Judges 20:6

6 So I cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout the territory assigned to Israel, for these men have committed a terrible and shameful crime.

Judges 20:6 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 20:6

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.

Judges 20:6 In-Context

4 The Levite, the husband of the woman who had been murdered, said, “My concubine and I came to spend the night in Gibeah, a town that belongs to the people of Benjamin.

5 That night some of the leading citizens of Gibeah surrounded the house, planning to kill me, and they raped my concubine until she was dead.

6 So I cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces throughout the territory assigned to Israel, for these men have committed a terrible and shameful crime.

7 Now then, all of you—the entire community of Israel—must decide here and now what should be done about this!”

8 And all the people rose to their feet in unison and declared, “None of us will return home! No, not even one of us!