A very sad Bible story

One guy, a Levite, meaning a priest of God, dated a concubine a long while after Samson’s death. A concubine would either be a prostitute but largely an illicit cohabitant with men. She cheated on him and fled to her father’s house for 4 months. Her husband took a servant and 2 donkeys and followed her, to bring her back home.

Upon arrival, he was welcomed and his father in law ensured they stayed 3 days, at least. He begged them to stay a day, then 2, and 3, and so on. They ate and drank and partied. One night, he could not be detained anymore, and they left. The next night, tired and hungry, the passed Jerusalem and the servant asked the master if they could rest till the next day. The master convinced him that they pass and rest only in Ramah or Gibeah, which they did.

Without anyone hosting them, they sat on the street ready to sleep there. An old Ephramite man came from working his field and saw them. Though not a Benjamite, he had travelled to Gibeah. After they told their story of travelling from Bethlehem to mount Ephraim, he took them in and fed them.

As they relaxed and ready for sleep, there were men at the door wanting to sodomise the men, sons of Belial, as it happened with Lot’s visiting angels. Like Lot, the man offered his daughter and the guest’s concubine, for the perpetrators to quench their wicked thirst. As they strove to break his door, the host pushed the concubine out. They raped and abused her until the morning.

He took the weak concubine unto his donkey and they travelled till they got home. Judges 19 v 29: ‘And when he was come into his house, he took a knife, and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her into all the coasts of Israel. v30: And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.'