Judges 19:18

18 And he said to him, We are passing by from Bethleem Juda to the sides of mount Ephraim: I am from thence, and I went as far as Bethleem Juda, and I am going home, and there is no man to take me into his house.

Judges 19:18 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 19:18

And he said unto him, we are passing from Bethlehemjudah,
&c.] He answers to his last question first, for this was the place from whence they came:

towards the side of Mount Ephraim:
thither they were going, which is an answer to the first question: and then adds, which is more than what was requested,

from thence am I;
that is, he was an inhabitant of a city on one side of Mount Ephraim, but what that city was, he says not, nor is it elsewhere said:

and I went to Bethlehemjudah;
on what account he does not declare, but the above narrative clearly shows for what reason he went thither:

but I am now going to the house of the Lord;
that is, the tabernacle in Shiloh, there he proposed to go first to offer sacrifice for the success of his journey, and for the reconciliation of his wife to him, and to pray to God for happiness in his family yet to come, and where some think his habitation was; but rather it was at some distance, not far from Mount Ephraim, and on the side of it, whither he should return when he had performed those acts of religion and devotion, which he judged were his duty:

and there is no man that receiveth me to house:
that had invited him to his house to take a lodging there, as was common to do to travellers, as the instances of Abraham, Lot, Job, and others, show. It was a law with the Lucani (a people in Italy), that if a stranger came at sun setting, and was desirous of coming under the roof of anyone, if such an one did not receive him, he was to be fined, and suffer the punishment of inhospitality ^F20.

---

FOOTNOTES:

F20 Aelian. Var. Hist. l. 4. c. 1.

Judges 19:18 In-Context

16 And behold, an old man came out of the field from his work in the evening; and the man was of mount Ephraim, and he sojourned in Gabaa, and the men of the place sons of Benjamin.

17 And he lifted up his eyes, and saw a traveller in the street of the city; and the old man said to him, Whither goest thou, and whence comest thou?

18 And he said to him, We are passing by from Bethleem Juda to the sides of mount Ephraim: I am from thence, and I went as far as Bethleem Juda, and I am going home, and there is no man to take me into his house.

19 Yet is there straw and food for our asses, and bread and wine for me and my handmaid and the young man with thy servants; there is no want of anything.

20 And the old man said, Peace to thee; only be every want of thine upon me, only do thou by no means lodge in the street.