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Judges 19

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1 And it was, in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a man, a Levite, sojourning on the flanks of Mount Ephraim, who took to him a woman, a concubine, out of Bethlehem of Judah.

2 And his concubine committed·​·harlotry against him, and went from him to the house of her father, to Bethlehem of Judah, and she was there the days of four months.

3 And her husband arose, and went after her, to speak unto her heart, to turn· her ·back, and his lad was with him, and a pair of donkeys; and she brought him into the house of her father: and the father of the damsel saw him and was·​·glad to meet him.

4 And his father-in-law, the father of the damsel, held· him ·firmly, and he dwelt with him three days; and they did eat and drink, and passed·​·the·​·night there.

5 And it was, on the fourth day, that they got·​·up·​·early in the morning, and he arose to go, and the father of the damsel said to his son-in-law, Sustain thy heart with a morsel of bread, and afterwards go.

6 And they sat and did eat, the two of them, and they drank, and the father of the damsel said unto the man, Be·​·content, I pray thee, and pass·​·the·​·night, and let thy heart be·​·well.

7 And the man arose to go, and his father-in-law urged him, and he returned and lodged there.

8 And he got·​·up·​·early on the morning of the fifth day to go; and the father of the damsel said, Sustain thy heart, I pray thee, and they lingered until the day stretched·​·out; and the two of them did eat.

9 And the man arose to go, he and his concubine and his lad. And his father-in-law, the father of the damsel, said to him, Behold, now, the day slackens to evening. Pass·​·the·​·night, I pray thee. Behold, the day encamps. Pass·​·the·​·night here, and let thy heart be·​·good; and tomorrow get· on your way ·early, and go to thy tent.

10 But the man was· not ·willing to pass·​·the·​·night, and rose·​·up and went and came opposite Jebus, which is Jerusalem; and with him were the pair of donkeys saddled; and his concubine was with him.

11 When they were by Jebus, the day had gone·​·down exceedingly, and the lad said unto his lord, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn·​·aside to this city of the Jebusite, and pass·​·the·​·night in her.

12 And his lord said to him, We will not turn·​·aside to a foreign city, that is not of the sons of Israel; but will pass·​·on until Gibeah.

13 And he said unto his lad, Come, and let us come·​·near to one of the places, and let us pass·​·the·​·night in Gibeah or in Ramah.

14 And they passed·​·by and went; and the sun went·​·in* for them beside Gibeah, which belongs to Benjamin.

15 And they turned·​·aside there to come·​·in to lodge in Gibeah; and he came·​·in and sat in the avenue of the city; and no man gathered them in to his house to lodge.

16 And, behold, an old man came from his work, from the field, in the evening; and the man was from Mount Ephraim; and he sojourned in Gibeah; but the men of the place were Benjaminites.

17 And he lifted·​·up his eyes and saw the traveling man in the avenue of the city; and the old man said, Whither goest thou? And whence comest thou?

18 And he said unto him, We are passing from Bethlehem of Judah toward the flanks of Mount Ephraim; from thence am I; and I went to Bethlehem of Judah; and I am going to the house of Jehovah, and no man gathers me to his house.

19 And there·​·is both straw and fodder for our donkeys; and there·​·is also bread and wine for me and for thy maidservant, and for the lad with thy servants; there is no want of anything.

20 And the old man said, Peace be to thee; only let all thy wants be upon me; only pass· not ·the·​·night on the avenue.

21 And he brought them into his house, and gave fodder to the donkeys; and they bathed their feet, and did eat and drink.

22 They were making their hearts good, and behold the men of the city, men of the sons of Belial, surrounded the house, pushed·​·on the door, and said to the man, the master of the house, the old man, saying, Bring·​·out the man that came to thy house, and we will know him.

23 And the man, the master of the house, went·​·out unto them, and said unto them, No, my brothers, I pray you, do· not ·evil; after this man is come into my house, do not do this folly.

24 Behold my daughter, the virgin, and his concubine; them will I bring·​·out now, and afflict ye them, and do to them what is good in your eyes; but unto this man do not do this thing of folly.

25 But the men were· not ·willing to hearken to him; and the man took hold· of his concubine ·firmly, and brought· her ·forth unto them on the street; and they knew her and abused her all the night, until the morning; and in the coming·​·up of the dawn they sent· her ·away.

26 And the woman came at the turning of the morning, and fell down at the entrance of the house of the man, where her lord was, until it was light.

27 And her lord rose·​·up in the morning, and opened the doors of the house, and went·​·out to go his way; and behold, the woman, his concubine had fallen at the entrance of the house, and her hands were over the doorway.

28 And he said to her, Arise, and let us go; but none answered. And he took her on the donkey, and the man arose and went to his place.

29 And he came to his house, and he took a knife, and firmly·​·held his concubine, and sectioned her according to her bones in twelve sections, and sent her into every border of Israel.

30 And it was, that all who saw it said, There has not been such, nor has such been seen as this from the day that the sons of Israel came·​·up from the land of Egypt until this day. Set yourselves upon it, take·​·counsel and speak.

   


Thanks to the Kempton Project for the permission to use this New Church translation of the Word.

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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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Apocalypse Revealed # 158

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158. "'Be watchful.'" (3:2) This symbolically means that they should have truths and live in accordance with them.

To be watchful has precisely this symbolic meaning in the Word, for a person who learns truths and lives according to them is like someone who awakens from sleep and becomes alert. By contrast, a person who lacks truths, but who is engaged simply in worship, is like someone who is asleep and dreaming.

Natural life, regarded in itself or apart from spiritual life, is really no more than a state of sleep, whereas natural life that contains spiritual life is a state of alertness. This alertness, moreover, is obtained only through truths - truths which appear in their own light and in their own clarity when a person lives in accordance with them.

This is the symbolic meaning of watching in the following passages:

Watch..., for you do not know at what hour your Lord will come. (Matthew 24:42)

Blessed are those servants whom the Lord, when he comes, will find watching... Be ready, for the Son of Man will come at an hour you do not expect. (Luke 12:37, 40)

Watch..., for you do not know when the lord of the house will come..., lest, when he comes suddenly, he find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to all: Watch! (Mark 13:35-37)

While the bridegroom was delayed, (the virgins)...slumbered and slept... And the (five foolish) virgins came..., saying, "Lord, Lord, open to us!" But (the Lord) answered..., ."..I do not know you." Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour at which the Son of Man will come. (Matthew 25:1-13)

Because the Lord's coming is called the morning (no. 151), and truths are then revealed and light dawns, therefore that time is called "the beginning of the watches" in Lamentations 2:19, and the Lord is called "a watcher" in Daniel 4:13. Moreover we read in Isaiah,

Your dead shall live... Awake..., you who dwell in dust. (Isaiah 26:19)

To be shown that the state of a person who lacks truths is called slumbering and sleep, see Jeremiah 51:39, 57, Psalms 13:3; 76:6, Matthew 13:25, and other places.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.