Hey fellow learners! One type of Bible study is exploring parallel passages. Some are large parallels, like three of the four gospels. Others are smaller, like this post about two stories with similar themes. (article here. Can’t vouch for site)
Genesis and Judges 19 have themes of hospitality to an outsider, threatened rape and abuse, and men using women’s bodies as shields. Judges takes the situation further. Let’s go through it together. We’ll fly over the beginning.
(Verses 1-11) A priest’s concubine (or lesser or second wife, depending on the translation) goes back to her dad’s house. After a few months, he goes there to try and get her back. Eventually, they leave her dad’s house and start home.
We’re supposed to believe this guy really loves her. Keep that in mind.
(Verses 12-21) They pull into Gibeah. A man from their home region tells them not to stay in the streets. He brings them into his house, and they settle into a meal.
Now, here’s where the comparison to Genesis 19 really picks up:
Genesis 19:4-5 “But before they lay down, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, all of the men from every quarter, surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know (be intimate with) them!”
Judges 19:22 “Now as they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain worthless fellows, beset the house round about, beat on the door, and said to the master of the house, the old man, ‘bring forth the man who came to your house, that we may have intercourse with him!”
We notice both scriptures are translated to make this sound like harmless consensual sex instead of what it is: a threat of gang rape. Let’s keep going.
Genesis 19:6-9 “And Lot went out of the door to the men and shut the door after him and said, ‘I beg of you my brothers, do not behave so wickedly. Look now, I have two daughters who are virgins; let me, I beg of you bring them out to you, and you can do as you please with them. But only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof.”
Judges 19:23-24: “And the man, the master of the house, went out and said to them, No, my kinsmen, I pray you, do not act so wickedly; seeing that this man is my guest, do not do this (wicked) folly. Behold, here are my virgin daughter and this man’s concubine; them I will bring out now; debase them and do with them what seems good to you, but to this man, do not so vile a thing.”
This is very similar, right down to men using women’s bodies to shield themselves from harm. But there are differences. Lot calls the men of Sodom brothers. The man in Gibeah calls them “my kinsman”. I wonder what the increased intimacy could mean. Lot shut the door so there was still a little protection. In Gibeah the door was open. Does that mean the man in Gibeah was not as committed to protecting people as Lot? I’m not sure.
Content warning for rape, dismembering a corpse, “men are the real victims”, etc.
Here’s where we leave Genesis 19 behind and Judges 19 continues on its own. Is this what would have happened to Lot’s daughters if he had given them over? Or his guests if they hadn’t been angels?
Judges 19:25-26: “However, the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man took hold of his concubine and brought her out to them. They raped her and abused her all night long; only at dawn did they let her go. At daybreak the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her husband was, and she was still there when it grew light.”
Let’s sit with this for a minute. One reason we’re able to fill out the real story of Sodom deeper is because the rape and murder of this unknown woman is recorded. I wonder how many other unknown women this one story represents.
Judges 19:27-28: “When her husband got up, opened the doors of the house, and went out to go on his way, he saw the woman lying there with her hands stretched out toward the door. He said to her, ‘Get up! Let’s go!’ But there was no answer. So he loaded her body on the donkey and began his trip home.
Every time I’ve read this, I assumed she was dead at this point. (“so he loaded her body…”) But a few different articles have pointed out that nothing confirms it. Yikes. I really hope she’s dead before this next part happens.
Judges 19:29-30: “On arrival at his house, he got a knife, took hold of his concubine’s body, cut her up into 12 pieces, and sent them to all the regions of Israel. Everyone who saw it said, ‘from the day the people of Israel came up from Egypt until now, never has such a thing happened or been seen. What are we going to do about it? Talk it over and decide.'”
Good lord. I’m still at a loss for words here. We were led to believe that he loves her a lot.
Let’s go quickly into chapter 20 to wind this almost up.
Judges 20:5 we find out:
she was dead before he cut her up.
He tells the story and makes it sound like the two of them were alone.
He doesn’t admit to throwing her out to the men to save himself. Somehow they just got her.
Judges 20:6 he has the nerve to say he chopped her up and mailed her out because the OTHER guys did a disgraceful thing. He wants to know how every tribe is going to help him deal with this!
(Spoiler: They go to war, and more women’s lives are made worse because of it).
Take a second to breathe, fellow learners. Studying Scripture is heavy sometimes. What did comparing these two parts of the Bible show us?
- What we knew was an attempted gang rape in Genesis 19 is confirmed in Judges 19. In the plight of the unnamed woman in Gibeah, we see what might have happened to Lot’s daughters.
- Both of these are about violence, power, and control. Which is where rape comes from. Nothing about either of these situations involve consensual intimacy.
- I think the men in Judges 19 had even less honor and integrity than Lot. Not as many men surrounded the house, and it took hardly anything for the Levite to throw his secondary wife out the door to the mob.
I still have more questions about all of this. Writing this post made me look at both stories closer than I have in years. You probably have a lot of thoughts, insights, and questions too. Remember you can leave comments and send an email now: [email protected]
Next post will be a word study. We’ll use Biblegateway to find every time the word Sodom is used in the Bible. Then we’ll look at the context of it, and see what we can put together.
Until next time, fellow learners!
Here are a few more articles breaking down Judges 19:
https://www.rabbimarkashergoodman.com/writings/lot-and-the-sins-of-sodom-vayera-5783
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