Judges 19:24
Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing. Behold, here is my daughter a maiden, and his concubine; them I will bring out now, and humble ye them, and do with them what seemeth good unto you: but unto this man do not so vile a thing.
The verse stands in the book of Judges, which extends through chapter 21 and takes its name from the leaders God raised up from time to time whose deeds it records, generally called to service in a time of great national crisis when the nation had gone into captivity and therefore called saviours, the last of the line being Samuel. The book was not written until about the time there was a king in Israel, with Samuel or Nathan as possible writers. Chapters 17 to 21, to which the verse belongs, record events that occurred in the early part of the history of the judges and are placed out of chronological order, with the real story of the book ending at chapter 16. In order of time, Judges 17 to 21 comes before Judges 11 to 16. As part of the final chapters of Judges, the verse shows how low Israel had fallen before Samuel was called as prophet.
The verse belongs to the account of the crime at Gibeah, where the wrongdoing is identified with the tribe of Benjamin. In the verse the host offers his maiden daughter and his guest's concubine to the mob to protect his male guest, treating customary hospitality as more important than the women's virtue and safety. The verse depicts a grave act of violence and the disgrace and extreme corruption produced by Israel's fearful backsliding in the period when people did what seemed right to themselves. The act shows that conscience and human judgment apart from God's revealed standard become perverted, making evil appear right and right appear wrong. The backsliding to which the verse belongs cannot be done with impunity. Such moral failure is seen in every age, but it is never excused.