Judges 19:25b–30

And they knew her and abused her all night until morning; and when the day began to break, they let her go.

Then the woman came as the day was dawning, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, till it was light.

When her master arose in the morning, and opened the doors of the house and went out to go his way, there was his concubine, fallen at the door of the house with her hands on the threshold. And he said to her, “Get up and let us be going.” But there was no answer. So the man lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place.

When he entered his house he took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, and divided her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. And so it was that all who saw it said, “No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!”

This isn’t even about sex; it’s about power. The men that surrounded the house demand to have sex with the man (whom they do not know is a Levite). The concubine is a perfectly good substitute because they just want to abuse somebody. Her death confirms this. Rape is horrible, but shouldn’t be fatal.

So, the nameless Levite exits the home of the nameless Ephraimite and finds his nameless concubine lying dead on the front porch, having been abused to death by a gang of nameless Benjamites. His immediate response sounds like the actions of a heartbroken husband. He lifted her onto the donkey; and the man got up and went to his place.

But that’s not the end of the story. Next, he butchers her into twelve pieces, limb by limb, and mails the pieces out to all the territory of Israel. This is psycho—literally. It would fit perfectly into the Alfred Hitchcock movie Psycho. The Levite’s actions are not rational.

But the number 12 is.

This is how wars start. This one started with, “No such deed has been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up from the land of Egypt until this day. Consider it, confer, and speak up!”

It’s not clear whether the deed refers to the gang rape of the concubine or her butchering and distribution. The latter is more unique, but the response by the tribes later seems to be more about the gang rape.

The Levite has his heart set on punishing the people who did this to his beloved concubine. But he sees this as the fault of the entire tribe of Benjamin. (So does the book, which is why no one is named.)

The Levite has it out for the whole tribe of Benjamin, and he wants payback. “Don’t get mad; get even.”

These Monday—Friday DEEPs are written by Mike Slay. The Weekend DEEPs are written by Matt Richardson. To subscribe to all the DEEPs click here:

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV stands for the English Standard Version. © Copyright 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved. NIV stands for The Holy Bible, New International Version®. © Copyright 1973 by International Bible Society. Used by permission. All rights reserved. KJV stands for the King James Version.

The 12 tribes of Israel are now on alert. They’ve been challenged to respond to this crime.