NOTES for Jdg 19:1-30
The people’s moral degradation continues, and now one of the tribes of Israel, which had entered into a Covenant of faithfulness with the Lord, has not only repeated but exceeded the sins of the pagans of Sodom. The commandments, however, had not been forgotten in Gibeah alone. The uncertain status of the woman who suffered, called at times a wife and at times a concubine, reveals a decline in morals even among the Levites, who were called to preserve the Law of Moses.
The dismemberment of the tortured woman’s body and the sending of its parts to all the tribes of Israel naturally seems monstrous to us. Yet this act displayed more than the violent temperament of one particular Levite, and more even than the customs of times and lands far removed from us. Through it, we can sense the horror that shattered every familiar frame of reference for those Israelites who had not forgotten the commandments: to what depths of depravity can we descend, and how are we now to go on living in the face of such flagrant evil?
When evil becomes habitual, a shock that forces us to look its vileness squarely in the face may become necessary.