Judges 19:28

28 and he saith unto her, `Rise, and we go;' and there is none answering, and he taketh her on the ass, and the man riseth and goeth to his place,

Judges 19:28 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 19:28

And he said unto her, up, and let us be going
He spoke to her as supposing her asleep, in order to awake her, and prepare for their journey with all the haste they could, lest greater mischief should befall them:

but none answered;
for she was dead; and her death was occasioned, as Josephus ^F23 says, partly through grief at what she had suffered, and partly through shame, not daring to come into the sight of her husband; but chiefly through the injuries done her by the number of persons that had lain with her: so it is reported ^F24 of the Thessalonians, when they took Phocis, many women were destroyed through the abundance of rapes committed upon them. To these Abarbinel adds, the cold of the night, being without her clothes, or anything to cover her:

then the man took her up upon an ass;
and carried off her dead body, without making any remonstrance to the inhabitants, from whom he could not expect that any justice would be done him:

and the man rose up, and got him unto his place;
to his city on one side Mount Ephraim, to which he made as much haste as he could, instead of going to the house of God at Shiloh, as he proposed; for now the circumstances of things were changed with him, and instead of sacrificing and giving praise to God in his house, his business was to seek for justice from the tribes of Israel.

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FOOTNOTES:

F23 Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 8.)
F24 Herodot. Urania, sive, l. 8. c. 33.

Judges 19:28 In-Context

26 and the woman cometh in at the turning of the morning, and falleth at the opening of the man's house, where her lord [is], till the light.

27 And her lord riseth in the morning, and openeth the doors of the house, and goeth out to go on his way, and lo, the woman, his concubine, is fallen at the opening of the house, and her hands [are] on the threshold,

28 and he saith unto her, `Rise, and we go;' and there is none answering, and he taketh her on the ass, and the man riseth and goeth to his place,

29 and cometh in unto his house, and taketh the knife, and layeth hold on his concubine, and cutteth her in pieces to her bones -- into twelve pieces, and sendeth her into all the border of Israel.

30 And it hath come to pass, every one who seeth hath said, `There hath not been -- yea, there hath not been seen like this, from the day of the coming up of the sons of Israel out of the land of Egypt till this day; set your [heart] upon it, take counsel, and speak.'