Judges 19:1
And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah. And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah.
Judges 19:1 opens the closing section of Judges, chapters 17-21, which stands near the end of the book whose main story ends with chapter 16. That closing section is connected with Joshua 23-24 and Judges 1-10. It introduces an account from the last chapters of Judges, which reflect Israel's low condition before Samuel the prophet.
Although placed after them, the events it introduces happened in the early part of the judges period, earlier in time than chapters 11-16. Its setting when there was no king in Israel is associated with lack of restraint and widespread disorder, including the extreme immorality of chapters 18 and 19, when everyone did what was right in his own eyes instead of submitting to God's standard of righteousness. That disorder does not show that rule by judges was a faulty system; the people lacked the self-government and discipline needed to live under it.
Though Israel had no human king, God Himself was King among them with the shout of a King in the camp, and though the people never kept their part of the covenant to obey His voice and be a peculiar treasure, a kingdom of priests and a holy nation, the Lord worked marvelously for them. In that kingless time they dwelt alone and were not reckoned among the nations, multiplied as the dust of Jacob, blessed beyond reversal with no iniquity beheld in them, protected so that no enchantment or divination could prevail against them, brought out of Egypt with unicorn strength, and made goodly in tents and tabernacles like valleys spread forth and gardens by the river.
The verse belongs to a record of Israel's backsliding, disgrace, and punishment, and such backsliding cannot be done with impunity. The chapters show that conventional hospitality was valued above a woman's virtue and that tribal loyalty was valued above justice, but neither custom excuses sin. The verse belongs to the account of the crime at Gibeah, with which the whole tribe of Benjamin identified itself. The closing chapters are marked by strife, ruffianism, and bloodshed, a setting that contrasts with the peaceful story of Ruth.