Women do not fair well
I just finished Judges and am on to Ruth. But the story of the Levite and his concubine is heart breaking. The story is a bit unclear. The text says she was unfaithful to him. And went back home. I don't understand if she was considered unfaithful to him because she left him, or if she was unfaithful and then left him.
To make a long story short, her husband comes to get her, he woos her back. They leave, go to Gibeah a town in the land of Benjamin, are invited to stay at an Ephraimite's house. In Sodom and Gohmorrah fashion the men of the town demand to be given the man so that they can sodomize him. Instead, the husband tosses out his concubine who ends up raped and killed. Her husband, to rally the troops, cuts her up and sends her out to all the other tribes to show what was done to her and more importantly what was done within Israel and among Israelites. Everyone responds, there is a great battle and the entire tribe of Benjamin is almost on the verge of extinction. In the end though, the remaining Benjamites are given permission to raid Shiloh and cart off the virgins for wives.
But the chapter begins by saying, "In those days Israel had no king." In fact this must be important because in Judges 18 it says the same thing. And Judges ends with the words, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit."
The very next book is Ruth and it is a beautiful story of a widow, a moabite, who leaves her home, to go with her mother-in-law, also a widow. Ruth ends up being redeemed by Boaz, her kinsman. Ruth and Boaz are the parents of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David.
So, in the very next chapter we are introduced to the great great grand parents of king David.
To make a long story short, her husband comes to get her, he woos her back. They leave, go to Gibeah a town in the land of Benjamin, are invited to stay at an Ephraimite's house. In Sodom and Gohmorrah fashion the men of the town demand to be given the man so that they can sodomize him. Instead, the husband tosses out his concubine who ends up raped and killed. Her husband, to rally the troops, cuts her up and sends her out to all the other tribes to show what was done to her and more importantly what was done within Israel and among Israelites. Everyone responds, there is a great battle and the entire tribe of Benjamin is almost on the verge of extinction. In the end though, the remaining Benjamites are given permission to raid Shiloh and cart off the virgins for wives.
But the chapter begins by saying, "In those days Israel had no king." In fact this must be important because in Judges 18 it says the same thing. And Judges ends with the words, "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit."
The very next book is Ruth and it is a beautiful story of a widow, a moabite, who leaves her home, to go with her mother-in-law, also a widow. Ruth ends up being redeemed by Boaz, her kinsman. Ruth and Boaz are the parents of Obed, the father of Jesse, the father of David.
So, in the very next chapter we are introduced to the great great grand parents of king David.
posted by Leslie at 10:07 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home