his father in law three days, eating with him and drinking familiarly. 5 But on the fourth day arising early in the morning he desired to depart. But his father in law kept him, and said to him: Taste first a little bread, and strengthen thy stomach, and so thou shalt depart.
6 And they sat down together, and ate and drank. And the father of the young woman said to his son in law: I beseech thee to stay here today, and let us make merry together. 7 But he rising up began to be for departing. And nevertheless his father in law earnestly pressed him, and made him stay with him. 8 But when morning was come, the Levite prepared to go on his journey. And his father in law said to him again: I beseech thee to take a little meat, and strengthening thyself, till the day be farther advanced, afterwards thou mayest depart. And they ate together. 9 And the young man arose to set forward with his wife and servant. And his father in law spoke to him again: Consider that the day is declining, and draweth toward evening: tarry with me today also, and spend the day in mirth, and tomorrow thou shalt depart, that thou mayest go into thy house. 10 His son in law would not consent to his words: but forthwith went forward and came over against Jebus, which by another name is called Jerusalem, leading with him two asses laden, and his concubine.
"Concubine"... She was his lawful wife, but even lawful wives are frequently in scripture called concubines. See chap. 8 ver. 31-ver. 16. Jemini. That is, Benjamin.11 And now they were come near Jebus, and the day was far spent: and the servant said to his master: Come, I beseech thee, let us turn into the city of the Jebusites, and lodge there. 12 His master answered him: I will not go into the town of another nation, who are not of the children of Israel, but I will pass over to Gabaa: 13 And when I shall come thither, we will lodge there, or at least in the city of Rama. 14 So they passed by Jebus, and went on their journey, and the sun went down upon them when they were by Gabaa, which is in the tribe of Benjamin: 15 And they turned into it, to lodge there. And when they were come in, they sat in the street of the city, for no man would receive them to lodge.
16 And behold they saw an old man, returning out of the field and from his work in the evening, and he also was of mount Ephraim, and dwelt as a stranger in Gabaa; but the men of that country were the children of Jemini. 17 And the old man lifting up his eyes, saw the man sitting with his bundles in the street of the city, and said to him: Whence comest thou? and whither goest thou? 18 He answered him: We came out from Bethlehem Juda, and we are going to our home, which is on the side of mount Ephraim, from whence we went to Bethlehem: and now we go to the house of God, and none will receive us under his roof: 19 We have straw and hay for provender of the asses, and bread and wine for the use of myself and of thy handmaid, and of the servant that is with me: we want nothing but lodging. 20 And the old man answered him: Peace be with thee: I will furnish all things that are necessary: only I beseech thee, stay not in the street.
21 And he brought him into his house, and gave provender to his asses: and after they had washed their feet, he entertained them with a feast. 22 While they were making merry, and refreshing their bodies with meat and drink, after the labour of the journey, the men of that city, sons of Belial, (that is, without yoke,) came and beset the old man's house, and began to knock at the door, calling to the master of the house, and saying: Bring forth the man that came into thy house, that we may abuse him. 23 And the old man went out to them, and said: Do not so, my brethren, do not so wickedly: because this man is come into my lodging, and cease I pray you from this folly. 24 I have a maiden daughter, and this man hath a concubine, I will bring them out to you, and you may humble them, and satisfy your lust: only, I beseech you, commit not this crime against nature on the man. 25 They would not be satisfied with his words; which the man seeing, brought out his concubine to them, and abandoned her to their wickedness: and when they had abused her all the night, they let her go in the morning.
26 But the woman, at the dawning of the day, came to the door of the house where her lord lodged, and there fell down. 27 And in the morning the man arose, and opened the door that he might end the journey he had begun: and behold his concubine lay before the door with her hands spread on the threshold. 28 He thinking she was taking her rest, said to her: Arise, and let us be going. But as she made no answer, perceiving she was dead, he took her up, and laid her upon his ass, and returned to his house. 29 And when he was come home he took a sword, and divided the dead body of his wife with her bones into twelve parts, and sent the pieces into all the borders of Israel. 30 And when every one had seen this, they all cried out: There was never such a thing done in Israel from the day that our fathers came up out of Egypt, until this day: give sentence, and decree in common what ought to be done.
37 comments:
The story doesn't exactly wear its point on its sleeve, but here's a common enough way of understanding it. First, some background: after the Israelites finally were allowed to leave the wilderness and conquer the lands of Canaan, they didn't set up a monarchy right away. Instead, there was a period of time where they were de facto ruled by a series of prophet/warlord characters known as 'judges' (hence the Book of Judges), but officially ruled by Yahweh himself. Only later, when the sons of the priest Samuel were such crooked judges that the people of Israel asked Samuel for a human king, did Israel get a bona fide monarchy up and running (Samuel and Yahweh conspire to appoint the hapless Saul as the first king of Israel).
Anyway, one of the themes of the Book of Judges is that things were terrible before the monarchy (there's this running refrain: "In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes.") and so nearly all the stories from Judges are filled with chaos and hell and blood and shit and guts. It's awesome.
The story you're talking about is among the most awesome*, and the point seems to be something like this: "Holy shit, everything was crazy as hell back then!! Thank God we have a monarchy now!!"
* Though check out Ehud (Judges 3:12-30) and Jael (Judges 4:17-22). Ehud manages to assassinate a fat king by stabbing him until the king shits himself; and Jael takes in a fleeing king, tucks him in, gets him some milk, and then runs a tent peg into the ground through his head, crushing his skull. Badass.
It's a story about stuff that might have happened, kind of like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. No moral, except whatever's in that excellent analysis by god-rousing_dog_pipes.
It is rather despicable to offer up his wife to be raped (though it was her or him), but its not as if he condones the act. The whole point of chopping her up (after she is dead) and sending her to the far corners of Israel is to show to everyone what horrible things had been done to her, and to insense them with the injustice of the acts.
Genocide, human sacrifice, war and mass murder are ordered by god several times throughout the old testament.
Exodus 32
27:'And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.'
28: 'And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.'
This is far from the most disgusting tale in the bible.
The entire bible is dusgusting. But what is even more disgusting is a modern people who actually embrace this bizarre book. Why? Because someone (parent, church, community, society) told them to, and it's easier, and less responsibility to follow than to think for one's self.
The bible is fill of crap. Lot (the one 'good man' in S&G) also offered his virgin daughers to a mob to be gang raped (and later committed incest with them himself).
Even the new testament is weird. Jesus steals a donkey in one place, and kills a fig tree for not having fruit on it out of season. He also steals and kills someone's herd of pigs.
It's daft the way some people think this is the literal 'word of god'. Sure there are some good moral lessons, if you pick and choose, but almost any book has a few moral messages and useful lessons you can extract.
god-rousing lays a pretty good case for the character of Judges, but this particular story is even easier to parse... if you keep reading. The story of the Levite and his concubine is the set-up for the war against the Tribe of Benjamin. That is, this story is supposed to so terrible that everyone hearing it would not question the 'righteousness' of a war against the tribe that carried it out -- the Benjaminites.
I think it's probably a combination of the rather awful and brutal morality of the bible (seriously people find this book uplifting? They must not read it really) and something weird happening in translation.
So, wait. . .God wants me to use my wife as some sort of "shield" for protecting the virtue of my butt-hole?!
Maybe I oughta give this 'God' person another look!
A man once said that the greatest possible force against religion to have ever been dreamed up is the Bible.
"Properly read, the Bible is the most potent force for atheism ever conceived." - Isaac Asimov
How about we make a "The Passion" level movie about all of judges? Great way to get some faces of death style rape and mindless brutal violence into the mainstream movie houses.
(If you do, please let me help)
why do i have a feeling that the origin of this story was wayyy different... IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE! AND IT HAS NO PURPOSE! my views on religion? god? agnostic... and frankly i don't really care.. if there is no god then this is something man created for a reason (demented or self-torturing as that reason may be) it still served a purpose... if there is a god.. then i would bet my soul that this is not a message from him or his "son" (again confusing how can an Omnipotent almighty divine being exist within the system he created?? how can he have a son?? sounds weird to me because the whole populating thing..? a divine being should be -in my opinion- the ultimate power ) in any case this "story" is messed up and was probably retold and changed a million times since it was first told... regardless of it's origins man or god...
When they were "pick and choosing" the works for "The good Book", They should have left most of the "books" out...Including this one ... Aesop's Fables does a better job of sending the proper message, yet billions of People think the Bible is the end all true word of god. Its no wonder sheep are referenced so many times in the Bible...We have a new breed...Or do we???
I think the point of the story lies in the beginning. This man gets married, and for whatever reason his wife is so unhappy that she leaves him. He lets her go for 4 months, then decides to follow her to get her back. Her father is understandably reluctant to let her go, but the man finally makes her leave - practically dragging her away from the home where she went to take sanctuary from him in the first place.
He then makes them travel all day, after even the servant wants them to stop at a closer town, and they arrive at a place that is clearly both unfriendly and unsafe - note the host's insistence that they not spend the night in the street, no matter what. Clearly these fears were justified.
Now, the night comes. This man and his wife are in a stranger's house, possibly sharing a room with the servant, and he's just dragged her away from her father and forced her to come back and be his wife again. It's not unimaginable that they argued. When the mob comes, he sees it as a good opportunity to teach her a lesson and show her what would happen to her without his protection. The fact that it saves his own ass is a bonus, of course, but I think the experience is intended to assert his dominance over her and make her obey him in the future.
The next morning, he obviously didn't intend for her to die - although he apparently didn't lose much sleep over it, either. What he did is by all modern standards atrocious, of course. The old man was evidently powerless to stop it, and the husband never meant it to go this far. It seems to me that, upon discovering what happened to his wife - a woman he at least wanted, if not loved, enough to go fetch her from far away with gifts - he became intensely angry, and intended her mutilated body to serve as a warning of his rage.
....so Harry Potter has mass following as well, guess we should all get out our wands and erect a shrine to dumbledore.
Honestly folks, it was a fictional collection of short stories meant to impart morality and an understanding of "things unknown" to man at that time.
I dont "praise the LAWD" everytime my microwave turns on either.
I know this for a definite fact, that the Bible actually fortold the rising of the League of nations ,the fall of it, and the rise of the United Nations. Aside from this it also fortold the fact that the United States and Great Britain would be a duel world power in the days we're living in.
"I know this for a definite fact, that the Bible actually fortold the rising of the League of nations ,the fall of it, and the rise of the United Nations. Aside from this it also fortold the fact that the United States and Great Britain would be a duel world power in the days we're living in."
What? If you "know this for a definite fact" why don't you provide any sort of evidence - like where in the damn bible any of this is mentioned? YOU might know all sorts of crap as 'fact', but without any corroborating evidence I'd trust your statement as far as any anonymous comment on the web - about the same as I trust what's written on a public toilet wall. Also, why the fuck didn't your omnibenevolent Gawd leave any unambiguous messages about shit that HASN'T HAPPENED YET, rather than some vague rantings in Revelations that you think you can shoe-horn into whatever post-hoc rationilization your tiny mind can come up with.
BTW. It's 'forEtold' you god-smacked dungbrain
The Book of Judges is a historical record of the life of Israel in Canaan before they had a king.
The major theme of the book can be found in the final chapter: "every man did that which was right in his own eyes" i.e. moral anarchy, because everyone lived by their own moral code.
The account of the Levite is disgusting, deplorable and reprehensible - but it is also true. The Bible does not include a rose tinted view of the world, it records the best and worst of humanity.
If there were to be any moral from this account, it is simply that a life lived outside of God's will by our own individual codes will lead to chaos - we need not look far to think of the Nazi's and Stalin's atrocities. Or, more recently Mugabe and the terrors taking place in Iraq (by both sides).
Why do people always expect the Bible to be a book of perfect fairy tales? It is the story of man, and we are anything but perfect.
The Bible is honest and real.
"Why do people always expect the Bible to be a book of perfect fairy tales?"
I agree, the Bible is a quite imperfect book of fairy tales.
"It is the story of man, and we are anything but perfect"
More specifically, it's the story of a tribe of batshit insane sheep-herders.
How ignorant you are.
i think the proper phrase for this situation mr. (or mrs.) jesusblogger is "he's rubber, you're glue.
Why should it have any meaning, its just a story. The only really bizzare thing here is that some folks appears to have a desire to base the direction of their lives on this bronze age text.
"It is the story of man, and we are anything but perfect"
And you believe that your god designed you in his image?
Wow, some people are really gullible.
A lot of verses in the Bible discuss the laws of owning/tending property and crops. Not every Hebrew herded goats. Many of them were farmers and craftsmen. The Tribe of Zevulun was known for its ships and dye-trading.
That being said... Who says every person in the Bible is righteous, or even commendable in any way? Lot, for example, had very little going for him besides the fact he was Avraham's nephew.
While many people write-off the Bible as vulgar and useless... in the same breath they expand upon the verses and use it as a spring-board for discussing ethics and values! If it really is so meaningless, why waste so much ink/kilobytes over it?
For a "bronze age text" it still is very much alive today.
These documents are didactic histories of a society looking critically at itself, and they often follow Hegel's pendulum.
Try to find another nations annals that are nearly as historically honest about their mistakes and failures.
And one last question...Am I "really gullible" because I want to study the teachings of my ancestors... Something that's been passed down in my family for thousands of years?
"Am I "really gullible" because I want to study the teachings of my ancestors"
study the teaching.. NO
believe in it.. YES
I'm sure that if you studied the Bible, from a more scientific perspective as far as using purely fact you would be convinced yourselves that the Bible is in fact inspired by God.
There is plenty of scientific evidence that proves the Bible is true
The Bible is not a science text book but scientific fact proves it true.
For proof, check out on your spare time Isaiah 40:22 in the Bible. Science proved the Bible right.
As someone outside the States looking in, I recently saw the literacy rates in schools in Louisiana, Alabama and Kentucky. Louisiana had 80% of students of 11 years old under standard. (thats 8 out of every ten eleven year olds cannot read the ingredients section on a coke bottle). Kentucky and Alabama were no better. Adult reading ages are straight forward to extrapolate. Judging by the bile, hatred and other crap spouted by "them God fearin' folk" one has to ask, have they actually read their stinking bibles?
I have and aside from the Kuran its the vilest book I have ever read. Burn them all.
The bible is nothing more than the rambling journal of a nomadic desert tribe. As a historical document is is useful for getting an idea of what life may have been like then, but as a guide to living your life today? That's just stupid.
For all those atheists out there that get into debates with christians, or if you just want to read some common christian arguments and the glaring flaws in them, please visit http://wiki.ironchariots.org/
it has come in handy for me several times, not to mention i enjoy reading it for future arguments. also get on youtube and look up "the atheist experience", its a weekly public access show that fields arguments from theist callers, Matt Dillahunty is one of the hosts, the guy is an amazing debater, I've not seen him stumped yet. Take it easy folks.
Maybe stories such as this have some esoteric inner meaning, because taken at face value they are inexpressibly revolting.
I think people here are reading far too much of Christianity into the Old Testament. The fact that Christians have decided it is all about morality doesn't mean it actually is. Judges is a Hebrew test, and must be understood in that context. Horrifying stories can have a purpose and cultural value, too.
That should be text, not test. Also, as for Isaiah 40:22, it calls the earth a circle, which could as easily mean disk as sphere, and actually implies the former to me, but there is translation involved, so that doesn't really matter. In any case, that is isn't very impressive. The idea of a spherical earth dates to at least 2600 years ago in Greece. It's also not much of a prediction to base the conclusion bible=fact on.
I'm glad someone answered the Isaiah comment...
K. Cyrus, I take it you're a believer yes? Please read Mark 16:16-18, I'll grab a pint of pesticide. Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be fine...
Just another example of Christian "Family Values".
What is most disturbing about this story is that it has been warped "even more so" by todays modern youth evangelist. Pastor Ron basically says the wife deserved it among other things and following this teaching brings a mannequin statue with the word porn emblazoned on it's chest up on stage and hands the body parts to the screeching and crying children in the audience who seem most excited to find out who ends up with the head.The children are told they are doing this because of the wickedness of others particularly drug addicts,secularist,homosexuals,and who ever else is fair game for so called family values.The goal it seems is to eventually have an army of youth dedicated to the for right now mock murdering of anyone who does not fit the Academy's criteria for good christian behavior.
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