Reading for January 8th

Read Judges 20.18-28
In verses 18-28: Benjamin's initial victories.
In verse 18: Nearby Bethel was the chief sanctuary of central Israel.
The answer comes either by the sacred lots or through an oracle delivered by a priest.
In verse 23-24: Before the Lord indicates that they returned to the sanctuary of Bethel to weep. (v. 26).
In verse 28: Only this third answer includes a promise of victory (contrast vv. 18, 23).
Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 7th

Read Judges 20.1-17
In 20.1-7: Israel assembles to attack Benjamin.
In verse 1: From Dan to Beer-sheba designates the north and south limits of Israel.
In verse 3: Because Gibeah is Benjaminite (19.16), the Ephraimite Levite's personal quarrel escalates into intertribal conflict.
In verse 5: The Levite's version omits important details in order to magnify the threat to himself and conceal his own culpability.
In verse 6: Vile outrage signifies an intentional affront to Israel's core values.
In verse 9: By lot refers to the way the ten percent of the next verse are to be chosen.
In verses 15-17: Although Israel has an overwhelming numerical advantage, Benjamin's contingent of crack marksmen (v. 16) suggests that things will not be so simple.
Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 6th

Read Judges 19.22-30

In verses 22-30: The rape of the Levite's concubine.

In verse 22: Their threat of homosexual rape is the popular opposite of suitable hospitality.

It parallels the behavior of the men of Sodom (Gen 19.5).

In verses 23-24: For the master of the house the obligations take precedence over family loyalties.

However, he does not extend the protection of hospitality to the concubine.

Vile thing denotes a loathsome and foolish act, especially a sexual crime.

In verses 25-26: The cowardly Levite acts to save himself.

The powerful description of rape and the poignant final scene at the door fuel the reader's outrage against Gibeah. 

Her husband (v. 3) is now called her master; he has treated her as a disposable object.

In verse 27-28: The affecting image of her hands on the threshold provides a sharp contrast to his brusque unconcern.

In verse 29: Her body is treated as an object, a signal to rally the nation (compare 1 Sam 11.7).

Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 5th

Read Judges 19.1-21
In verse 1-21: Spending the night in Gibeah.
In verse 1: In those days ... Israel: This refrain (17.6; 18.1; 21.25) suggests that a king would make such a horrifying lawlessness unlikely.
As a concubine she is recognized wife with inferior legal status.
In verse 2: She returns to her family of origin (father's house), but the circumstances as unclear.
In verse 4-9: The point of this prolonged account is that they left  much later in the afternoon than was wise.
In verse 12: The irony is sharp.
Jerusalem as a city of foreigners is rejected as in hospitable in favor of shelter with people of Israel.
In verse 15: That no one took them in would be considered outrageous; hospitality was an important civic virtue.
In verse 16: The old man is a fellow countryman (hill country of Ephraim; v. 1) living as a resident alien in Gibeah.
Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 4th

Read Judges 18.11-31
In verses 11-31: Dan establishes a sanctuary.
In verse 21: The most vulnerable members of the party are protected from pursuit.
In verse 25: Hot-tempered fellows: Dan had a reputation for belligerence (Gen 49.17; Deut 33.22).
In verse 30: Dan became a national shrine of the northern kingdom (1 Kings 12.29-30).
Jonathan is presumably the previously unnamed Levite.
The priestly family in charge of Dan descended from Moses.
Captivity refers to the results of the Assyrian conquests 92 Kings 15.29; 17.5-6).
In verse 31: the true house of God was at Shiloh (1 Sam 1-2).
The illegitimate background of the sanctuary of Dan has been emphasized at every turn: pilfered silver (17.2-3), stolen illicit image (17.5-6; 18.16-18,24), opportunistic priest (17.9;18.19-20).
Comments of Questions..

Reading for January 3rd

Read Judges 18.1-10

In 18.1-10: Dan searches for a new home.

In verse 2: Conquest stories typically begin with dispatch of spies (1.24; Josh 2).

In verse 3: Apparently they recognized his regional accent.

In verse 5: Part of a priest's job was to discover God's will.

Comments or Questions..

Reading for January 2nd

Read Judges 17.1-13
In 17.1-13: Micah builds a shrine and hires a priest.
In verse 2: Micah confesses to a theft that has put him under a curse.
His mother seeks to counteract the curse with a blessing.
NRSV considers the text scrambled and rearranges it.
In verses 3-4: She takes further action to nullify the curse, using part of the consecrated silver for an idol of cast metal.
In verse 5: This a private, family sanctuary (Heb., "house of God").
The ephod (a priestly garment) and teraphim (figurines) were utilized to discover God's will.
In verse 6: This editorial refrain (18.1; 19.1: 21.25) approves of kingship and communicates displeasure with Micah's actions.
In verse 7: He was of the clan of Judah in the sense of living with them as a resident alien.
In verse 10: Father is an honorific title (compare 5.7).
In verse 13: By virtue of his lineage, the Levite is preferable as priest to Micah's son (v. 5).
Comments or Questions..