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Shoftim 19

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1 ויהי בימים ההם ומלך אין בישראל ויהי איש לוי גר בירכתי הר־אפרים ויקח־לו אשה פילגש מבית לחם יהודה׃

2 ותזנה עליו פילגשו ותלך מאתו אל־בית אביה אל־בית לחם יהודה ותהי־שם ימים ארבעה חדשים׃

3 ויקם אישה וילך אחריה לדבר על־לבה [כ= להשיבו] [ק= להשיבה] ונערו עמו וצמד חמרים ותביאהו בית אביה ויראהו אבי הנערה וישמח לקראתו׃

4 ויחזק־בו חתנו אבי הנערה וישב אתו שלשת ימים ויאכלו וישתו וילינו שם׃

5 ויהי ביום הרביעי וישכימו בבקר ויקם ללכת ויאמר אבי הנערה אל־חתנו סעד לבך פת־לחם ואחר תלכו׃

6 וישבו ויאכלו שניהם יחדו וישתו ויאמר אבי הנערה אל־האיש הואל־נא ולין ויטב לבך׃

7 ויקם האיש ללכת ויפצר־בו חתנו וישב וילן שם׃

8 וישכם בבקר ביום החמישי ללכת ויאמר אבי הנערה סעד־נא לבבך והתמהמהו עד־נטות היום ויאכלו שניהם׃

9 ויקם האיש ללכת הוא ופילגשו ונערו ויאמר לו חתנו אבי הנערה הנה נא רפה היום לערב לינו־נא הנה חנות היום לין פה וייטב לבבך והשכמתם מחר לדרככם והלכת לאהלך׃

10 ולא־אבה האיש ללון ויקם וילך ויבא עד־נכח יבוס היא ירושלם ועמו צמד חמורים חבושים ופילגשו עמו׃

11 הם עם־יבוס והיום רד מאד ויאמר הנער אל־אדניו לכה־נא ונסורה אל־עיר־היבוסי הזאת ונלין בה׃

12 ויאמר אליו אדניו לא נסור אל־עיר נכרי אשר לא־מבני ישראל הנה ועברנו עד־גבעה׃

13 ויאמר לנערו לכq ונקרבה באחד המקמות ולנו בגבעה או ברמה׃

14 ויעברו וילכו ותבא להם השמש אצל הגבעה אשר לבנימן׃

15 ויסרו שם לבוא ללון בגבעה ויבא וישב ברחוב העיר ואין איש מאסף־אותם הביתה ללון׃

16 והנה איש זקן בא מן־מעשהו מן־השדה בערב והאיש מהר אפרים והוא־גר בגבעה ואנשי המקום בני ימיני׃

17 וישא עיניו וירא את־האיש הארח ברחב העיר ויאמר האיש הזקן אנה תלך ומאין תבוא׃

18 ויאמר אליו עברים אנחנו מבית־לחם יהודה עד־ירכתי הר־אפרים משם אנכי ואלך עד־בית לחם יהודה ואת־בית יהוה אני הלך ואין איש מאסף אותי הביתה׃

19 וגם־תבן גם־מספוא יש לחמורינו וגם לחם ויין יש־לי ולאמתך ולנער עם־עבדיך אין מחסור כל־דבר׃

20 ויאמר האיש הזקן שלום לך רק כל־מחסורך עלי רק ברחוב אל־תלן׃

21 ויביאהו לביתו [כ= ויבול] [ק= ויבל] לחמורים וירחצו רגליהם ויאכלו וישתו׃

22 המה מיטיבים את־לבם והנה אנשי העיר אנשי בני־בליעל נסבו את־הבית מתדפקים על־הדלת ויאמרו אל־האיש בעל הבית הזקן לאמר הוצא את־האיש אשר־בא אל־ביתך ונדענו׃

23 ויצא אליהם האיש בעל הבית ויאמר אלהם אל־אחי אל־תרעו נא אחרי אשר־בא האיש הזה אל־ביתי אל־תעשו את־הנבלה הזאת׃

24 הנה בתי הבתולה ופילגשהו אוציאה־נא אותם וענו אותם ועשו להם הטוב בעיניכם ולאיש הזה לא תעשו דבר הנבלה הזאת׃

25 ולא־אבו האנשים לשמע לו ויחזק האיש בפילגשו ויצא אליהם החוץ וידעו אותה ויתעללו־בה כל־הלילה עד־הבקר וישלחוה [כ= בעלות] [ק= כעלות] השחר׃

26 ותבא האשה לפנות הבקר ותפל פתח בית־האיש אשר־אדוניה שם עד־האור׃

27 ויקם אדניה בבקר ויפתח דלתות הבית ויצא ללכת לדרכו והנה האשה פילגשו נפלת פתח הבית וידיה על־הסף׃

28 ויאמר אליה קומי ונלכה ואין ענה ויקחה על־החמור ויקם האיש וילך למקמו׃

29 ויבא אל־ביתו ויקח את־המאכלת ויחזק בפילגשו וינתחה לעצמיה לשנים עשר נתחים וישלחה בכל גבול ישראל׃

30 והיה כל־הראה ואמר לא־נהיתה ולא־נראתה כזאת למיום עלות בני־ישראל מארץ מצרים עד היום הזה שימו־לכם עליה עצו ודברו׃ ף

   

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Exploring the Meaning of Judges 19

Napsal(a) New Christian Bible Study Staff, Julian Duckworth

The Levite’s Concubine and the Crime of Gibeah

In many ways the events in this chapter show the further deterioration of the spiritual condition of the people of Israel. It's a terrible story, much like the story of Sodom, much earlier in the Book of Genesis. It ends with some men of Gibeah – a town of Israel – seeking to have sex with a man who is a guest of one of the men of the city. This does not happen; they are instead diverted into an all-night rape of the man’s concubine, so that she is lifeless when he retrieves her body in the morning. He then cuts her up into twelve pieces and sends these throughout the whole territory of Israel.

As we have been saying, these last few chapters of the Book of Judges show clearly that once evil takes hold of a person – even a community or a country – and goes unchecked, and there is no indication of any desire to stop it or to turn from it, it will expand and poison the whole ‘body’. Then there is no distinction between what is good and evil, or between what is true and what is false, and there is no longer any active conscience left to check thoughts, desires and actions. (Arcana Caelestia 977)

The story begins… A Levite, a priest of Israel, takes a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah, but she takes part in prostitution and leaves the priest and goes to her father’s house in Bethlehem. The Levite goes to talk kindly with her, and she takes him into her father’s house where he is made welcome by her father.

The spiritual meaning of this is about a fairly mild situation of disorder and wrong which will form the beginning of all that is to happen. The Levite has a concubine. The concubine takes part in prostitution. The father’s fault seems to be that he keeps delaying the Levite’s departure. Every person lives with their own natures which produce mild disorders which can in fact become useful to us during regeneration. But allowed or left to stay unchecked, these disorders can begin to take hold. (Arcana Caelestia 8407)

The Levite keeps intending to leave, but several times the father of the concubine begs him to stay another night and detains him. Three days there becomes four, another night is spent, and on the fifth day the father urges the Levite to stay and eat and spend another night and go away early the next day. This time the Levite refuses and they leave and get to the town of Jebus, a Canaanite town which will eventually become Jerusalem.

The spiritual meaning of these delays before leaving lies in the danger of not turning away from something which is beginning to hold us and become our new normality. The father is very persuasive, but he is the father of a concubine who prostitutes herself. The Levite senses something is not right, and he insists he will leave. (Divine Providence 329)

The Levite’s servant asks for them to stay in Jebus, but the Levite refuses to stay in a foreign city and says they will go on to Gibeah or Ramah. They come to Gibeah and stay in the square as no one will take them in. An old man passes by and offers to take them into his house, and they go with him.

The spiritual point of this refusal to stay in the foreign city of Jebus but to go on to Gibeah, a city in Israel, is to bring out for us a sense of the abhorrence of what is about to happen there, and the extent of the wrong in Israel. (Apocalypse Revealed 158)

Some men of Gibeah beat on the door demanding that the man staying there come out so that they can sexually abuse him. The old man refuses but offers them his virgin daughter and the visitor’s concubine, but the men refuse. The Levite takes the concubine out of the house to the men and they rape her all night until morning.

The spiritual meaning for us of this story of the men of Gibeah and the concubine stems from the fact that no one in the entire story is blameless, apart from the virgin daughter of the old man. Everyone else is culpable. Spiritually, this reminds us that we are potentially capable of thinking about and even wanting to commit every evil and that regeneration – shunning all evils as sins against God and living in careful obedience to the Word – is the guard against this. (Divine Providence 296)

Abused and left, the concubine falls at the door of the house. In the morning the Levite sees her, bids her get ready to leave, then realises she is dead. He puts her on his donkey and goes to his house. He takes a knife and cuts the concubine into twelve pieces and sends these throughout the whole of Israel. And all who see say that no such thing has been seen since Israel came out of Egypt and end saying, ‘Consider it. Confer. Speak up!’

The spiritual meaning for us in dividing the concubine’s body in twelve parts and distributing them throughout all Israel is to do with our need to examine ourselves and see where our evils lie within us, often hidden and unknown. This is to be done in view of our actions, words, thoughts, intentions and what we might do if there were no penalty. (Divine Providence 149, 152, 278)

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Arcana Coelestia # 977

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977. THE INTERNAL SENSE

The subject here being the regenerate person, let a brief discussion follow of the nature of a person who is regenerate in contrast to someone who is not. From this contrast the nature of each one may be known. With the regenerate person there is a conscience concerning what is good and true. From conscience he does what is good and from conscience thinks what is true. The good he does is the good of charity, and the truth he thinks is the truth of faith. With one who is not regenerate there is no conscience. If there is any it is not a conscience about doing good stemming from charity or for thinking truth deriving from faith. Instead it derives from some love involving self or the world, and is therefore a conscience that is false, or not genuine. With the regenerate person there is joy in performing anything according to conscience but anxiety when compelled to perform or think anything contrary to it, which is not the case with someone who is not regenerate. Most people do not know what conscience is, still less what performing anything according to conscience or contrary to conscience is. They know only of performing it in accordance with things favouring their own loves, which for them is the source of joy, while acting contrary to those things brings them anxiety.

[2] With the regenerate person there is a new will and a new understanding. This new will and new understanding are his conscience - that is, they comprise his conscience, by means of which the Lord works the good that stems from charity, and the truth of faith. With someone who is not regenerate there is no will but instead evil desire, and a resulting inclination towards all that is evil. Nor is there any understanding, only reasoning and a resulting decline into all that is false. With the regenerate person there is celestial and spiritual life, but with someone who is not regenerate only bodily and worldly life. Man's ability to think and to understand what good and truth are comes from the Lord's life by way of remnants, mentioned previously. And this also gives him the ability to reflect.

[3] With the regenerate person the internal man is master and the external the servant, but with someone who is not regenerate the external man is master, and the internal remains quiescent as though non-existent. The regenerate person knows, or is capable of knowing if he reflects on the matter, what the internal man is and what the external, whereas someone who is not regenerate is totally ignorant on the subject. Nor is he capable of knowing even if he did reflect on the matter, for he does not know what the good and truth of faith deriving from charity are. These contrasts show the nature of a person who is regenerate and of someone who is not, and that the difference between them is like that of summer and winter, or of bright light and thick darkness. Consequently the regenerate is a living man, while the unregenerate is a dead man.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.