Judges, Ruth: Revised Edition (The NIV Application Commentary)

by K. Lawson Younger

As in Conclusion 1, a Levite plays a significant role in the narration of this second conclusion. By focusing on Levites in the concluding episodes, the narrator communicates the extent of Israel’s moral decline. The corruption that has infected the people and their deliverers has even spread to those entrusted with the Yahwistic instruction and with upholding Yahweh’s holiness in their lives. In this case, in the introduction (Part A, vv. 1–2), the Levite lives in a remote area of the hill country of Ephraim. As in the first conclusion, this certainly indicates support problems for the Levitical priests since he is not living in one of the Levitical towns. This Levite “took a concubine [pilegesh] from Bethlehem in Judah” (19:1; again a link with the first conclusion). A concubine was a second-class wife—a woman who performed marriage duties without the same legal rights as a full wife (cf. Gideon’s concubine in 8:31). This may imply that the Levite has another wife, but the text contains no record of that. His concubine “was unfaithful to him” (19:2, NIV; lit., “prostituted against,” znh ‘l). The more likely reading based on the ancient versions is “his concubine was angry or quarreled with him.”16 The text does not explicitly blame either party for this separation. But in light of the Levite’s later conduct, it seems most likely that the blame rests with the Levite. The young woman initiates a separation and goes straight for her father’s house in Bethlehem.17 Thus, the ...