44 – The Levite & His Concubine – Part 3

NOTE: THE TRANSCRIPT IS NOT EXACTLY LIKE THE RECORDING.

I previously talked about how sin requires death and, in relation to the account of the Levite & His concubine, there has been a lot of death of what most people would say are innocent people. Those who have died trying to correct Israel and put the evil away are 40,000 men who had nothing to do with the sins of those men in Gibeah. That is one of the tragedies of not stopping sin. Both guilty and innocent people get hurt and both guilty and innocent people can die as a result of someone else’s sin.

The “forty” from the 40,000 has been fulfilled now. YHVH repeats patterns. Forty became associated with the testing of Israel because of the wandering in the wilderness due to rebellion. But now, the tribes have been tested and found willing to do whatever YHVH said to get the sin out of Israel. This is why the next battle will set up Benjamin for destruction.

Judges 20:29 Israel set ambushes all around Gibeah.
Judges 20:30 The children of Israel went up against the children of Benjamin on the third day, and set themselves in array against Gibeah, as at other times.
Judges 20:31 The children of Benjamin went out against the people…

The entire tribe came to battle against their own brethren. As I have mentioned before, this shows us that Benjamin, the whole tribe, was OK with the atrocities that were being committed among them.

Now see how YHVH used a similar war plan with Benjamin as He did with Ai in Joshua 8. Why is this? Because the tribe of Benjamin has become God’s and Israel’s enemy.

Judges 20:31 …and [the warriors] were drawn away from the city; and they [the other tribes of Israel] began to strike and kill of the people, as at other times, in the highways, of which one goes up to Bethel, and the other to Gibeah, in the field, about thirty men of Israel.
Judges 20:32 The children of Benjamin said, “They are struck down before us, as at the first.” But the children of Israel said, “Let’s flee, and draw them away from the city to the highways.”

The Israelites used the same tactic against their own brother, Benjamin, as Joshua had used against Ai, drawing the Benjamites away from Gibeah as had been done at Ai (Joshua 8).

Judges 20:33 All the men of Israel rose up out of their place, and set themselves in array at Baal Tamar. Then the ambushers of Israel broke out of their place, even out of Maareh Geba.
Judges 20:34 Ten thousand chosen men out of all Israel came over against Gibeah, and the battle was severe; but they [the Benjamites] didn’t know that disaster was close to them.
Judges 20:35 Yahweh struck Benjamin before Israel; and the children of Israel destroyed of Benjamin that day twenty-five thousand one hundred men. All these drew the sword.

YHVH struck Benjamin. He went before the 11 tribes of Israel to deliver the 12th tribe, Benjamin, into their hand.

Judges 20:36 So the children of Benjamin saw that they were struck; for the men of Israel yielded to Benjamin, because they trusted the ambushers whom they had set against Gibeah.

This means the tribes began to turn and run (they yielded, they ran from Benjamin), in a ruse, so the ambushers could come forward.

Judges 20:37 The ambushers hurried, and rushed on Gibeah; then the ambushers spread out, and struck all the city with the edge of the sword.
Judges 20:38 Now the appointed sign between the men of Israel and the ambushers was that they should make a great cloud of smoke rise up out of the city.
Judges 20:39 The men of Israel turned in the battle, and Benjamin began to strike and kill of the men of Israel about thirty persons; for they said, “Surely they are struck down before us, as in the first battle.”
Judges 20:40 But when the cloud began to arise up out of the city in a pillar of smoke, the Benjamites looked behind them; and behold, the whole city went up in smoke to the sky.
Judges 20:41 The men of Israel turned, and the men of Benjamin were dismayed; for they saw that disaster had come on them.

Read this similar situation from Ai in Joshua 8:21.

Joshua 8:21 When Joshua and all Israel saw that the ambush had taken the city, and that the smoke of the city ascended, then they turned again, and killed the men of Ai.

Judges 20:42 Therefore they [the Benjamites] turned their backs before the men of Israel to the way of the wilderness; but the battle followed hard after them; and those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the middle of it.

There is a translation problem here where the sentence says “those who came out of the cities destroyed them in the middle of it”.

This verse’s poor English translation can seem like some of the Benjamites were in the cities waiting to help the other 11 Israelite tribes. But this contradicts verse 31 which says the whole tribe of Benjamin were together against the other 11 tribes. The K&D commentary said, “The difficult expression מֵהֶעָרִים וַאֲשֶׁר, (tavek Shachath) of which very different, and for the most part arbitrary, explanations have been given, can only be in apposition to the suffix attached to the verb: “Benjamin, and in fact those who had come to the help of Gibeah out of the towns of Benjamin” (see Judges 20:14-15), i.e., all the Benjamites.”

There is a suffix in the original text that gets ignored by translators which causes confusion about whether the entire tribe of Benjamin were united against the other 11 tribes or not. Verse 42 must continue to be consistent with what was said in verses 14, 15 and 31. Thus, those who came out of the Benjamite cities to help Benjamin were destroyed. As we keep reading, we will find this translation to be best.

The sentence should read: and those who came out of the cities were destroyed in the middle of it. The rest of the chapter will explain how the entire tribe of Benjamin was destroyed.

Judges 20:43 They [the 11 Israelite tribes] surrounded the Benjamites, chased them, and trod them down at their resting place, as far as near Gibeah toward the sunrise [eastward].
Judges 20:44 Eighteen thousand men of Benjamin fell; all these were men of valor.
Judges 20:45 They turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon; and they [the 11 Israelite tribes] gleaned five thousand men of them in the highways, and followed hard after them to Gidom, and struck two thousand men of them.
Judges 20:46 So that all who fell that day of Benjamin were twenty-five thousand men who drew the sword. All these were men of valor.
Judges 20:47 But six hundred men turned and fled toward the wilderness to the rock of Rimmon, and stayed in the rock of Rimmon four months.
Judges 20:48 The men of Israel turned again on the children of Benjamin, and struck them with the edge of the sword, both the entire city, and the livestock, and all that they found. Moreover all the cities which they found they set on fire.

The number of Benjamites which survived were only 600 men. They entered the cave at the Rock of Rimmon. The reason only 600 men were left is because the 11 Israelite tribes destroyed the Benjamite cities with the old men, women, children and all the cattle in them.

Gibeah was now banned, cursed, ‘cherem’, devoted to destruction before YHVH, according to Deuteronomy 13:12-18. And with the other cities also having been destroyed in the war, Israel was on the brink of losing an entire tribe. No Benjamite women remained. Israel now has a problem: How to save Benjamin?

Judges 21:1 Now the men of Israel had sworn in Mizpah, saying, “None of us will give his daughter to Benjamin as a wife.”

This was a national oath. An oath once spoken must be fulfilled.

Judges 21:2 The people came to Bethel, and sat there until evening before God, and lifted up their voices, and wept severely.
Judges 21:3 They said, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, why has this happened in Israel, that there should be one tribe lacking in Israel today?”

Isn’t this what people do? They ask God why this bad thing has happened instead of looking at themselves to find the reason.

Judges 21:4 On the next day, the people rose early, and built an altar there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings.
Judges 21:5 The children of Israel said, “Who is there among all the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up in the assembly to Yahweh?” For they had made a great oath concerning him who didn’t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah, saying, “He shall surely be put to death.”
Judges 21:6 The children of Israel grieved for Benjamin their brother, and said, “There is one tribe cut off from Israel today.
Judges 21:7 How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since we have sworn by Yahweh that we will not give them of our daughters to wives?”
Judges 21:8 They said, “What one is there of the tribes of Israel who didn’t come up to Yahweh to Mizpah?” Behold, no one came from Jabesh Gilead to the camp to the assembly.
Judges 21:9 For when the people were counted, behold, there were none of the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead there.

The 11 tribes had universally agreed to 2 things: 1) they would not give their daughters to any Benjamite, and 2) any who did not come to do war against Benjamin would be killed.

Jabesh Gilead was in the tribal territory of Gad east of the Jordan River. There was no reason given for the people from Jabesh Gilead to refuse to unite with Israel.

Judges 21:10 The congregation sent twelve thousand of the most valiant men there, and commanded them, saying, “Go and strike the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead with the edge of the sword, with the women and the little ones.
Judges 21:11 This is the thing that you shall do: you shall utterly destroy every male, and every woman who has lain with a man.”
Judges 21:12 They found among the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead four hundred young virgins, who had not known man by lying with him; and they brought them to the camp to Shiloh, which is in the land of Canaan.

The oath to kill all who would not stand united against Benjamin’s sin was fulfilled.

Judges 21:13 The whole congregation sent and spoke to the children of Benjamin who were in the rock of Rimmon, and proclaimed peace to them.
Judges 21:14 Benjamin returned at that time; and they gave them the women whom they had saved alive of the women of Jabesh Gilead. There still weren’t enough for them.

There were 600 men and 400 virgins with which to start Benjamin again.

Judges 21:15 The people grieved for Benjamin, because Yahweh had made a breach in the tribes of Israel.

Here is a lie told by the Israelites. It was not YHVH who created this situation but Israel herself created it. Yet the flesh cannot understand that God is not the problem; our flesh is the problem.

Judges 21:16 Then the elders of the congregation said, “How shall we provide wives for those who remain, since the women are destroyed out of Benjamin?”
Judges 21:17 They said, “There must be an inheritance for those who are escaped of Benjamin, that a tribe not be blotted out from Israel.

This is something our modern brethren don’t seem to grasp. Israel is Israel because all of the tribes exist. Without all of the tribes, there is not an Israel.

Judges 21:18 However we may not give them wives of our daughters, for the children of Israel had sworn, saying, ‘Cursed is he who gives a wife to Benjamin.’”

They have a problem. They vowed to not give of their daughters to Benjamin and they must fulfill this oath, but how?

Judges 21:19 They said, “Behold, there is a feast of Yahweh from year to year in Shiloh, which is on the north of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goes up from Bethel to Shechem, and on the south of Lebonah.”
Judges 21:20 They commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, “Go and lie in wait in the vineyards,
Judges 21:21 and see, and behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in the dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each man catch his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
Judges 21:22 It shall be, when their fathers or their brothers come to complain to us, that we will say to them, ‘Grant them graciously to us, because we didn’t take for each man his wife in battle, neither did you give them to them, otherwise you would now be guilty.’”

The solution to the national oath is to let their daughters be caught by the Benjamites during the dancing at Passover. My research indicates that the dance of Miriam with the women at the Red Sea was enacted from year to year at Passover. Some believe this dancing happened at Sukkot but the dancing tradition of Sukkot is the men dancing with the Torah scroll, something prohibited for women.

Allowing the Benjamites to “steal” their daughters was a cultural solution but one which would fulfill their oath since no formal negotiations nor formal “giving away” of the brides to the Benjamites would take place.

Judges 21:23 The children of Benjamin did so, and took wives for themselves, according to their number, of those who danced, whom they carried off. They went and returned to their inheritance, built the cities, and lived in them.

Unfortunately, Gibeah was also rebuilt. It is just another sin of Israel to have rebuilt it. King Saul was from Gibeah.

Judges 21:24 The children of Israel departed from there at that time, every man to his tribe and to his family, and they each went out from there to his own inheritance.
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.

Samuel ends this account the way he started it by saying, “In those days there was no king in Israel”. To this he added, “Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes.”

Deuteronomy 12:8 You shall not do all the things that we do here today, every man whatever is right in his own eyes;

Deuteronomy 12:28 Observe and hear all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you, and with your children after you forever, when you do that which is good and right in Yahweh your God’s eyes.

Samuel’s remark that there was no king in Israel was his explanation that led up to Israel rejecting YHVH as King which he then wrote about in the Books of Samuel.

From the foundation of the world, YHVH always had a plan to have Israel for His wife. I mentioned this last time that YHVH always has Plan A and He will end up with Plan A no matter how often sin gets in the way temporarily.

YHVH’s first work around after the golden calf was by instituting Yom Kippur. After 1500 more years of Israel’s rebellion and outright rejection, He gave Himself on the cross to atone for Israel as promised to Abram in Genesis 15. In so doing, He also fulfilled Israel’s mandate which they failed in to bring the entire world to Him. You see, it doesn’t matter what the world or the devil throws at YHVH, He has Plan A and He will have Plan A.

Although almost no people who claim Abraham’s descendancy – Christians, Jews, Muslims – understand what Israel is, the message is clear from this situation that Israel will cease to exist if all the tribes are not present within her.

Israel almost came to end with this civil war. This is a clear prophecy about how close YHVH will bring Israel to the point of total annihilation in the end of days but yet He won’t let His faithful people go! He will return before all flesh is destroyed (Matthew 24:22). Yeshua must come to reunite and restore us to be HIS Israel, the Israel, the Firstborn, that He envisioned before the foundation of the world.

We have now finished 2 of the historical books – Joshua and Judges. I believe we have all learned some very hard lessons about Israel’s depravity and rebellion against our God and King, YHVH. These serve to highlight God’s mercies toward Israel and each of us individually. Not only that, these lessons show us that when God makes a promises, He will keep it even if it means temporarily putting up with His people rejecting Him until He finally gets a people who actually want to belong to Him.