In this journal article, Koala Jones-Warsaw examines Phyllis Trible’s interpretation of Judges 19-21 and provides a new womanist interpretation. After describing the cultural context of the biblical story, she jumps into summarizing the story. A Levite retrieves his escaped concubine from his father-in-law’s house only to have her raped and killed during the journey back home. The Levite then cuts up the concubine and sends the pieces to the twelve tribes in the hopes that the tribesmen will be shocked and the perpetrators will confess. Instead, a war between the eleven tribes and the Benjaminites, the tribe of the perpetrators, ensues. With the majority of the Benjaminite tribe slain, the tribesmen take a total of six hundred women captive in order to repopulate the slain tribe. Jones-Warsaw’s main problem with Trible’s interpretation of the story is that it only focuses on the victimization of the concubine and the victimization of the captive women, trials that middle-class women can sympathize with. …show more content…
I think it is a prime example of one of the “not-so-nice” bible stories that is often overlooked. I was shocked that the elderly man offered the concubine to the men of the town to be raped. Was not she his guest also? I was also shocked that the tribe kidnapped the six hundred women, treating the women as mere objects for repopulation. This story seems so outrageous and archaic. However, after reading the summary of the story provided in the article, I was reminded of the plotline of one of my favorite musicals, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. In this film, frustrated by not being able to woo any girls, a band of brothers kidnaps a group of townswomen to be their wives. While this movie makes fun of the actions of the brothers, in the end, the brothers do succeed in procuring wives. This idea that women are objects to be claimed at ones’ leisure is still existent in