Judges 19 · a question people ask
Why would the Bible tell a story like this?
The chapter frames itself. It opens, "In those days, when there was no king in Israel" (19:1), and the book closes on the same days: "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (21:25). It tells the worst of it in few words, and nothing in it approves what is done. The old man calls the men's demand "folly" (19:23), all who saw it said, "Such a deed has not been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day!" (19:30), and in the next chapter Israel calls it "wickedness" (20:3). The chapter even says what to do with it: "Consider it, take counsel, and speak" (19:30). Christians read the reason for the telling in two main ways, each resting on verses; the two don't rule each other out. Both agree on what the text says: nothing in it approves what is done, and it ends by telling those who hear to "consider it" (19:30).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
What happens without a king
Those who hold this view start from the frame. The book says it four times near its end: "In those days there was no king in Israel" (17:6, 18:1, 21:25), and "In those days, when there was no king in Israel" (19:1). Moses had spoken of a day when Israel would ask for a king, and told them, "you shall surely set him whom the LORD your God chooses as king over yourselves" (Deuteronomy 17:15). The book of Ruth, set "In the days when the judges judged" (Ruth 1:1), ends with David (Ruth 4:22). So they read Judges 19 as showing what Israel became in the days before a king, and pointing ahead to the king the LORD would give.
Judges 17:6 · Judges 18:1 · Judges 19:1 · Judges 21:25 · Deuteronomy 17:14-15 · Ruth 1:1 · Ruth 4:22
What is in the heart of a people
Those who hold this view start from the second half of the refrain, "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (21:25), which is what Moses had warned against: "every man whatever is right in his own eyes" (Deuteronomy 12:8). They note the book's own account of how it began: "another generation arose after them who didn’t know the LORD" (2:10). And they note that Hosea, who prophesied in the days of kings (Hosea 1:1), still likened Israel to "the days of Gibeah": "They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah" (Hosea 9:9). So they read Judges 19 as showing what is in a people who have forgotten the LORD, told so that every hearer would "consider it" (19:30).
Judges 21:25 · Deuteronomy 12:8 · Judges 2:10 · Hosea 1:1 · Hosea 9:9 · Judges 19:30
The verses
“In those days, when there was no king in Israel, there was a certain Levite living on the farther side of the hill country of Ephraim, who took for himself a concubine out of Bethlehem Judah.”
“The man, the master of the house, went out to them, and said to them, “No, my brothers, please don’t act so wickedly; since this man has come into my house, don’t do this folly.”
“It was so, that all who saw it said, “Such a deed has not been done or seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day! Consider it, take counsel, and speak.””
“(Now the children of Benjamin heard that the children of Israel had gone up to Mizpah.) The children of Israel said, “Tell us, how did this wickedness happen?””