Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

We finished our eighth book of the Bible today, and since we're reading an entire book tomorrow,

that means we're about to be at nine books total. Don't worry, the book we're

reading tomorrow is super short, just four chapters. Also, I mentioned this at the beginning of the

book of judges, and hopefully you've already read the text from today and know this is a tough

section, but just a heads up that if there are little ears nearby, you may want to listen

later. This is one of my least favorite sections in all of Scripture,

but there are still things to be learned about God in these chapters, even though he seems

mostly absent. We opened with a reminder that Israel is living in anarchy at this point,

which sets us up for everything that happens in today's reading. We start with a Levite,

the tribe appointed to work for God, who had a concubine, which is basically

a household servant with fewer rights and less permanency than a wife, and whose main job is to

sleep with the boss and have his babies. She decides she wants to leave this arrangement, but he

goes after her to win her back. He meets with her dad and things are going smoothly. Her father

keeps inviting them to stay day after day

with him, but on the fifth day, the Levite is ready to move on, so they head out for the long

journey home. His servant suggests they spend the night in a Canaanite area, but the Levite really

prefers to keep moving until they hit an Israelite area. They stop in the city of Gebea, which is in the

land allotted to the Benjamites. They're planning to

sleep in the town square, but an old man comes by and urges them to stay at his place instead.

Not long after that, the Benjaminite men of the town show up and demand to have sex with the

Levite. If this is starting to remind you of Genesis 19 and what happened with the two angels

...