Judges 19:3

3 her husband went to persuade her to come back home. He took along his servant and two donkeys. She took her husband into her father's house. Her father was thrilled to see him.

Judges 19:3 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 19:3

And her husband arose
From the place where he lived:

and went after her;
to Bethlehemjudah, where her father lived:

to speak comfortably to her
"or to her heart" F12; having heard perhaps that she repented of her sin, or if it was only upon a quarrel between them, his anger might cool and subside, and therefore sought for a reconciliation; and which was the more commendable in him, as he did not put her away, but she departed from him: and

to bring her again;
to his own city, and to his own house and bed, as before:

having his servant with him, and a couple of asses;
one of them for her to ride upon, and the other to carry provisions on:

and she brought him into her father's house;
it seems she met with him before he came thither, in the fields, or in the street; and by this it appears that she was glad to see him, and received him in a loving manner, and introduced him into her father's house, so that things looked well, and promised success:

and when the father of the damsel saw him, he rejoiced to meet him;
having a good opinion of him, and perhaps understood, even by his daughter's story, that she was most in fault, and therefore was well pleased to see him come after her; though he ought before this time to have sent her home, or sought for a reconciliation of her to her husband.


FOOTNOTES:

F12 (hbl le) "ad cor", Pagninus.

Judges 19:3 In-Context

1 In those days when Israel didn't have a king, there was a Levite who lived in a remote area in the mountains of Ephraim. He took a woman from Bethlehem in Judah to be his concubine.
2 But she was unfaithful to him. She left him and went to her father's home, to Bethlehem in Judah. When she had been there four months,
3 her husband went to persuade her to come back home. He took along his servant and two donkeys. She took her husband into her father's house. Her father was thrilled to see him.
4 He made the Levite stay there with him, celebrating for three days.
5 On the fourth day they got up early in the morning to leave, but the woman's father told his son-in-law, "Eat something to keep up your strength and then you can go."
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