Text -- Judges 19:1-5 (NET)

Sodom and Gomorrah Revisited

19:1 In those days Israel had no king. There was a Levite living temporarily in the remote region of the Ephraimite hill country. He acquired a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. 19:2 However, she got angry at him and went home to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months, 19:3 her husband came after her, hoping he could convince her to return. He brought with him his servant and a pair of donkeys. When she brought him into her father’s house and the girl’s father saw him, he greeted him warmly. 19:4 His father-in-law, the girl’s father, persuaded him to stay with him for three days, and they ate and drank together, and spent the night there. 19:5 On the fourth day they woke up early and the Levite got ready to leave. But the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Have a bite to eat for some energy, then you can go.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Jdg 19:1

¹ tn Heb “a man, a Levite.”

² sn See the note on the word “concubine” in 8:31.

³ map For location see Map5 B1; Map7 E2; Map8 E2; Map10 B4.

NET Notes: Jdg 19:2

¹ tn Heb “and his concubine.” The pronoun (“she”) has been used in the translation for stylistic reasons.

² tn Or “was unfaithful to him.” Many have understood the Hebrew verb וַתִּזְנֶה (vattizneh) as being from זָנָה (zanah, “to be a prostitute”), but it may be derived from a root meaning “to be angry; to hate” attested in Akkadian (see HALOT 275 s.v. II זנה).

³ tn Heb “went from him.”

NET Notes: Jdg 19:3

¹ tn Heb “arose and came.”

² tn Heb “to speak to her heart to bring her back.”

³ tn Or “young man.”

⁴ tn Heb “he was happy to meet him.”

NET Notes: Jdg 19:5

¹ tn Heb “and he arose to go.”

² tn Heb “Sustain your heart [with] a bit of food.”