The Judges. Day 62, A Levite Goes After His Wayward Wife

Chapter 19 in the NIV is titled "A Levite And His Concubine". This was not a forbidden relationship in the Bible although I believe the Lord clearly demonstrated His best plan for marriage when He gave Adam only one wife. But we have seen and will continue to see men of the Old Testament having one or more concubines. This type of relationship was a legally recognized marriage but was usually a secondary marriage. A concubine was typically of some other culture, though this doesn't mean she was necessarily practicing a heathen religion. An untold number of foreigners came out of Egypt with the Israelites and no doubt a great deal of them converted to the God of Israel. A Gentile could join himself or herself to the family of Israel and follow the rules and regulations of the Mosaic law. For example, in the New Testament we find many Greeks and people of other cultures worshiping the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem. So what we have in Chapter 19 is a Levite (a man belonging to the priestly tribe of Israel, though evidently not a priest himself) married to a woman who was probably of foreign ancestry. We don't know whether he also had a primary wife of Israelite ancestry.

The relationship between the Levite and his concubine is a troubled one. This chapter is long and today we'll only have time to study part of it but the events that take place at the end of it are quite shocking. That's why the author of Judges begins our chapter by saying something he's said before: "In those days Israel had no king." (Judges 19:1a) As the book of Judges begins coming to a close, its author repeats this refrain several times to let us know that lawlessness in the land was abounding more and more. The longer the Israelites lived in the land without a king, the more often men and women began to stray from the word of God. The author appears to feel that a king would be able to maintain law and order in the land. He thinks men and women would think twice before doing whatever they please if there were a king seated on the throne of Israel ready to administer justice.

Several examples occur in Chapter 19 of callous disregard for the wellbeing of fellow humans. But before we get to those examples, we find a man whose wife has left him. Some versions of the Bible translate the original text to say, "She played the whore against him." Others simply say, "She was unfaithful to him" because they feel the original text is ambiguous as to whether she was physically unfaithful or whether she rejected him emotionally and did not want to be married to him anymore. Whatever the case, she leaves him and goes back to live with her parents. "Now a Levite who lived in a remote area in the hill country of Ephraim took a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went back to her parents' home in Bethlehem, Judah. After she had been there four months, her husband went to her to persuade her to return. He had with him his servant and two donkeys." (Judges 19:1b-3a)

If this woman is an adulteress, she evidently did not want to run away with the man with whom she committed adultery. Or perhaps the man did not want her to come and live with him. She goes home to her mother and father instead. After four months, her husband decides to go to her parents' house to try to win her back. This is another reason some scholars believe she did not commit sexual infidelity; they think a man of Israel---and especially a Levite---would not take back an adulterous wife. However, there's a flaw in that line of reasoning because although a person has a Biblical right to divorce an unfaithful spouse, the Bible doesn't command anyone to divorce an unfaithful spouse. 

We also can't argue that if this woman were an adulteress she would have been put to death. Adulterers in the Old Testament could be put to death if they were caught in the act by two or more witnesses, but I can't think of any examples in the Old Testament of adulterous couples who were stoned to death. If this form of capital punishment was carried out in Israel, it was probably rare since adultery is an act usually carried out in the utmost secrecy. No one could be put to death without at least two witnesses having seen a capital crime being committed. Adulterers in modern times still take care not to get caught. In Old Testament times an adulterous couple in Israel would have taken every precaution possible not to get caught because it could mean their death. 

We don't know exactly what the Levite's wife did or why she left him but he doesn't want a divorce. He wants her to come back home with him. If it were not for the events at the end of our chapter I'd believe he loved her too much to let her go but what happens in our study later this week knocks that theory completely out of the water. It may be that his pride is too wounded to let a woman leave him. It may be that he feels possessive of her. It may be that he's too sexually attracted to her to stop thinking about her. But when he shows up to claim his bride, she seems to be happy to see him and invites him in. "She took him into her parents' home, and when her father saw him, he gladly welcomed him. His father-in-law, the woman's father, prevailed on him to stay; so he remained with him three days, eating and drinking, and sleeping there." (Judges 19:3b-4) His father-in-law is pleased that the couple is getting back together. He shows a great deal of lavish hospitality to the Levite. This may indicate he holds his Levite son-in-law in high esteem. Or it may indicate an eagerness to be done with the expense of having his daughter back in the household. Or it could be that he's genuinely happy to see a troubled couple able to reconcile their differences.

The Levite is ready to take his bride and go home on the fourth day but his father-in-law is not ready for the celebrations to end. "On the fourth day they got up early and he prepared to leave, but the woman's father said to his son-in-law, 'Refresh yourself with something to eat; then you can go.' So the two of them sat down to eat and drink together. Afterward the woman's father said, 'Please stay tonight and enjoy yourself.' And when the man got up to go, his father-in-law persuaded him, so he stayed there that night. On the morning of the fifth day, when he rose to go, the woman's father said, 'Refresh yourself. Wait till afternoon!' So the two of them ate together." (Judges 19:5-8) We don't know why this man is so reluctant for his son-in-law to depart. It's not clear whether the drinking mentioned here is a reference to alcohol but if that's the case it could be that he enjoys having a drinking buddy. 

"Then when the man, with his concubine and his servant, got up to leave, his father-in-law, the woman's father, said, 'Now look, it's almost evening. Spend the night here; the day is nearly over. Stay and enjoy yourself. Early tomorrow morning you can get up and be on your way home.' But, unwilling to stay another night, the man left and went toward Jebus (that is, Jerusalem), with his two saddled donkeys and his concubine." (Judges 19:9-10) All this celebratory eating and drinking has caused the Levite to depart in the late afternoon, which was not an ideal time to set out on a journey due to the heat of that time of day and due to the need to find lodging in time to settle down for the night. This delay is part of a series of events that culminate in the death of the Levite's wife. But we cannot fault the woman's father for what happens to her. As someone who is a gracious host, he could not have anticipated how unhospitable the people will be whom his daughter and son-in-law encounter on their journey. He could not have foreseen the lawless violence that is soon to take place. And he certainly would never have suspected that the Levite who swallowed his wounded pride and traveled a long way to woo his wife back would sacrifice her to save his own skin.