The Levite And His Concubine

The Biblical story of the Levite and his concubine, which is Chapter 19 of the of book of Judges in the Hebrew Bible, is an odd and shocking story. (It isn't, however, part of the Torah, and is instead part of the collection of stories that make up the remainder of what Christians call  the Old Testament, after its initial five books).

Why the Hebrews, hundreds of years later, chose to preserve this piece of legendary history, when they assembled the Hebrew Bible isn't entirely clear. It may be because it has strong parallels in the story of Lot in the book of Genesis, another case where a bunch of random men come to a house and demand the the householder surrender someone for them to rape and the household complies. Or, it may be intended to demonstrate how lawless the Levant was for the Jews in the age of judges, before they established their own proper kingdom there, as Judges 19:30 suggests.

The story of the Levite and his concubine is also cryptic. It belabors seemingly unimportant details at length, while omitting context that help the story make more sense and explain why these people acted the way that they did. Three thousand or so years removed from the setting of the story, we are left to fill in the blanks by inferring what we can from what it does say.

The story

A Levite and his concubine (whom he acquired in Bethlehemjudah, apparently from her father) visit his concubine's father, where they stay for four months and five days and were urged by her father to stay longer. But the Levite insisted on leaving for his home, together with his two donkeys, his servant and his concubine. Judges 19:1-10. His next stop was to "the house of the Lord" (presumably, his home as the Levites are the priestly class of the Hebrews). Judges 19:18.

The Levite and his party consider staying overnight in Jerusalem, but decide to go to the Jewish town of Gibeah that was part of the tribe of Benjamin, instead, because at this time (before there was a Jewish King in Israel) there were no Jews in Jerusalem. But the Levite can't find a place to stay in Gibeah. Judges 19:11-15. However, a local farmer they meet agrees to take the Levite and his party in for the night, provides them with a meal, and stables the Levite's donkeys for the night, so that the Levite and his party don't have to sleep on the streets that night. Judges 19:16-21.

Some men from the area come to the farmer's house saying that they want to rape the visiting Levite. But the farmer refuses because the Levite was under the farmer's hospitality and protection, and instead offers the hostile crowd of men his own virgin daughter, or the Levite's concubine, instead. Judges 19: 22-24. 

It isn't clear if they want to rape the Levite because they are craving gay sex, because the Levite is a stranger in the town, or because they have animosity towards the Hebrew people's priestly class.

The implication is that if the crowd of men wasn't placated with a girl or woman to rape, that they would have taken the Levite and raped him by force.

The men ultimately accept the Levite's concubine instead of the Levite himself and gang rape her all night until dawn, after which the Levite's concubine collapses on the farmer's doorstep. Judges 19:25-27. But the concubine was unable to speak when the Levite asked her to get ready to go (perhaps because she is unconscious and dying as a result of the brutal gang rape), so he put her on a donkey, finishes his trip, and when he arrives there, cuts her body into twelve pieces, and sends one piece to each of the twelve tribes of Israel (presumably to express his outrage at the situation and to protest the mistreatment of the Levite priesthood). Judges 19:28-30.