R&I – FS
Hi
The Murder of the Levite Concubine!
The Old Testament book of 2 Judges tells the story of the rape and murder of a Levite concubine by the men of Benjamin from the City of Gibeah. 2 Judges 20:3-7
This and the scattering of the dismembered body of the concubine to every tribe of the Israelites. Calling for all the tribes from Dan to Beersheba to avenge the death and murder of a Levite loved one. Which eventually brought the destruction of not only the Benjaminites of the City of Gibeah but of the entire Tribe of Benjamin. 2 Judges 20:41-48
However, after reading about the atrocities committed by all parties in 2 Judges. We read the next chapter (2 Judges 21) that 600 Benjamin warriors have survived the carnage. We then find that the Israelites cried to before their God, that they were so grieved at what they have done to the tribe of Benjamin.
In their grief, the Israelites resort to finding wives for the surviving 600 Benjamin warriors. They decided to slaughter those Israelites that did not attend the Mitzpah and ordered a 12,000 strong Israelite force to kill by the sword every man, woman, and child in Yavesh-Gil’ad, except the virgins. Of which they found only 400 women who had not slept with a man! The other 200 Benjamin had no wives.
Kidnapping of 200 Shiloh Girls to take as Wives
The leaders of the assembly asked, ‘What are we to do for those who still don’t have wives, inasmuch as all the women of Binyamin have been killed?’ 17 They said, ‘There has to be a way to help the survivors preserve Binyamin’s inheritance so that a tribe will not be eliminated from Israel. 18 Yet we can’t give them our daughters as wives.’ For the people of Israel had sworn, ‘Cursed be whoever gives a wife to Binyamin.’ 19 Then they said, ‘Look, each year there’s a festival in honour of ADONAI in Shiloh, north of Beit-El, on the east side of the road that goes up from Beit-El to Sh’khem, and south of Levonah.’ 20 They ordered the men of Binyamin, ‘Go, hide in the vineyards, 21 and keep watch. If the girls of Shiloh come out to do their dances, then come out of the vineyards, and each of you catch for himself a wife from the Shiloh girls and go on to the land of Binyamin. [English version of the Hebrew Bible (2 Judges 16-21)] also see the foolish Oath wives for the remnant Benjaminites. https://enduringword.com/bible-commentary/judges-21./
[In the Samaritan Pentateuch (Torah) the name Benjamin appears as Binyamim (Hebrew: בנימים).]
The above story of the annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin and the kidnapping of girls from the city of Shiloh supposedly happened during the Judges period 1200 BCE to 1020 BCE.
Yet, by 599 BCE, it was all over for the Tribe of Judah, as centuries before, in 721 BCE, the ten (lost) northern tribes were conquered and dispersed (the first diaspora) to the four corners of the Assyrian empire. Less than 130 years later, the kingdom of Judah went the same way as the northern kingdom. In 599 BCE, Judah met the same fate, conquered, and by 586 BCE, the king was blinded and imprisoned in Babylon, along with his people.
The Davidic bloodline was extinct, and by the release of the exiles from Babylon, the monarchy and the tribal system had ended.
Yet, we have the two main characters of the Christian Bible professed by the later Church or themselves that they were of the tribe of Judah or the tribe of Benjamin.
We know went extinct at least five centuries before Christianity showed its bloody head.
What do you say on the rape and murder of the concubine, the annihilation of a tribe, the murder to get wives for the last of the Benjamin’s and the kidnapping of young girls to feed the guilt of the Israelites?
Cofion
Jero Jones
Article URL : https://breakingnewsandreligion.online/discuss/