I've had some trouble with certain Bible chapters; Judges 19 and 20.
I thought it was in the Bible because it was seen as acceptable and those chapters have made me give up Christianity for a time and it almost did it to me again, until I did some research into why it was in the Bible.

These are the verses that disturbed me:
Judges 19:22-30
While they were celebrating, behold, men of the city, certain worthless and evil men, surrounded the house, pounding on the door; and they spoke to the master of the house, the old man, saying, "Bring out the man who came to your house so that we may have relations with him."
Then the man, the master of the house, went out and said to them, "No, my fellow citizens, please do not act so wickedly. Since this man has come to my house, do not commit this sacrilege. Here is my virgin daughter and this man's concubine. I will bring them out now; abuse and humiliate them and do to them whatever you want, but do not commit this act of sacrilege against this man."
But the men would not listen to him.
So the man took the Levite's concubine and brought her outside to them; and they had relations with her and abused her all night until morning; and when daybreak came, they let her go.
At daybreak the woman came and collapsed at the door of the man's house where her master was, until it was light.
When her master got up in the morning and opened the doors of the house and went out to go on his way, he saw his concubine lying at the door of the house, and her hands were on the threshold.
He said to her, "Get up, and let us go." But there was no answer.
Then he put her on the donkey; and the man left and went home.
When he arrived at his house, he took a knife, and taking hold of his concubine, he cut her limb by limb into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel.
All who saw the dismembered parts said, "Nothing like this has ever happened or been seen from the day that the sons of Israel came up from the land of Egypt to this day. Consider it, take counsel, and speak!"

I was very angered by these verses because the man is supposed to protect the woman, not be a coward and allow the woman to be treated the way she was.

So I asked the AI on my browser about that verse and what it said helped me to understand that God was not happy or agreeable to what happened.

This is the question I asked, "Why was it considered okay for the husband to not protect his concubine from being raped?"

The answer: It was NOT considered morally acceptable or "okay" within the biblical narrative for the husband (the Levite) to fail to protect his concubine.
The story of Judges 19 is presented as a horrific example of the moral chaos and depravity that existed in Israel at the time.
The book of Judges repeatedly emphasizes the phrase, "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6, 21:25).
This refrain frames the entire narrative, indicating that the Levite's actions were a symptom of a society that had rejected God's leadership and moral law. The text does not endorse his behaviour; rather, it exposes the depths of human wickedness when divine authority is ignored.
The Levite's decision to push his concubine out to the mob was driven by cowardice and self-preservation, not cultural acceptance.
The narrative highlights his callousness. After she died, he showed no grief or remorse, treating her body as an object to be cut into twelve pieces to provoke a political response.
While the text does not record an immediate punishment for the Levite, his actions are portrayed negatively. His name is not even mentioned, which some commentators view as a form of dishonor.

This answer really helped me to understand that this was not considered acceptable behaviour for a man to preserve himself by allowing a woman to suffer instead.
I hope this post finds you well and has helped others to understand this part of the Bible better too.
Thank you for reading.