All the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as one man. (Judges 20:1)This is a wild and tragic story.
It begins with the rape-murder of a Levite's concubine by the men of Gibeah, a town in the tribe of Benjamin. This was such a heinous crime that the rest of Israel united to bring the offenders to justice. In fact, the above phrase, from Dan to Beersheba, is the Bible's way of saying Israel in its totality. Dan was a city in the extreme northern reaches of Israel, and Beersheba was a city to the far south. This was Israel's from sea to shining sea imagery.
The Israelites didn’t have an easy time of it, but they finally defeated Benjamin, killing all but about 600 men. While those 600 were hiding in the desert, their towns were razed and their families put to the sword. Don't look at me that way; I'm just the messenger.
In Israel's anger, the leaders agreed that no father would allow his daughter to be married to a man of Benjamin. They grieved to know they had effectively signed a death sentence for an entire tribe: no wives, no children, no future.
As Paul Harvey used to say, In a moment you'll know the rest of the story.
This story is one of great tragedies in the scriptures - brother against brother, all against Benjamin. What always amazes me is how they *wouldn't* give up the criminals to justice and so ended up sharing their fate. How would it have gone differently if they hadn't sympathized with the warped ways of those men among them?
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