Civil war breaks out among the tribes, between Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes over an incident that happened to a Levite in the Benjaminite town of Gibeah. "Base fellows" came knocking at the door and asked the host to "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him." Instead the man put out the guest's concubine to them. They "abused her all night." When they let her go she "came and fell down at the door of the man's house." The man put her upon his ass and took her home where "he took a knife... and divided her into twelve pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel." The eleven tribes go to war at Gibeah against the tribe of Benjamin. On the third attempt Gibeah is defeated and the tribe of Benjamin all but killed. The remnant was rounded up and given four hundred young virgins from Jabesh-gilead or took wives from among the dancers at Shiloh at the feast of tabernacles so "that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.' Again the writer reminds us "there is no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
Civil war breaks out among the tribes, between Benjamin and the other Israelite tribes over an incident that happened to a Levite in the Benjaminite town of Gibeah. "Base fellows" came knocking at the door and asked the host to "Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him." Instead the man put out the guest's concubine to them. They "abused her all night." When they let her go she "came and fell down at the door of the man's house." The man put her upon his ass and took her home where "he took a knife... and divided her into twelve pieces and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel." The eleven tribes go to war at Gibeah against the tribe of Benjamin. On the third attempt Gibeah is defeated and the tribe of Benjamin all but killed. The remnant was rounded up and given four hundred young virgins from Jabesh-gilead or took wives from among the dancers at Shiloh at the feast of tabernacles so "that a tribe be not blotted out from Israel.' Again the writer reminds us "there is no king in Israel; every man did what was right in his own eyes."
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