"A Certain Levite"
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" - side by side. 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." This is mention of and introduction to "King" and "Kingdom" language. 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). Let me take a moment and break that down for you from the Black Woman's Cotton Patch Version. Here we have an independent woman, you see. A woman who apparently knows her worth and one day, she decided she wasn't going to take it (whatever "it" was) anymore. She got up early one day before he woke up, or came into her tent, got her $h!t and left his @$$. Because she behaved wholly contrary to how women were expected to conduct themselves, the author of the narrative characterized her in the most negative light. "She played the whore," but he had a concubine (a woman kept by a man and provided for, whose status was lower than that of his wife).
As the narrative continues, 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 certain Levite," and she was considered my property. Therefore, 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, according to the Black Woman's Cotton Patch Version, "B!t@h betta have my money," is probably more accurate to describe his frame of 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. Not so, says the black woman sitting on the end of the third pew with her her lips pursed and her left eyebrow in the center of her forehead.
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" - side by side. 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." This is mention of and introduction to "King" and "Kingdom" language. 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). Let me take a moment and break that down for you from the Black Woman's Cotton Patch Version. Here we have an independent woman, you see. A woman who apparently knows her worth and one day, she decided she wasn't going to take it (whatever "it" was) anymore. She got up early one day before he woke up, or came into her tent, got her $h!t and left his @$$. Because she behaved wholly contrary to how women were expected to conduct themselves, the author of the narrative characterized her in the most negative light. "She played the whore," but he had a concubine (a woman kept by a man and provided for, whose status was lower than that of his wife).
As the narrative continues, 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 certain Levite," and she was considered my property. Therefore, 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, according to the Black Woman's Cotton Patch Version, "B!t@h betta have my money," is probably more accurate to describe his frame of 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. Not so, says the black woman sitting on the end of the third pew with her her lips pursed and her left eyebrow in the center of her forehead.
Maybe, but what does happen is that after this "certain Levite" reaches her father's house, to retrieve his property, I mean whore, I mean concubine, and staying longer than he intended, because the young woman's father delayed him for several days, the Levite, along with his collected property, 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! Whaaaat? There's no room in the inn? Can you hear the echos of another story in here? And not the one I've asked you to compare to huh? Well alright then. Umph... Where was I? Oh, ok, his own people would not take him in? Wow... A people, who know the and live by the hospitality custom did not adhere to it - not even for a member of the priestly tribe. Hmmm...
Finally an older man, an Ephraimite (not one from among his people) who living among them, 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 - the woman this "certain Levite" went after her, "speak friendly" to, is thrown out to the angry crowd. She is beaten and raped throughout the entire night until morning. Dusk turns to night and night turns to dawn. At daybreak, she's released and makes it back to the old 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. Believe it or not, it gets worse.
Again, you know this story is about something altogether different, right? Once again, it is about Israel "whoring" after other gods, faith practices etc. It is also a message for all you independent women out there. If you start smelling yourself and go out there "looking for love in all the wrong places," this is what will happen to you. In the end, through all the abuse, bumps and bruise, through all the pain, displacement and humiliation, you should try to make your way back to God (Uh oh, I feel my help coming), prostrate (humbly submitting and begging for forgiveness). The message for Israel is, no matter the social location, no matter how battered, beaten and penetrated strangers, you may be, God will remember and forgive you. S/HE will come for you, and speak tenderly into your ear. Hallelujah! Glory to God! ;)
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, 2012
THEOLOGIA HABITUS EST!
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