1. Judges 20:5 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is noteworthy about the Levite’s statement, “She is dead”?

Judges 20:5 (ESV)

5 And the leaders of Gibeah rose against me and surrounded the house against me by night. They meant to kill me, and they violated my concubine, and she is dead.

The Levite says about his concubine, She is dead. This is decidedly generic. To be sure, the previous account was ambiguous as to how she died. But he here withholds the cause of death, whether she died as a result of the harsh treatment she endured, or because he had murdered her when he chopped up her body into twelve pieces.