Joel M Bradshaw

22As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.” 23And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, do not do this vile thing. 

24Behold, here are my virgin daughter and his concubine. Let me bring them out now. Violate them and do with them what seems good to you, but against this man do not do this outrageous thing.” 25But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go. 26And as morning appeared, the woman came and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her master was, until it was light.

27And her master rose up in the morning, and when he opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, behold, there was his concubine lying at the door of the house, with her hands on the threshold. 28He said to her, “Get up, let us be going.” But there was no answer. Then he put her on the donkey, and the man rose up and went away to his home. 

29And when he entered his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine he divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel. 30And all who saw it said, “Such a thing has never happened or been seen from the day that the people of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt until this day; consider it, take counsel, and speak.”–Judges 19

1. THE OLD MAN. He was motivated by maintaining the cultural expectation of hospitality. He invited the family to his house and did everything in his power to protect them from the lusty mob. He offered his daughter and the concubine in their place, which was morally reprehensible, but in his eyes was the right move. He valued hospitality over his daughters safety. Again, people in Judges did was right in their own eyes.
2. THE LEVITE. Offered his concubine in his place to appease the lusts of the mob. Literally forced her out the door! He wasn’t much of a man, be he considered master or husband in this story. The next morning he was callous and uncaring of her situation. He took offense only at the end when she was dead. What a jerk.
3. THE WOMEN. It may not seem fair that the old man’s daughter and the concubine are listed as one here, but they were both used by the ones who supposedly cared for them. Imagine being that daughter and being offered to the mob by your own father! Imagine what that poor concubine went through. Ravaged unto death by a mob and forced to stumble home in the morning only to die on the doorstep. The women were the only characters in the story who did nothing wrong. Each of the men was morally abhorrent.
4. THE MOB. Their motivation wasn’t just sex. They wanted the visiting Levite, a man. It was such that the old man called it a wicked or vile thing. The old man offered women in the Levite’s place, but in verse 25, the mob still wanted the man for sex. Only when the Levite literally forced a woman out the door did they angrily leave. And they killed her. Yes this story stands out as a condemnation of rape, but the mob desired homosexual rape.

A most horrible situation. In those days people did what seemed right in their own eyes. Behold the terrible results.–JMB