Shades of Sodom! The story recounted in Judges 19 is enough to shock even the most jaded cynic. Certainly, the depths to which Israel has sunk means that something has gone very, very wrong in the Promised Land.
The tale starts out innocently enough. A Levite who has had a fight with his concubine sets out to her father's house to reconcile with her. After getting a late start on his journey home with her, he stops at the town of Gibeah for the night. At first, no one takes his party in and he and his servant and concubine are left in the town square as darkness falls. Then an immigrant from Ephraim arrives home after his work in the fields; this older man extends hospitality to them and invites them into his house. So far, so good.
Unfortunately, the story then takes a decidedly darker turn. The men of the city, in a scene reminiscent of Genesis 19, begin banging on the old man's door, demanding that the Levite be handed over to them for sexual purposes. (One of the rules of ancient hospitality, however, is that you protect the safety of your guest with all your might.) Attempting to bargain with the mob, they offer the old man's virgin daughter and the Levite's concubine instead. The men are not interested. In desperation, the Levite flings his concubine out of the house onto the street. Throughout the night, the men of Gibeah gang-rape her to death.
The next morning, the Levite discovers his concubine dead. Taking her body home with him, he proceeds to cut her corpse into 12 pieces. Why? Each piece is sent to a tribe of Israel along with an account of the story of what happened. With no king in Israel to appeal to, justice is cried out for to the tribes.
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