Judges 19:2
And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there four whole months. And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Beth-lehem-judah, and was there four whole months.
Judges 19:2 stands in the closing section of the book, chapters 17 to 21, which is placed at the end after the main story ends with chapter 16. The events of that section occurred in the early part of the judges period, in chronological order before chapters 11 to 16. That arrangement makes the closing chapters a retrospective appendix rather than a continuation of what precedes them.
The passage belongs to the sad record of Israel's backsliding, constant lapsing into idolatry and awful idolatry. It belongs to an account of a period marked by gross immorality, showing how far Israel's conduct had fallen. That fall is shown in a time when people did what seemed right in their own eyes. Those final chapters show how low Israel had fallen before the call of Samuel the prophet.
Such backsliding is presented as bringing the disgrace and punishment that followed, and as something that cannot be done with impunity. The record does not excuse sin. The verse introduces the account of the crime of the people of Gibeah, with whom the whole tribe of Benjamin identified themselves. Those closing chapters portray internecine strife, ruffianism, and bloodshed.