It’s not surprising that the low point in Israel’s history, when every man was doing what is right in his own eyes, is marked by the brutal rape of a woman described only as a Levite’s concubine. The event is similar to one that took place in Sodom just before God destroyed the city. It shows that the children of Benjamin, Jacob’s youngest son, had become just like the Canaanites that were still living among them.

The account of what happens sounds like something you would see on a crime show today where the victim is raped and then chopped up into pieces to dispose of the body, except in this instance, the body pieces were distributed throughout the tribes of Israel, one piece for each family member (Judges 19:29).

And it was so, that all that saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt unto this day: consider of it, take advice, and speak your minds.