Judges 20:6

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The chief - literally, "the corner stones." (Compare 1 Samuel 14:38.)

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4-7. the Levite, the husband of the woman that was slain, answered and said—The injured husband gave a brief and unvarnished recital of the tragic outrage, from which it appears that force was used, which he could not resist. His testimony was doubtless corroborated by those of his servant and the old Ephraimite. There was no need of strong or highly colored description to work upon the feelings of the audience. The facts spoke for themselves and produced one common sentiment of detestation and vengeance.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. A lewd folly; most ignominious and impudent wickedness.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces,.... Lest it should be thought that these barbarous creatures, after they had used her in such a manner that occasioned her death, that they had committed this fact also; the Levite takes it to himself, and owns that he did that:

and sent her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel; to alarm them, and excite their attention to what had passed, and to raise their indignation against it:

for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel; being guilty of adultery and murder, and would have committed the unnatural crime, if they could have had an opportunity of doing it.

Geneva Study Bible

And I took my concubine, and cut her in pieces, and sent {e} her throughout all the country of the inheritance of Israel: for they have committed lewdness and folly in Israel.

(e) That is, her pieces, to every tribe a piece, Jud 19:29.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. all the country of the inheritance of Israel] We hardly expect inheritance in plain prose; contrast Jdg 19:29. The word may be a later insertion.

they have committed lewdness] Similarly Hosea 6:9, Ezekiel 16:43; Ezekiel 22:9; lit. evil purpose, i.e. unchastity; in this sense the word is frequent in the Law of Holiness and in Ezekiel (see Driver,

Introd, p. 49, No. 11). LXX. cod. A, Luc. omit lewdness and, perhaps rightly; the word may have been added to emphasize the iniquity.

Judges 20:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Then the Levite, the husband of the murdered woman, described the whole affair. הגּבעה בּעלי, the owners or citizens of Gibeah (see at Judges 9:2). "Me they intended to kill:" the Levite draws this conclusion from what had happened to his wife; the men of Gibeah had not expressed any such intention in Judges 19:22. "All the country (lit. field) of the inheritance of Israel," i.e., all the land of the Israelites. זמּה is applied to the vice of lewdness, as in Leviticus 18:17, which was to be punished with death. וגו לכם הבוּ, "give yourselves (לכם as dat. comm.) word and counsel here," i.e., make up your minds and pass sentence (vid., 2 Samuel 16:20). הלם, here, where you are all assembled together.