Judges 19 Summary - 5 Minute Bible Study

Judges 19 Summary - A Quick Overview

WHEN:

• Most scholars place the period of the Judges between 1450 B.C. and 1000 B.C.

• The story recorded in Judges 19 happened within that period, but we aren’t given specific dates for the events.

CHARACTERS:

• Levite – A man from the tribe of Levi who took a concubine.

• Concubine – The concubine of the aforementioned Levite. She was originally from Bethlehem in Judah.

• Men of Gibeah – Wicked men who tried to do immoral things to the visitors of their city.

WHERE:

• The Levite and his concubine spent the night in Gibeah, just north of Jerusalem.  

OUTLINE:

• THE LEVITE AND HIS CONCUBINE TRAVEL TO GIBEAH (19:1-21):

  • Judges 19 introduces us to a Levite man who had a concubine, but his concubine left him and returned to her father’s house in Bethlehem.

  • The Levite took a servant and travelled to Bethlehem to get his concubine back.

  • The meeting between the Levite and the woman’s father was cordial, and he remained as a guest in her father’s house for 5 days.

  • At the end of the 5th day, the Levite left Bethlehem with his servant and his concubine and travelled north.

  • Near evening, they passed Jebus (Jerusalem) but the Levite refused to lodge in the city because it was inhabited by Jebusites, rather than Israelites.

  • The company continued north until they came to Gibeah, where an old man urged them to spend the night in his house, rather than sleeping in the open square.

  • They accepted the invitation and went to the old man’s house.

• THE SIN OF GIBEAH (19:22-30):

  • That night, some of the men of Gibeah surrounded the old man’s house and started beating down the door because they wanted to have sexual relations with the visiting men.

  • The old man begged the men not to be so wicked. To protect his guests, the old man offered the mob his virgin daughter and the Levite’s concubine.

  • When the men didn’t accept the offer, the Levite took his concubine by force and “made her go out to them.”

  • They raped her all night, and only let her go when the sun dawned.

  • When the Levite woke up, he went outside and found his concubine dead at the front door of the old man’s house.

  • He took her body, cut it into 12 pieces, and sent the pieces “throughout all the territory of Israel.”

  • And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak” (19:30). 

APPLICATION:

• What a terrible testimony when people find those in the church to be the same, or worse, than those in the world.

• The Levite didn’t want to stay in Jebus (Jerusalem) because it was a city of idol worshipping foreigners, instead he wanted stay in a city inhabited by “God’s people.”

• But his stay in Gibeah turned out to be a horror.

• He thought he could find peace and community with people who claimed to honor God, but instead he found sinners who were as bad, if not worse, than those in the world.

• When the church is full of sin, full of gossip, full of back-biting, full of immorality, and full of worldliness it acts as a Gibeah to weary souls looking for rest.

• They’ll enter the church and wish they had stayed in the world; they’ll be ready to head back to Jebus (Jerusalem) because at least the people there aren’t hypocrites.

• This is why it’s so essential that the church takes holiness and genuineness seriously.

• Claiming to be the people of God and then mistreating those looking for God is a terrible sin.