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Teisėjai 19

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1 Tuo metu, kai Izraelyje nebuvo karaliaus, vienas levitas gyveno kaip ateivis Efraimo kalnyno pakraštyje. Jis turėjo sugulovę iš Judo Betliejaus.

2 Sugulovė buvo jam neištikima. Ji pabėgo nuo jo į savo tėvo namus, į Judo Betliejų, ir buvo ten keturis mėnesius.

3 Jos vyras, nuėjęs į jos tėvo namus, maloniai kalbėjo su ja ir norėjo parsivesti ją atgal. Jis buvo pasiėmęs savo tarną ir porą asilų. Merginos tėvas džiaugėsi jį sutikdamas.

4 Uošvis užlaikė jį, ir jis pasiliko ten tris dienas. Jie valgė, gėrė ir nakvojo.

5 Ketvirtą dieną, atsikėlę anksti rytą, jie ruošėsi keliauti. Merginos tėvas sakė savo žentui: “Pavalgyk, o paskui galėsite keliauti”.

6 Jie abu valgė ir gėrė. Po to merginos tėvas tarė: “Pasilik nakčiai! Tegul pasidžiaugia tavo širdis”.

7 Jis norėjo keliauti, bet uošvis jį perkalbėjo, kad jis pasiliktų nakvoti.

8 Penktąją dieną atsikėlęs anksti norėjo keliauti. Merginos tėvas tarė: “Pasistiprink ir pasilik iki popietės”. Juodu pavalgė.

9 Kai levitas, jo sugulovė ir tarnas pasiruošė keliauti, uošvis vėl kalbėjo: “Žiūrėk, diena jau eina vakarop. Pasilikite nakčiai. Tegul pasidžiaugia tavo širdis, o rytoj, anksti atsikėlę, galėsite keliauti į namus”.

10 Tačiau jis nebenorėjo nakvoti ir iškeliavo. Jis atvyko iki Jebuso (dabartinė Jeruzalė). Jis turėjo su savimi porą pabalnotų asilų ir sugulovę.

11 Saulei leidžiantis, jie buvo prie Jebuso. Tarnas sakė savo šeimininkui: “Pasukime į šitą jebusiečių miestą ir nakvokime ten”.

12 O šeimininkas atsakė: “Ne, mes nesuksime į svetimtaučių miestą. Jie nėra Izraelio vaikai. Keliausime toliau iki Gibėjos miesto”.

13 Ir jis sakė savo tarnui: “Eime nakvoti į Gibėją arba į amą”.

14 Jie praėjo Jebusą ir keliavo toliau. Kai jie buvo prie Gibėjos miesto, priklausančio Benjaminui, nusileido saulė.

15 Ir jie pasuko į Gibėją, kad apsistotų nakčiai. Atėję jie pasiliko miesto gatvėje, nes neatsirado nė vieno, kuris būtų juos priėmęs į savo namus nakvynei.

16 Tuo metu senas vyras grįžo iš lauko darbų. Jis buvo nuo Efraimo aukštumų ir gyveno kaip ateivis Gibėjoje. Tos vietos gyventojai buvo benjaminai.

17 Jis pamatė pakeleivį miesto gatvėje. Senas žmogus paklausė: “Iš kur atvykai ir kur eini?”

18 Tas jam atsakė: “Mes einame iš Judo Betliejaus į Efraimo kalnyno pakraštį, nes ten gyvenu. Buvau nuvykęs į Judo Betliejų, o dabar einu į Viešpaties namus. Neatsirado nė vieno, kuris priimtų mane nakvoti.

19 Turime šiaudų ir pašaro asilams, taip pat duonos ir vyno man, tavo tarnaitei ir jaunuoliui, kuris yra su tavo tarnais. Mums nieko netrūksta”.

20 Senas vyras atsakė: “ amybė tau. Visa, ko reikia, parūpinsiu, tik nenakvok gatvėje”.

21 Jis įvedė juos į savo namus ir pašėrė asilus. Jie nusiplovė kojas, valgė ir gėrė.

22 Kai jie linksmino savo širdis, miesto vyrai, Belialo sūnūs, apsupo namą ir daužė duris, šaukdami: “Išvesk tą vyrą, kuris atvyko į tavo namus, kad jį pažintume!”

23 Namų šeimininkas išėjęs tarė: “Ne, broliai. Meldžiu, nesielkite taip piktai. Šitas vyras yra svečias mano namuose, nedarykite tokios kvailystės.

24 Aš turiu dukterį, nekaltą mergaitę, ir tas vyras turi sugulovę. Aš jas išvesiu jums. Jūs galite žeminti jas ir daryti su jomis, kas jums atrodo tinkama. Tačiau su tuo vyru nesielkite taip bjauriai”.

25 Bet vyrai nenorėjo jo klausyti. Tada vyras paėmė savo sugulovę ir išvedė jiems. Jie išniekino ją ir vargino ją visą naktį. Dienai brėkštant, jie ją paleido.

26 Ta moteris atėjo auštant ir parkrito prie to vyro namo durų, kur buvo jos šeimininkas, ir gulėjo, iki prašvito.

27 Atsikėlęs rytą, jos šeimininkas atidarė duris, norėdamas keliauti. Moteris, jo sugulovė, gulėjo parkritusi prie namo durų, ištiesusi rankas ant slenksčio.

28 Jis tarė jai: “Kelkis, keliaukime”. Bet ji neatsakė. Jis ją užkėlė ant asilo ir parkeliavo į savo namus.

29 Namuose paėmė peilį ir supjaustė savo sugulovę į dvyliką gabalų, ir išsiuntė visoms Izraelio giminėms.

30 Tai matydami, visi kalbėjo: “Tokių įvykių nėra buvę nuo izraelitų išvykimo iš Egipto iki šios dienos. Apsvarstykime, pasitarkime ir nuspręskime, ką daryti”.

   

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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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Exodus 16

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1 They took their journey from Elim, and all the congregation of the children of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after their departing out of the land of Egypt.

2 The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;

3 and the children of Israel said to them, "We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger."

4 Then Yahweh said to Moses, "Behold, I will rain bread from the sky for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day's portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law, or not.

5 It shall come to pass on the sixth day, that they shall prepare that which they bring in, and it shall be twice as much as they gather daily."

6 Moses and Aaron said to all the children of Israel, "At evening, then you shall know that Yahweh has brought you out from the land of Egypt;

7 and in the morning, then you shall see the glory of Yahweh; because he hears your murmurings against Yahweh. Who are we, that you murmur against us?"

8 Moses said, "Now Yahweh shall give you meat to eat in the evening, and in the morning bread to satisfy you; because Yahweh hears your murmurings which you murmur against him. And who are we? Your murmurings are not against us, but against Yahweh."

9 Moses said to Aaron, "Tell all the congregation of the children of Israel, 'Come near before Yahweh, for he has heard your murmurings.'"

10 It happened, as Aaron spoke to the whole congregation of the children of Israel, that they looked toward the wilderness, and behold, the glory of Yahweh appeared in the cloud.

11 Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,

12 "I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, 'At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.'"

13 It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.

14 When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.

15 When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, "What is it?" For they didn't know what it was. Moses said to them, "It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat."

16 This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded: "Gather of it everyone according to his eating; an omer a head, according to the number of your persons, you shall take it, every man for those who are in his tent."

17 The children of Israel did so, and gathered some more, some less.

18 When they measured it with an omer, he who gathered much had nothing over, and he who gathered little had no lack. They gathered every man according to his eating.

19 Moses said to them, "Let no one leave of it until the morning."

20 Notwithstanding they didn't listen to Moses, but some of them left of it until the morning, and it bred worms, and became foul: and Moses was angry with them.

21 They gathered it morning by morning, everyone according to his eating. When the sun grew hot, it melted.

22 It happened that on the sixth day they gathered twice as much bread, two omers for each one, and all the rulers of the congregation came and told Moses.

23 He said to them, "This is that which Yahweh has spoken, 'Tomorrow is a solemn rest, a holy Sabbath to Yahweh. Bake that which you want to Bake, and boil that which you want to boil; and all that remains over lay up for yourselves to be kept until the morning.'"

24 They laid it up until the morning, as Moses asked, and it didn't become foul, neither was there any worm in it.

25 Moses said, "Eat that today, for today is a Sabbath to Yahweh. today you shall not find it in the field.

26 Six days you shall gather it, but on the seventh day is the Sabbath. In it there shall be none."

27 It happened on the seventh day, that some of the people went out to gather, and they found none.

28 Yahweh said to Moses, "How long do you refuse to keep my commandments and my laws?

29 Behold, because Yahweh has given you the Sabbath, therefore he gives you on the sixth day the bread of two days. Everyone stay in his place. Let no one go out of his place on the seventh day."

30 So the people rested on the seventh day.

31 The house of Israel called its name Manna, and it was like coriander seed, white; and its taste was like wafers with honey.

32 Moses said, "This is the thing which Yahweh has commanded, 'Let an omer-full of it be kept throughout your generations, that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you forth from the land of Egypt.'"

33 Moses said to Aaron, "Take a pot, and put an omer-full of manna in it, and lay it up before Yahweh, to be kept throughout your generations."

34 As Yahweh commanded Moses, so Aaron laid it up before the Testimony, to be kept.

35 The children of Israel ate the manna forty years, until they came to an inhabited land. They ate the manna until they came to the borders of the land of Canaan.

36 Now an omer is the tenth part of an ephah.