The Violence And Treachery: The Book Of Judges

The entirety of the book of Judges follows a cyclical pattern. The pattern is as follows: The Israelites start sinning and turning away from God then God appoints a new judge to show the people who the real God is and finally the people repent and ask God for forgiveness and there is peace and prosperity throughout Israel. This whole book is trying to show that without a good leader no nation can prosper. They will just become corrupt and violent. Kaminsky and Lohr write, "Israelite idolatry, theft, rape, murder, and intertribal warfare, indicate that Israel's lack of good leadership results in violence, chaos, and possible extinction, showing that infidelity to God is mirrored in the infidelity and treachery various Israelites display toward each other" (Kaminsky p. 120). One of the key

This story causes the civil war in the chapters following it. The violence and treachery described in this chapter ought to be put in a thriller novel by Stephen King and not a sacred religious text. The story starts by saying that there was no king in Israel at the time. This tells the reader that Israel is already in the part of the cycle with violence and a disregard of God. The concubine goes back to her father's house and after four months her husband goes there to get her back. On their journey back home, they decide to stop at Gibeah. While at an inn there men approach the husband and want to rape him. Giving priority to hospitality over his own daughters safety the innkeeper offers his daughter to them. When originally reading this text, I thought that this was insane and that this could not possibly in such a religious text. How could a father just give up his daughter over a stranger he just met? Why did the husband offer his wife as well? The story ends with the husband waking up in the morning and finding his lifeless wife on the stoop of the door. He took her and cut her up into 12 pieces and sent