Judges 19:12

12 And his master said to him, We will not turn aside to a strange city, where there is not one of the children of Israel, but we will pass on as far as Gabaa.

Judges 19:12 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 19:12

And his master said unto him, we will not turn aside hither
into the city of a stranger
A city of the children of the Gentiles, as the Targum, as the Jebusites were, being one of the seven nations of the land of Canaan, who were to be dispossessed and destroyed; and which, one would think, he would not have so called, had it been inhabited, though but in part, by the children of Judah and Benjamin: by this it appears, that this Levite was a good man, and conscientious, and shunned all appearance of evil, and the company of wicked men, as became his character and profession: and it is added,

that is not of the children of Israel;
which further confirms the above conjecture, that this city was not as yet at all in the hands of the Israelites; or if it had been, was retaken, and now in the hands of the Jebusites:

we will pass over to Gibeah;
which was in the tribe of Benjamin, and inhabited by men of that tribe, and so more agreeable to this Levite, though it proved fatal to him; this was, as Josephus says ^F18 thirty furlongs, or near four miles from Jebus or Jerusalem; and though it was near sun setting, he chose rather to proceed on to this place, than to lodge at Jebus, and the rather it may be, as it was a Levitical city, ( Joshua 21:17 ) .

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FOOTNOTES:

F18 De Bello Jud. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 1.

Judges 19:12 In-Context

10 But the man would not lodge there, but he arose and departed, and came to the part opposite Jebus, (this is Jerusalem,) and with him a pair of asses saddled, and his concubine with him.

11 And they came as far as Jebus: and the day had far advanced, and the young man said to his master, Come, I pray thee, and let us turn aside to this city of the Jebusites, and let us lodge in it.

12 And his master said to him, We will not turn aside to a strange city, where there is not one of the children of Israel, but we will pass on as far as Gabaa.

13 And he said to his young man, Come, and let us draw nigh to one of the places, and we will lodge in Gabaa or in Rama.

14 And they passed by and went on, and the sun went down upon them near to Gabaa, which is in Benjamin.