Gibeah’s Crime
While they were enjoying themselves, the men of the city, a perverse lot, surrounded the house, and started pounding on the door. They said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, so that we may have intercourse with him.” And the man, the master of the house, went out to them and said to them, “No, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Since this man is my guest, do not do this vile thing. Here are my virgin daughter and his concubine; let me bring them out now. Ravish them and do whatever you want to them; but against this man do not do such a vile thing.”
And there’s more...
Rape became murder...
And, even in death,
the concubine’s body was brutalised
to send a warning to the tribes of Israel.
A tale too brutal to tell
that echoes patterns repeated
generation after generation
of crimes perpetrated against woman
crimes of violence
that are “normalised”
in cultures where women
are treated as chattel and goods
at the disposal of their male guardians
When reputations
are valued more highly
than relationships
that’s when women
become collateral
All that was requested
and required by the culture
to satisfy custom
was a simple act of hospitality,
welcoming the stranger,
providing food and lodging
Instead, the stranger was demonised
and his concubine savaged.
It would be easy
to write this off
as a story
from a different age and culture.
Sadly, it has echoes
in our treatment
of strangers today
and in our scapegoating
of all who are different.
Lord, have mercy...
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