Similarities Between Genesis 19 And Judges 19

In the Hebrew Bible, the conflict between the sinfulness of men and the weakness of women is often mediated by the divine. One such case is Genesis 19 and Judges 19, two similar narratives about rape. From a modern point of view, the writers of Judges 19 deliberately situated the characters in similar positions to those in Genesis 19, but they included their own interpretation of women’s destiny to illustrate the importance of God’s guidance in human lives. The two narratives together suggest that the social attitude toward women at the time allows people to see women as expendable objects, and the divine ought to serve as a protector to keep order in place. In particular, the stories’ contrasting endings show that women are protected in an environment where God watches over humans with his rightful mind of justice, but there are horrible consequences when people are separated from him.
The rape narrative of Genesis 19 begins with Lot, a resident of Sodom, inviting two angels, in the form of men, to stay at his house. During the night, the townspeople come to Lot and demand him to bring out the men so that the townspeople can rape them. In response, Lot disturbingly offers up his daughters as a substitute for the

mob. Then, before anything could happen, the angels strike the mob blind. In the JPS translation of Genesis 19:13, the angels state that “…the outcry against [the people of Sodom] before the LORD has become so great that the LORD has sent us to destroy it.” Following the angels’ instruction, Lot takes his wife and daughters and flee the city in safety. Not long after their escape, Sodom is destroyed by fire and brimstone.
The initial circumstances of the daughters in Genesis 19 parallel that of the concubine in Judges 19, but their ultimate fates differ drastically.

In Judges 19, a Levite and his concubine travel through the town of Gibeah. Upon seeking shelter from a local, the townspeople of Gibeah demand to rape the man. The host, similar to Lot in Gensis 19, offers up the concubine as an alternative. Unlike Genesis 19, however, angels, or the messengers of God, are not present in this story, and the concubine has sadly become the victim. The men “…raped her and abused her all night long until morning; and they let her go when dawn broke” (Judges 19:25). Ultimately, the concubine dies and her body parts are sent to all districts of Israel as a reminder of the sin of

men.
One similarity between the two narratives is that they both reveal the social attitude toward women as the time: women are treated as properties with few rights. Lot, the townspeople, and the Levite, in particular, all treated women as such. Lot, the owner of the house, offers up his own virgin daughters to the mob in exchange for them not raping his guest. In Genesis 19:8, after knowing the mob’s evil intention, Lot states, “Look, I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them as you please.” Although his daughters are saved by the angels, and although his action is for the protection of his guests, Lot’s offering reveals that he values his daughter very little, a general attitude toward women at the time. Similarly, in Judges 19, the host offers up the Levite concubine for the mob’s pleasure, diminishing women’s value once again. Even the Levite, the husband of the concubine, fails to intervene as the mob raped his wife all night. When he sees his concubine “…lying at the entrance of the house, with her hands on the threshold” (Judges 19:27), the man simply said “Get up… let us go,” (Judges 19:28) as opposed to caring for her health and safety. Just like that, in both narratives, the hosts offer up women as an alternative for the mob, and the men seem to care very little about the well-being of women when trying to protect foreign guests from rape. Lastly, the townspeople in Judges 19 rape the concubine to death. Needless to say, such gruesome acts of sexual assault reflect poorly on these men’s character, and show how little men valued women at the time. In this manner, the stories tell the reader that women are oppressed in the past and possessed almost no value or rights.
While the stories both use men’s actions to portray women as valueless objects, they also describe women as vulnerable and powerless by neglecting the women in the text themselves. As reflected in much of the Hebrew Bible, the women in the two rape narratives do not speak at all, and they take no actions in protecting themselves from rape. For instance, in Judges 19, after being raped, the concubine “…came back… [and] collapsed at the entrance of the man’s house where her husband was” (Judges 19:26). Even after being abused by others and neglected by her husband, the woman still uses her last breath and energy to go back to her husband. This shows women’s expected submission to men and their inherent powerlessness in society at the time. In such a way, because women are depicted as vulnerable beings, as long as men are wicked, women will suffer.
Whereas the stories’ similarities show the negative social attitude toward women at the time, their contrasting endings reveal the importance of divine intervention in guiding human lives. To examine the different endings, I need to first contrast the nature of the Book of Genesis with that of Judges. According to his introductions of the different books of the Bible in The Jewish Study Bible, Jon D. Levenson suggests that Genesis is a book about “the beginnings”, and presents its ideas on “the relationship of God to the human race in general”. Stories in Genesis tend to focus on a world where the divine influences, supervises, and punishes human activities. In this way, the weak and vulnerable individuals are oftentimes protected by God. On the other hand, the Book of Judges shifts the central character from God to the “judges”, leaders of Israelite tribes during a period of crisis. This time period has no laws, no accountability, and no righteous authority constantly overseeing the population. Thus, as Yairah Amit describes, the Book of Judges has a “recurrent theme of sin, punishment, and rescue”, displaying the “inefficiency of judges” and the necessity of divine supervision.
In this vicious world where men abuse women, the divine comes in and serves as the protector. Although in both narratives the men treat women as property, the ultimate fate of the women differs significantly. The rape is stopped in Genesis 19 by the angels, while the concubine was ruthlessly abused in Judges 19. The story of Judges 19, in particular, occurs after the death of Samson when Israel was without a judge. This is a state of chaos where protection of the weak ceases to exist. Genesis 19 and Judges 19, in this way, depict the human race with or without divine mediation. From a modern biblical scholar’s standpoint, the writers of Judges 19 built upon Genesis 19 to illustrate what the destiny of women is without any divine intervention. In Genesis 19, Lot was hosting two angles, with the rightful eyes watching humanity, while in Judges 19, the guest was a Levite in a society where “...every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6). For this reason, because obedience to God ceases to exist, the women in Genesis 19 are saved, while the woman in Judges 19 suffers.
The contrasts between the two stories reveal that the society treats women as objects in the past, and the divine must come in to protect the world from chaos. This dynamic not only reveals the social attitude at the time, but also serves as a reminder to people today to act righteously toward women. At the end of the concubine’s tragic story, the writers tell the reader to “Put your mind to this; take counsel and decide” (Judges 30). Perhaps they are urging the weak to stand up and speak out against violence, and that the divine hope us all to decide as an impactful force how to end all the unjust suffering of women in society today.