"She Played the Whore"

Judges 19 

For those of you new to this blog, I created this blog out of the need and desire to communicate with members of my "Sexuality and the Bible" bible study class. In the class, I asked them to compare and contrast Judges 19 with Genesis 19. What I learned was shocking. As a woman, this has got to be THE most difficult scripture I have ever had to read. What is even more difficult is hearing from people - who boast about being readers of the "Word" - how few are familiar with this story.

I'm not going to go into detail about the similarities and the differences, but I urge you to read them both, as we preachers like to say, "for your own edification." Instead, what I am going to do is touch on the most troubling elements in the text. First off, we learn "there was no king in Israel." Next we are introduced to a "certain Levite" (the priestly tribe of Israel), and entering stage right - his concubine - who "played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father's house" (KJV v.2).

As the story goes, after "four whole months," the Levite "went out after her, to speak friendly unto her, and to bring her again(v.3)." Ooby kaby... Here we go. Now listen, I don't know about you, but right away, I smell something foul. I know right off the bat something in the soup ain't chicken! We are told from the start, in the first two verses, that 1) the woman was a concubine and 2) she played the whore! That ain't the kind of woman I'm gonna write home and tell Mama about! You can certainly believe when she parts from me I'm not going to go after her - unless of course I was a Levite and she was considered my property. And, the reclamation of my property was what I "went after," and not some harlot who had brought shame to me and embarrassed me in front of my people! Instead, the offensive colloquial phrase "B!^@H betta have my money" comes to mind. Okay, okay, for you hopeless romantics out there, maybe he was going to whisper sweet nothings into her ear to get her to come back.

Maybe, but what does happen is that after reaching her father's house, retrieving his property, I mean whore, I mean concubine, and staying longer than he intended, the Levite, along with his asses and servants head back. On the way, they opted not to "turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel." Instead, they went on to Gibeah (which belonged to the Israelite tribe of Benjamin)(v.12-14). Initially, no one took them in! What? His own people would not take him in? Wow... "It's getting hot in here..." Finally an older man takes the Levite and his crew in - to wash their feet, and gave them food and drink. Then suddenly, like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people of the town beat at the door saying, "Bring forth the man that came into thine house, that we may know him" (v.22). And like the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, there is a virgin daughter and a whore, I mean a concubine available that is offered up to the crowd by the older man saying, "humble ye them, and do with them what seems good unto you" (v.24). This time however, the whore - I'm sorry, I keep messing that up - the concubine is thrown out to the angry crowd. She is beaten and raped throughout the entire night until morning. Finally, at daybreak, she's released and makes it back to the man's house where she "fell down at the door of the house, and her hands were upon the threshold" (v.27). Talk about a "humbling" experience. Good Lord! Believe it or not, it gets worse.  

Here is where I'll end this post. I'm exhausted, irritated and it's late. But, riddle me this; could this story be out of place? Can you imagine the wailing cry of a woman being beaten and gang raped throughout the entire night? Could you stand by and let it happen? Do you think God did? Could this be the "great outcry" of Sodom and Gomorrah that warranted a divine visitation and investigation - ultimately ending in the complete destruction of several cities? Could the mistreatment, devaluing, and rape of a woman really be the truth about the sin that did Sodom in? Dare me to say it! Double dog dare me! 
© Dorinda G. Henry, 2010 

THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!