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Judges 19:12

in Judges 19

But his master replied, “We will not turn aside to the city of foreigners, where there are no Israelites. We will go on to Gibeah.”

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside into the city of a foreigner, that is not of the children of Israel; but we will pass over to Gibeah.

KJV

And his master said unto him, We will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger, that is not of the children of Israel; we will pass over to Gibeah.

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This verse in Judges 19

Commentary

9 notes on this verse
City of a stranger - This shows how completely, even in these early days, the Jebusite population had excluded both the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

This site's exposition

arrived opposite Jebus

on Judges 19:10-12

Jerusalem is a Jebusite town here, as Joshua 15:63 records of Judah and Judges 1:21 of Benjamin, and it stays Jebusite until David takes it at 2 Samuel 5:6 to 9. The servant proposes lodging there, and the master refuses on one ground, that it is a city “where there are no Israelites”. What follows happens in Benjamin, among Israelites, in the place chosen for being Israelite.

This site's exposition

turn aside to the city of foreigners

Barnes takes the phrase city of foreigners as evidence of how completely the Jebusites had shut out Judah and Benjamin in these early days. Matthew Henry reads the refusal as reluctance to be beholden to strangers for a night's lodging. The Levite trusts his own people.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers2 voices

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.113 · Written before 397.

proposed

When some little progress was made, though night was threatening to come on, and they were close by the town of the Jebusites, on the slave's request that his lord should turn aside there, he refused, because it was not a city of the children of Israel. He meant to get as far as Gibeah, which was inhabited by the people of the tribe of Benjamin.

A commentator

Ambrose of Milan

LETTER 33 · Written before 397.

proposed

He set out on his journey in happy spirits because he had recovered his dearly beloved wife. One servant was with him, and as day was already declining they sped on their way with swift steps. The woman rode on an ass; her husband felt no weariness, taking joy in his desire and lightening his journey with talk at times with the woman, at times with the slave.

The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

), not because he questioned his safety among them, but he was not willing, if he could possibly avoid it, to have so much intimacy and familiarity with them as a night's lodging came to, nor to be so much beholden to them.

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

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

A stranger - That is, of a strange nation: which the Canaanites possess; for though the city Jerusalem had been taken by Caleb, chap. i, 8, yet the strong fort of Zion was still in their hands, whence it is likely they did much molest, and afterwards by God's permission, drive out the Israelites who dwelt there.
And his master said unto him, we will not turn aside hither into the city of a stranger,....
1 more voice on this verse

The Nineteenth Century1 voice

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

Jebus being still, though not entirely (Jud 1:8) in the possession of the old inhabitants, the Levite resisted the advice of his attendant to enter it and determined rather to press forward to pass the night in Gibeah, which he knew was occupied by Israelites. The distance from Beth-lehem to Jerusalem is about six miles.

The words behind it

16 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.

  • וַיֹּ֤אמֶרand he said

    vaiyomerH559 →5305 times

  • אֵלָיו֙to him

    ʾelavH413 →5510 times

  • אֲדֹנָ֔יוmaster<s> his

    ʾadonavH113 →333 times

  • לֹ֤אnot

    lo'H3808 →5168 times

  • נָסוּר֙we will turn aside

    nasurH5493 →299 times

  • אֶל־to

    ʾel-H413 →5510 times

  • עִ֣ירa city

    ʾirH5892 →1090 times

  • נָכְרִ֔יforeign

    nakheriH5237 →

  • אֲשֶׁ֛רwho

    ʾasherH834 →5497 times

  • לֹֽא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • מִבְּנֵ֥י[are] of [the] people of

    mibeneiH1121 →4930 times

  • יִשְׂרָאֵ֖לIsrael

    yisraelH3478 →2507 times

  • הֵ֑נָּהthey

    henahH2007 →

  • וְעָבַ֖רְנוּand we will pass on

    veavarnuH5674 →556 times

  • עַד־to

    ʾad-H5704 →1261 times

  • גִּבְעָֽה׃Gibeah

    givahH1390 →45 times

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

Related verses

1 in all, six open

About Judges

A Levite Finds a Woman's Corpse — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
A Levite Finds a Woman's Corpse — Gustave Doré, Doré's English Bible (1866), public domain
Judges: the study guide →Read Judges 19 →
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments; Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.113; Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 33; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.

Read on in Judges 19 →