Judg 19:8 | KingComments | STEP | It takes four months before the man decides to look for his wife. He wants to bring her back. It is possible that he only wants to bring her back because of the defamation he experiences when people ask where she is. He always has to tell that his wife has run away. He will try to persuade his wife to go with him by working on her mind or, as it says here, “to speak tenderly to her”. Nothing shows that he wants to try to convince his wife of her unfaithfulness and the necessity to confess her sin. Nor does the whole story show anywhere that his wife agrees to go with him. Nowhere do we read that she says anything. Her act of harlotry and her gruesome end bear witness to how her life has been. She has no place in the conversation of the man with her father. We can conclude this from and where there is talk of “both of them”, which in both cases means the man and the father. In this conversation the man makes himself known as a bon vivant who is looking for carnal convenience. He is easy to persuade. He is a man without a backbone, whose life is filled with food and drink ( ) and being merry ( ). He stays for three days. When he wants to leave at the start of the fourth day, his father-in-law manages to stall him with food and drinks so that he stays all day long. He even persuades him to spend the night with him and be merry. This ‘being merry’ again is because of food and drink. His cheerful life continues day and night. Life becomes one big party. The father-in-law manages to stall the Levite for a fifth day with food and drinks. So five days have passed. It is only on the evening of the fifth day that he sets off. This time he is no longer persuaded. But the time of his departure does not exactly guarantee a prosperous journey. The delay that he has had will be disastrous for him. As a general lesson we can learn from this that it is good to know not only that we have to go somewhere, but also that we know when we have to go. With the Levite, there is only an action according to the situation of the moment and according to the hunch of his own heart. After all, it is the time that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes”, isn’t it? These people are characterized by the fact that “there is no fear of God before their eyes” ( ). The Levite thinks that now is the time to go, so he goes, without wondering if the time is right.

‏ Judges 19:8

The Reunification and the Departure

It takes four months before the man decides to look for his wife. He wants to bring her back. It is possible that he only wants to bring her back because of the defamation he experiences when people ask where she is. He always has to tell that his wife has run away. He will try to persuade his wife to go with him by working on her mind or, as it says here, “to speak tenderly to her”.

Nothing shows that he wants to try to convince his wife of her unfaithfulness and the necessity to confess her sin. Nor does the whole story show anywhere that his wife agrees to go with him. Nowhere do we read that she says anything. Her act of harlotry and her gruesome end bear witness to how her life has been. She has no place in the conversation of the man with her father. We can conclude this from Jdg 19:6 and Jdg 19:8 where there is talk of “both of them”, which in both cases means the man and the father.

In this conversation the man makes himself known as a bon vivant who is looking for carnal convenience. He is easy to persuade. He is a man without a backbone, whose life is filled with food and drink (Jdg 19:4) and being merry (Jdg 19:6). He stays for three days. When he wants to leave at the start of the fourth day, his father-in-law manages to stall him with food and drinks so that he stays all day long. He even persuades him to spend the night with him and be merry. This ‘being merry’ again is because of food and drink. His cheerful life continues day and night. Life becomes one big party.

The father-in-law manages to stall the Levite for a fifth day with food and drinks. So five days have passed. It is only on the evening of the fifth day that he sets off. This time he is no longer persuaded. But the time of his departure does not exactly guarantee a prosperous journey. The delay that he has had will be disastrous for him.

As a general lesson we can learn from this that it is good to know not only that we have to go somewhere, but also that we know when we have to go. With the Levite, there is only an action according to the situation of the moment and according to the hunch of his own heart. After all, it is the time that “everyone did what was right in his own eyes”, isn’t it? These people are characterized by the fact that “there is no fear of God before their eyes” (Rom 3:18). The Levite thinks that now is the time to go, so he goes, without wondering if the time is right.