ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

 Sapate Novema 7, 2021

there was no king in Israel

na‘e ‘ikai ha tu‘i ‘Isileli

Fakamaau 19 (Judges 19)

(v. 1) PEA ‘i he taimi ko ia na‘e ‘ikai ha tu‘i ‘Isileli; pea na‘e ai tokua ha motu‘a Līvai na‘e ‘āunofo ki he potu ki kō ‘o Mo‘unga-‘Ifalemi, na‘a ne to‘o ma‘ane sinifu ha fefine mei Pētelihema-Siuta.

(v. 1) In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible

The story of the Levite occupies three chapters and is again a mirror held up to the times, revealing startling moral conditions and showing the conflict of good and evil among them.

In considering the story of this chapter, several things are to be carefully noted. First, we must recognize the imperfection of the times as revealed in the practice of polygamy and concubinage among the chosen people. There is no doubt that their action in these matters was in advance of that of the people of the land.

Nevertheless, the fact that a Levite had a concubine in these days was terrible, but we must consider it in the light of the times. When this is done, we notice that the sacredness in which he thought of her relation to him does stand in striking contrast to the loose ideals of the Canaanitish people. Nevertheless, the story does reveal a terrible condition of degeneracy among a section of the chosen people. The action of the men of Gibeah was nothing less than the action of the men of Sodom long before. The drastic and terrible method adopted by the Levite was intended to draw the attention of Israel to the sin of the men and reveals the conscience of the better part of the people concerning purity.

David Guzik :: Study Guide for Judges 19

This set the stage for the terrible story in the following chapters. No king in Israel meant more than the absence of a political monarch; it also meant that they refused to recognize God’s leadership over them.

What unfolds in the rest of this chapter is so distasteful that the commentator F.B. Meyer recommended not reading it. Commenting on this first verse, he wrote: “It will be sufficient to ponder these words, which occur four times in the book, without reading further in this terrible chapter, which shows the depths of the depravity to which may sink apart from the grace of God.”

He took for himself a concubine: The Levite’s concubine was recognized as his legal partner, but she did not have the same status in the home or in society as a wife.

In this sense a concubine was a legal mistress. Many prominent men in the Old Testament had concubines. Examples include Abraham (Genesis 25:6), Jacob (Genesis 35:22), Caleb (1 Chronicles 2:46), Saul (2 Samuel 3:7), David (2 Samuel 5:13), Solomon (1 Kings 11:3 – 300 concubines), and Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:21). Significantly, we never see this kind of family life blessed by God.

The New Testament makes it clear that from the beginning God’s plan was one man and one woman to be one flesh forever (Matthew 19:4-6), and each man is to be a “one-woman man” (1 Timothy 3:2).