Genesis 19:5

Hebrew Bible

3 But he urged them persistently, so they turned aside with him and entered his house. He prepared a feast for them, including bread baked without yeast, and they ate. 4 Before they could lie down to sleep, all the men—both young and old, from every part of the city of Sodom—surrounded the house. 5 They shouted to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so we can take carnal knowledge of them!” 6 Lot went outside to them, shutting the door behind him. 7 He said, “No, my brothers! Don’t act so wickedly!

Judges 19:22

Hebrew Bible

20 The old man said, “Everything is just fine. I will take care of all your needs. But don’t spend the night in the town square.” 21 So he brought him to his house and fed the donkeys. They washed their feet and had a meal. 22 They were having a good time, when suddenly some men of the city, some good-for-nothings, surrounded the house and kept beating on the door. They said to the old man who owned the house, “Send out the man who came to visit you so we can take carnal knowledge of him.” 23 The man who owned the house went outside and said to them, “No, my brothers! Don’t do this wicked thing! After all, this man is a guest in my house. Don’t do such a disgraceful thing! 24 Here are my virgin daughter and my guest’s concubine. I will send them out, and you can abuse them and do to them whatever you like. But don’t do such a disgraceful thing to this man!”

 Notes and References

"... There is a subtle lexical difference between Judges 19:22 and Genesis 19:4 that also suggests that the intertextual allusion was not present in the N stratum of Judges 19 but rather was added by a later redactor ... The question thus arises why an author seeking to allude to Genesis 19:4 would vary the syntax from that used in the hypo-text. This question is pertinent because the verbal form in the hypo-text is itself extremely rare and the different syntax in the hyper-text is not attested elsewhere in the Masoretic text ... In my view, the most parsimonious explanation for the use of the Nif‘al form of the verb בבס in the final version of the text is that a redactor introduced the change in order to harmonize the verse with Genesis 19:4. Edenburg argues, correctly in my view, that the element of threatened homosexual rape is “at home” in Genesis 19 but foreign and thus “ungrammatical” in Judges 19:25 As the plotline in Judges 19 is centered on the gang-rape and murder of a woman, the phrase “Bring out the man who came to your house and we shall know him” in Judges 19:22 creates a dysfunctional blind motif in the narrative intrigue. This demonstrates in Edenburg’s view that the phrase has been intentionally borrowed from Genesis 19:5, where it is “at home,” in order to create an ungrammatical “marker” that signals to the reader that the author intends Judges 19:22 to be read in relation to Genesis 19:5 ..."

Krisel, William Judges 19-21 and the “Othering” of Benjamin: A Golah Polemic against the Autochthonous Inhabitants of the Land? (pp. 137-138) Brill, 2022

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.