So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.
The closing chapters that finish the book of Judges record Israel's backsliding and the disgrace and punishment that followed. They show the low moral state into which Israel had fallen just before the call of Samuel the prophet. The immediate setting is the crime at Gibeah, the disgraceful murder of the Levite's concubine, with which the tribe of Benjamin identified itself by siding with those responsible. It describes all the men of Israel gathering in unity against the city of Gibeah of Benjamin, joined together as a single man for a united attack.
Gibeah means high, standing 2,690 feet above the sea, about 200 feet higher than Jerusalem, and commanding a fine view beyond the Dead Sea far into the mountains of Moab. It lies on the right soon after passing Mizpeh on the way toward Jerusalem, within an hour's walk of Jerusalem. The united attack there nearly exterminated the tribe of Benjamin, leaving it the least and nearly extinct tribe.
The episode exposes a conflict between tribal loyalty and justice, in which clannishness was treated as more important than rendering justice, a pattern with parallels in the present, but such conduct never excuses sin. Because Benjamin had become the least and nearly extinct tribe, divine wisdom chose Israel's king from that tribe in order to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes. The united gathering stands in mighty contrast to the miracles and teaching of Christ in Luke, yet both speak of the goodness and mercy of God and give material for meditation and spiritual growth.
The closing chapters that finish the book of Judges record Israel's backsliding and the disgrace and punishment that followed. They show the low moral state into which Israel had fallen just before the call of Samuel the prophet. The immediate setting is the crime at Gibeah, the disgraceful murder of the Levite's concubine, with which the tribe of Benjamin identified itself by siding with those responsible. It describes all the men of Israel gathering in unity against the city of Gibeah of Benjamin, joined together as a single man for a united attack.
Gibeah means high, standing 2,690 feet above the sea, about 200 feet higher than Jerusalem, and commanding a fine view beyond the Dead Sea far into the mountains of Moab. It lies on the right soon after passing Mizpeh on the way toward Jerusalem, within an hour's walk of Jerusalem. The united attack there nearly exterminated the tribe of Benjamin, leaving it the least and nearly extinct tribe.
The episode exposes a conflict between tribal loyalty and justice, in which clannishness was treated as more important than rendering justice, a pattern with parallels in the present, but such conduct never excuses sin. Because Benjamin had become the least and nearly extinct tribe, divine wisdom chose Israel's king from that tribe in order to remove all grounds of jealousy among the other tribes. The united gathering stands in mighty contrast to the miracles and teaching of Christ in Luke, yet both speak of the goodness and mercy of God and give material for meditation and spiritual growth.