But now this shall be the thing which we will do to Gibeah; we will go up by lot against it;
The closing chapters of Judges record Israel's backsliding into a low state that brought disgrace and punishment before Samuel the prophet was called. This verse belongs to that record, where Israel resolved to punish Gibeah for the disgraceful murder of the Levite's concubine there, a retaliation that nearly exterminated the tribe of Benjamin. Gibeah of Benjamin means high. It lies opposite Mizpeh within an hour's walk of Jerusalem and a little more than a mile from Nob, standing 2,690 feet above the sea or about 200 feet higher than Jerusalem, and commanding a view beyond the Dead Sea far into the mountains of Moab.
Gibeah afterward became Saul's dwelling after he was anointed king, the place where he hewed oxen in pieces and sent them to the tribes as a call to arms, the base for Jonathan's victory over the Philistines, and the place where seven of Saul's sons were hanged. In the verse Israel determined by casting lots how to go up and proceed against Gibeah. The term lot can denote a portion or choice determined by lot, understood as a decision of Providence fixing a person's fate or portion.
The verse exemplifies the Hebrew word goh-rahl in the sense of a lot cast to decide an outcome, not an inherited possession. Elsewhere the same term is used for assigning land and other portions. The events around the verse show wrong priorities in treating customary hospitality as more important than women's virtue and tribal loyalty as more important than justice, and such failures do not excuse sin. The history around the verse stands in mighty contrast to the miracles and teaching of Jesus recorded in Luke, yet both speak of the goodness and mercy of God.
The closing chapters of Judges record Israel's backsliding into a low state that brought disgrace and punishment before Samuel the prophet was called. This verse belongs to that record, where Israel resolved to punish Gibeah for the disgraceful murder of the Levite's concubine there, a retaliation that nearly exterminated the tribe of Benjamin. Gibeah of Benjamin means high. It lies opposite Mizpeh within an hour's walk of Jerusalem and a little more than a mile from Nob, standing 2,690 feet above the sea or about 200 feet higher than Jerusalem, and commanding a view beyond the Dead Sea far into the mountains of Moab.
Gibeah afterward became Saul's dwelling after he was anointed king, the place where he hewed oxen in pieces and sent them to the tribes as a call to arms, the base for Jonathan's victory over the Philistines, and the place where seven of Saul's sons were hanged. In the verse Israel determined by casting lots how to go up and proceed against Gibeah. The term lot can denote a portion or choice determined by lot, understood as a decision of Providence fixing a person's fate or portion.
The verse exemplifies the Hebrew word goh-rahl in the sense of a lot cast to decide an outcome, not an inherited possession. Elsewhere the same term is used for assigning land and other portions. The events around the verse show wrong priorities in treating customary hospitality as more important than women's virtue and tribal loyalty as more important than justice, and such failures do not excuse sin. The history around the verse stands in mighty contrast to the miracles and teaching of Jesus recorded in Luke, yet both speak of the goodness and mercy of God.