Judges 20 · a question people ask
The Levite tells Israel what happened at Gibeah (20:4-7). Does his account match chapter 19?
Before he speaks, the narrator names him "The Levite, the husband of the woman who was murdered" (20:4). His own words run from "I came into Gibeah" (20:4) to "give here your advice and counsel" (20:7). Set beside chapter 19, some of it matches: he came to Gibeah "to spend the night" (20:4; see 19:15), the men of Gibeah surrounded the house by night (20:5; see 19:22), and he tells what he did after (20:6; see 19:29). Some of it differs. He says the men meant to kill him (20:5); the words chapter 19 gives the men (19:22) are not a threat to kill. His account of what was done to her (20:5) doesn't say who brought her out to them; 19:25 does. He says she is dead (20:5); chapter 19 says that when he spoke to her in the morning "no one answered" (19:28), and doesn't say when she died. Neither chapter comments on his account, and the text records no question put to him after it before "All the people arose as one man" (20:8). Christians read the differences in two main ways. Both agree the narrator himself calls her "the woman who was murdered" (20:4), and 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!" (19:30).
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
An account that leaves out his own part
Those who hold this view read the differences as the Levite's own telling. He speaks of a threat to his life that the men's words in 19:22 don't make, and he doesn't tell what 19:25 tells. They note that the assembly acted on one man's account: "All the people arose as one man" (20:8), and set it beside the Law's call for judges to "make diligent inquisition" (Deuteronomy 19:18) and beside the proverb, "He who pleads his cause first seems right— until another comes and questions him" (Proverbs 18:17).
Judges 20:5 · Judges 20:8 · Judges 19:22 · Judges 19:25 · Deuteronomy 19:18 · Proverbs 18:17
A short account of what was done
Those who hold this view read 20:4-7 as a short speech to the assembly, set beside chapter 19's fuller telling, and find nothing in the text that calls his words false. They note that the narrator's own words agree that she was murdered (20:4), that Israel asked Benjamin, "What wickedness is this that has happened among you?" (20:12), and that Benjamin gave no other account but gathered to Gibeah for battle (20:13-14). The wrong at Gibeah, not the Levite, is what the tribes ask Benjamin to answer for: "deliver up the men, the wicked fellows who are in Gibeah" (20:13).
Judges 20:4 · Judges 20:12-14
The verses
“They went over there, to go in to stay in Gibeah. He went in, and sat down in the street of the city; for there was no one who took them into his house to stay.”
“As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, certain wicked fellows, surrounded the house, beating at the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we can have sex with him!””
“But the men wouldn’t listen to him; so the man grabbed his concubine, and brought her out to them; and they had sex with her, and abused her all night until the morning. When the day began to dawn, they let her go.”
“He said to her, “Get up, and let’s get going!” but no one answered. Then he took her up on the donkey; and the man rose up, and went to his place. When he had come into his house, he took a knife and cut up his concubine, and divided her, limb by limb, into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the borders of Israel. 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.””