It was so, that all who saw it said, There was no such deed done nor seen from the day that the children of Israel came up out of the land of Egypt to this day: consider it, take counsel, and speak.
The Israelites perceived this incident as the greatest act of moral corruption in their nation’s history (Judges 19:30; cf. Hosea 9:9; Hosea 10:9). The last sentence in the last verse of this chapter is perhaps the most significant. What would Israel do? Would she deal with this situation as God had specified in the Mosaic Law, or would she disregard His will as almost everyone in this story had done? The nation had faced a similar crisis in dealing with Micah (cf. Judges 18:14). The next chapter shows what Israel did.