Judges 19:30
And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds. And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.
The verse belongs to Judges 17-21, which occurred chronologically before Judges 11-16. It is part of the account of Israel's appallingly low condition in the period of the judges, before Samuel's call as prophet. It concerns the crime at Gibeah of Benjamin, in which the whole tribe of Benjamin identified itself with the perpetrators. That crime was the disgraceful murder of the Levite's concubine, which nearly resulted in the extermination of the tribe of Benjamin.
Gibeah means "high," standing 2,690 feet above the sea, about 200 feet higher than Jerusalem. It commands a fine view even beyond the Dead Sea far into the mountains of Moab, and lies within an hour's walk from Jerusalem past Mizpeh. The verse records the horror stirred by the crime and the call to consider it, take counsel, and speak. It shows the outrage over the deed at Gibeah of Benjamin.
The events in chapters 18 and 19 marked by the verse are an extreme example of Israel's moral corruption during the period when people did what seemed right to themselves. They belong to a record of Israel's backsliding, disgrace, and punishment, showing the grave consequences of sin. Apart from God's revealed standard, human judgment and conscience can be so distorted by selfishness that wrong appears right and right appears wrong. The chapter's failures of justice apply to the present and teach that sin is never excused.