Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Judges 19:29
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.
29. and divided her and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel ] The same words in 1Sa 11:7, possibly implying that the present description has been copied from the other. But the two accounts differ in meaning: Saul’s summons was intended to convey a threat, the Levite’s to call forth horror. Divided is the regular term for cutting up a sacrificial victim, Exo 29:17, Lev 1:6; Lev 1:12, 1Ki 18:23; 1Ki 18:33.
twelve pieces ] Not necessarily referring to the number of the tribes (LXX. cod A); the twelve-fold division of Israel belongs to the later historical theory which finds expression in chs. 20, 21.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
A knife – Rather, the knife. The single household implement used, not like our knives at our meals, but for slaughtering and cutting up the animals into joints for eating Gen 22:6, Gen 22:10; Pro 30:14.
Together with her bones … – Rather, into her bones, or bone by bone, into twelve pieces. The pieces are synonymous with the bones (compare Eze 24:4-5). There is something truly terrible in the stern ferocity of grief and indignation which dictated this desperate effort to arouse his countrymen to avenge his wrong. Compare 1Sa 11:7.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Verse 29. Divided her – into twelve pieces] There is no doubt that with the pieces he sent to each tribe a circumstantial account of the barbarity of the men of Gibeah; and it is very likely that they considered each of the pieces as expressing an execration, “If ye will not come and avenge my wrongs, may ye be hewn in pieces like this abused and murdered woman!”
It was a custom among the ancient Highlanders in Scotland, when one clan wished to call all the rest to avenge its wrongs, to take a wooden cross, dip it in blood, and send it by a special messenger through all the clans. This was called the fire cross, because at sight of it each clan lighted a fire or beacon, which gave notice to all the adjoining clans that a general rising was immediately to take place.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Together with her bones, or, according to her bones, according to the joints of her body, for there he made a division. This might seem to be a barbarous and inhuman act in itself; but may seem excusable, if it be considered that the sadness of the spectacle did highly contribute to stir up the zeal of all the Israelites to avenge his concubines death, and to execute justice upon such profligate offenders; and was necessary, especially in this time of anarchy and general corruption, Jdg 17:6, to awaken them out of that lethargy in which all the tribes lay.
Into twelve pieces; that one piece might be sent to every tribe; whereof none to Levi because they would meet with it in every tribe, being dispersed among them; but one to Benjamin; for he might well presume, that they would as much abhor so villainous an action, though done by some of their own tribe, as any of the rest.
Sent her into all the coasts of Israel, by several messengers, by whom also he sent a particular relation of the fact.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
29. divided her . . . into twelvepiecesThe want of a regular government warranted anextraordinary step; and certainly no method could have been imaginedmore certain of rousing universal horror and indignation than thisterrible summons of the Levite.
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And when he was come into his house,…. Having taken the dead body of his wife from off the ass, and brought it in thither, and laid it in a proper place and order:
he took a knife; a carving knife, such as food is cut with, as the word signifies; the Targum is, a sword:
and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her, together with her bones, into twelve pieces; cut off her limbs at the joints of her bones, and made twelve pieces of them, according to the number of the tribes of Israel:
and sent her into all the coasts of Israel; that is, to every tribe, as Josephus says y: there was now no supreme magistrate to apply unto for justice, nor the court of seventy elders, and therefore he took this strange and unheard of method to acquaint each of the tribes with the fact committed; this he did not out of disrespect to his wife, but to express the vehement passion he was in on account of her death, in the way it was, and to raise their indignation at the perpetrators of it. Ben Gersom thinks he did not send to the tribe of Benjamin, where the evil was done; but Abarbinel is of another mind, and as Levi was not a tribe that lay together in one part of the land, but was scattered in it, pieces might be sent to the two half tribes of Manasseh, as the one lay on the one side Jordan, and the other on the other, and so there were twelve for the twelve pieces to be sent unto. So Ptolemy king of Egypt killed his eldest son, and divided his members, and put them in a box, and sent them to his mother on his birthday z. Chytraeus a writes, that about A. C. 140, a citizen of Vicentia, his daughter being ravished by the governor Carrarius, and cut to pieces, who had refused to send her to him, being sent back again, he put up the carcass in a vessel, and sent it to the senate of Venice, and invited them to punish the governor, and seize upon the city.
y Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 8.) z Justia. e Trogo, l. 38. c. 8. a Apud Quistorp. in loc.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(29) Divided her.We see again that the narrative is taking us back to wild times, when the passions of men expressed themselves in wild and fierce expedients. A similar method of arousing a nation, but different in its details, is narrated in 1Sa. 11:7, when Saul sends round the pieces of an ox, as was done by the ancient Scythians (Lucian, Toxaris, chap. 48). Many analogous customs existed among the ancient Highlanders, and have been repeated even in recent days among the Arab tribes (Stanley, i. 301).
With her bones.Literally, according to her bone.
Into twelve pieces.One for each tribe. Benjamin was probably thus appealed to as well as the other tribes. It is needless to suppose that one was sent to Eastern Manasseh or to Levi.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
29. Together with her bones Rather, According to her bones, that is, severing her limbs, as he would those of an animal, according to the joints of the bones.
Twelve pieces One for each tribe in Israel. Compare Saul’s similar act in 1Sa 11:7.
Sent her into all the coasts The messengers who bore these pieces doubtless told the shocking story in all the coasts through which they passed.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
‘ And when he was come into his house he took a knife and laid hold on his concubine, and divided her according to her bones, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.’
Determined to have justice the Levite decided on a dreadful thing. No doubt his mind was temporarily a little deranged from what had happened, although we must remember that as a Levite he was used to seeing carcasses carved up. And he divided up her body with a carving knife, using the lay out of the bones to determine the pieces, until he had produced twelve pieces. These were one for every tribe, including Benjamin. He could not believe that Benjamin could possibly justify what had been done.
Why did he do such a thing? It was so that the most gruesome indication of what had been done should be brought home to the tribes. He wanted to shock them into action. He was only an obscure Levite and he knew from his connections with the central sanctuary how easily such things could be forgotten. But he wanted to make sure that this case would not be forgotten. And coming from a Levite, a servant of the sanctuary, and one set apart as God’s, such a ‘present’ would have even more impact.
The message would be clear. The woman had met a violent death of a most obscene kind in breach of the covenant of Yahweh. He may also have intended to convey the message that it was the equivalent of human sacrifice, that she had been, as it were, sacrificed to Baal. For the behaviour of the men may well have resulted from their contact with the religion of Baal and with sacred prostitutes, and have been excused by them as in accordance with such practises. This, if anything would, should spur the confederate tribes into action.
We can, however, compare how Saul, when he wanted to stress the seriousness of the call to the tribes, took a yoke of oxen and cut them in pieces, and sent them throughout Israel as a sign that those who failed to respond would be put to death (1Sa 11:7). Saul may have got the idea from the Levite, or Saul’s may have been a regular method of calling the tribes around that time, with the Levite taking it further for the sake of impact.
Thus the Levite may also have been stressing that God would require at their hands, by death, a failure to respond to his plea. But instead of the usual sacrifice of an animal he used a human being. Certainly he achieved what none of the judges were able to achieve, the uniting of the whole confederacy in action.
“And sent her throughout all the borders of Israel.” The ‘twelve’ would appear to be intended to include Benjamin. The point is that the message was sent to every tribe in the confederation These, or at least a faithful proportion of them, would regularly meet to renew covenant at the central sanctuary. They were responsible to uphold the rights of Levites, and to uphold the law of Moses, and a most foul murder had been committed. The parts of his concubine’s body were a call to the tribes to come together and observe the covenant by exacting justice for what had been done and dealing with this evil that was in their midst.
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
Jdg 19:29. And sent her into all the coasts of Israel No doubt, he enjoined the bearers of this sacrifice to relate all the circumstances of it; upon which a general indignation animated the tribes. They agreed that no such deed had been done or seen among them since they were a people; for it was a mixture of adultery and murder, with a vile attempt at sodomy upon a stranger, upon a Levite, a person consecrated to the divine service. Determined properly to avenge it, they said, as if with one consent, consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds; which words are a prelude to what we find in the next chapter. A modern critic supposes, that the Levite’s division of the body of his concubine was an anathema or devotion to the Lord, and that sending of the parts to each tribe clearly signified, that he invited them to revenge him, and to punish the guilty, on pain of being subjected to the curse. This writer compares the action of the Levite with that of Saul in after time, as mentioned 1 Samuel 11.; and, indeed, there is some conformity between them. The question then is, whether the Levite’s proceeding laid the tribes under an indispensable necessity to espouse his cause and resentment on pain of the divine malediction? See Martin’s Explication des Textes Difficiles, p. 118-130.
REFLECTIONS.Behold another Lot in another Sodom! we have here,
1. The tumultuous assembly of the men of Gibeah. This should have been a city of the Levites; but, perhaps not being sufficiently numerous, the Benjamites, in whose tribe it lay, yet inhabited it; and a vile set of wretches they were, sons of Belial, who neither feared God nor regarded man, intent only upon the indulgence of their brutal lusts, and stopping at nothing to gratify them. In defiance of all laws, human and divine, they beset the house, demand the stranger, and dare avow their infamous designs upon him. Note; (1.) Continuance in lewdness breeds barefaced impudence. (2.) When a sinner is given up to his own heart’s lust, he easily sinks into the most unnatural crimes which are shocking but to mention.
2. The good man of the house goes out to expostutate with them, pleads the rights of hospitality and the wickedness of their demands, nay proffers to bring them (a very sinful proposal, indeed, which never can be vindicated) his own daughter, and the Levite’s concubine, that he might, by a lesser evil, divert them from a greater; but they are deaf to remonstrance, and their heart is fully set in them to do evil. Note; (1.) Sinners often grow desperate in wickedness, and, like the raging sea, neither will bear restraint nor hear admonition. (2.) We must never commit one evil to avoid a greater, but choose the greatest suffering preferably to the least sin.
3. The Levite’s concubine, probably more handsome than the old man’s daughter, being thrust out to them, they seize her; and, perhaps, seeing the old man resolute to gratify them no farther, they make her the object of their brutal lust. All night they abused her, till the dawning day casting unwelcome light on such deeds of darkness, they left her, and retired. Her strength exhausted, her spirit sunk with grief and shame, her body covered with mortal bruises, and murdered with this inhuman treatment, she just crawls to the door, falls down, and dies. Note; (1.) Perhaps the lust which had been her sin is now, in just judgment, made her punishment. (2.) They who have ruined the objects of their guilty pleasure may think lightly of their crimes, but will surely meet an avenging God.
4. In the morning the Levite arises to go; and, seeing his wife in this posture, thinks her ashamed of what had passed, or asleep on the ground, and therefore bids her arise: but he soon finds his mistake; she is dead. Hereupon he quietly takes her on his beast, glad to escape with his own life from such a scene of abominations; home he hastens, instead of going to Shiloh, as he proposed: and as there was no kind of general council, from whom he could seek redress, he takes a method which could not but tend to make every Israelite shudder with horror; he divided the dead body into twelve parts, and sent one to each tribe, with an account of what had passed, referring it to them to consider what punishment such atrocious wickedness deserved: one part was probably sent to Benjamin, as well as the other tribes, in case some might be found different from their brethren; or else two parts were for Manasseh, whose lot was divided.
5. Struck with indignation and horror at the deed, the whole body of the people, as one man, declare their sense of such an unparalleled crime. A solemn assembly is resolved upon, where they might meet to determine the punishment of the offenders; and in the mean time the matter is recommended to the serious consideration of each man, that, when they met in council, they might be ready to resolve upon a proper method of proceeding. Note; (1.) Even where the provocation is great, we do well to proceed with deliberation, lest our anger bias our resolutions. (2.) They, who would obtain God’s blessing on the land, must seek to purge iniquity from it by executing justice on the criminals.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Jdg 19:29 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.
Ver. 29. Laid hold on his concubine, and divided her. ] Hoc Levitae factum singulare est, et illegitimum, saith Junius; this deed of the Levite was singular and unlawful, as being against the public and common rights of humanity and honesty, in a husband especially. Others think the Levite did well herein, being moved with a zeal for God’s glory, and for the promoting of justice, that such a horrible villany might be punished, and God’s heavy judgments prevented.
And sent her into all the coasts of Israel.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
divided her: It is probable, that with the pieces he sent to each tribe a circumstantial account of the barbarity of the men of Gibeah; and that they considered each of the pieces as expressing an execration. That a similar custom prevailed in ancient times is evident from 1Sa 11:7. It had an inhuman appearance, thus to mangle the corpse of this unhappy woman; but it was intended to excite a keener resentment against so horrible a crime, which called for a punishment proportionally severe. Jdg 20:6, Jdg 20:7, Rom 10:2
with her bones: Deu 21:22, Deu 21:23
Reciprocal: Jdg 19:18 – I am now Pro 6:34 – General
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Jdg 19:29. He took a knife, &c. As the Levite expected no justice from the elders of Gibeah, and there was no supreme head over all the tribes at that time, he had recourse to the elders of each respective tribe; and to move them the more, and stir them up to punish the offender, he sent a part of the body to each of them, preserved undoubtedly by some means from putrefaction. And, undoubtedly, he instructed those he sent with it to relate particularly the circumstances of the unparalleled and barbarous fact.