Judges- Ghastly last gasp

Samson (#13 in the list of judges, hm....) is the last judge chronicled in this book.  Samson seems to have ushered in even more darkness and there are no more Judges left to chronicle...just depravity of unspeakable dimensions.

We then have a case of individual idolatry (Micah the Ephraimite) and corporate idolatry when the Danites install an unnamed Levite (who had served Micah in his home shrine with is idols) as their priest and continue to use the stolen idols that Micah had made. (18:31)

Finally, the horrible nightmare of a story about gang rape and the dismemberment of the Levite's concubine. The sacredness of hospitality in that culture is something I think the western mind cannot fathom. The host offers his own daughter to be raped rather than his guest. Ironically, the Levite had passed up spending the night in Jebus because he wouldn't stay in a non-Israelite town. Looking for greater safety among their own people, they were victims of the most heinous crime. After he sends his gory message around Israel, Israel goes to war against the Benjamites, the ones who committed the crime.

They also make an oath at Mizpah that not one of them would give their daughter in marriage to a Benjamite. Since no representatives from Jabesh Gilead show up for the sacred assembly--now think about this, their punishment sounds extreme, but look at it in this light-they receive a body part testifying to the crime of the Benjamites and they don't show enough concern about- or even interest in--this horrendous breach of justice to even to send a representative-- their whole community is put to the sword including women and children(21:10), except for the virgins. These are given to the Benjamites, but there are still not enough to go around.

And so the people actually grieve for the tribe of Benjamin because it appears there would be this big gap in the tribes of Israel. So the elders get creative and decide to let the Benjamites "seize" a girl from the dancing at the annual festival of the Lord at Shiloh, and that way their fathers cannot be guilty of giving them up willingly, but the line of Benjamin is preserved. So there is punishment and purging, but not annihilation.

The book ends with its main point:

In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit. 21:25