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Judges 19:1

in Judges 19

Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah.

KJV

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth–lehem–judah.

This verse in Judges 19

Commentary

9 notes on this verse

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

It was no disreputable connection this Levite had formed; for a nuptial engagement with a concubine wife (though, as wanting in some outward ceremonies, it was reckoned a secondary or inferior relationship) possessed the true essence of marriage; it was not only lawful, but sanctioned by the example of many good men.

This site's exposition

when there was no king in Israel

on Judges 19:1-2

The formula “no king in Israel” falls at 17:6, 18:1, 19:1 and 21:25, bracketing the closing block at both ends. Chapter 17 sent a Levite of Bethlehem to Ephraim, and here a Levite of Ephraim takes a concubine from Bethlehem, reversing the pairing. The Hebrew says she was “unfaithful to him”, while the Septuagint says she was angry, the Vulgate that she left, and Josephus that she became estranged.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

LETTER 33 · Written before 397.

proposed

A Levite, more courageous than wealthy, lived in the region of Mount Ephrem, for his tribe was allotted a landed possession far removed in place of the right of inheritance. He took a wife from the tribe of Bethlehem of Judah. While they felt the first attraction of their love deeply and equally, he continued to burn with unbounded desire for his wife. Yet her ways were different. His passion for her intensified until he inwardly seethed with desire.

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.111-12 · Written before 397.

proposed

How full of pitiful traits is this story! A man, it says, a Levite, had taken to himself a wife, who I suppose was called a concubine from the word concubitus. She some time afterwards, as is likely to happen, offended at certain things, returned to her father and was with him four months.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

25 ), and Phinehas was then high priest, ch. xx. These particular iniquities, the Danites' idolatry, and the Benjamites' immorality, let in that general apostasy, ch. iii. The abuse of the Levite's concubine is here very particularly related.

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — leading-citation-number+unbalanced-parens

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

He married a wife of Bethlehem-Judah. She is called his concubine, because she was not endowed, for perhaps he had nothing to endow her with, being himself a sojourner and not settled; but it does not appear that he had any other wife, and the margin calls her a wife, a concubine,
2 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century2 voices

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

There was no king in Israel - All sorts of disorders are attributed to the want of civil government; justice, right, truth, and humanity, had fallen in the streets. Took to him a concubine - We have already seen that the concubine was a sort of secondary wife; and that such connections were not disreputable, being according to the general custom of those times. The word פילגש pilegesh, concubine, is supposed by Mr. Parkhurst to be compounded of פלג palag, “to divide, or share;” and נגש nagash, “to approach;” because the husband shared or divided his attention and affections between her and the real wife; from whom she differed in nothing material, except in her posterity not inheriting.
A concubine - See the margin. The name does not imply any moral reproach. A concubine was as much the man’s wife as the woman so called, though she had not the same rights. See Jdg 19:3-4.

The words behind it

20 Hebrew words

Every Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.

  • וַיְהִי֙and it was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • בַּיָּמִ֣יםin the days

    baiyamimH3117 →2304 times

  • הָהֵ֔ם<the> those

    hahemH1992 →553 times

  • וּמֶ֖לֶךְand [was] a king

    umelekhH4428 →2525 times

  • אֵ֣יןthere not

    ʾeinH369 →789 times

  • בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑לin Israel

    beyisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • וַיְהִ֣י׀and he was

    vayhiH1961 →3559 times

  • אִ֣ישׁa man

    ʾishH376 →1663 times

  • לֵוִ֗יa Levite

    leviH3881 →291 times

  • גָּ֚רsojourning

    garH1481 →97 times

  • בְּיַרְכְּתֵ֣יin [the] remotest parts of

    beyarketeiH3411 →

  • הַר־[the] hill country of

    har-H2022 →546 times

  • אֶפְרַ֔יִםEphraim

    ʾefrayimH669 →180 times

  • וַיִּֽקַּֽח־and he took

    vaiyikach-H3947 →966 times

  • לוֹ֙for <the> himself

    lo

  • אִשָּׁ֣הa woman

    ʾishahH802 →781 times

  • פִילֶ֔גֶשׁa concubine

    filegeshH6370 →37 times

  • מִבֵּ֥יתfrom Beth-

    mibeitH1035 →82 times

  • לֶ֖חֶם-lehem

    lechemH1035 →82 times

  • יְהוּדָֽה׃Judah

    yehudahH3063 →819 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.

  • Through

    Matthew 2:6

    ‘But you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of My people…

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 34:23–25

      I will appoint over them one shepherd, My servant David, and he will feed them. He will feed them and be their shepherd.

    • Micah 5:2

      But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, who are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come forth for Me One to be ruler over Israel—One whose origins are of old, from the days…

    • John 7:42

      Doesn’t the Scripture say that the Christ will come from the line of David and from Bethlehem, the village where David lived?”

    • Isaiah 9:6–7

      For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of…

    • Genesis 49:10

      The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes and the allegiance of the nations is his.

  • Through

    Judges 21:25

    In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

    it leads to

    • Judges 17:6

      In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Deuteronomy 12:8

      You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.

    • Proverbs 3:5

      Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding;

About Judges

This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 33; Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.111-12; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.