Jueces 19:18

18 —Regresamos de Belén, en Judá —le contestó el hombre—, y vamos hacia una zona remota de la región montañosa de Efraín, donde yo vivo. Viajé a Belén y ahora voy de regreso a mi hogar.
Pero nadie nos ha invitado a su casa para pasar la noche,

Jueces 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.

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FOOTNOTES:

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

Jueces 19:18 In-Context

16 Esa noche un anciano regresaba a su hogar después del trabajo en los campos. Era de la zona montañosa de Efraín, pero vivía en Guibeá, donde la gente era de la tribu de Benjamín.

17 Cuando vio a los viajeros sentados en la plaza de la ciudad, les preguntó de dónde venían y hacia dónde iban.

18 —Regresamos de Belén, en Judá —le contestó el hombre—, y vamos hacia una zona remota de la región montañosa de Efraín, donde yo vivo. Viajé a Belén y ahora voy de regreso a mi hogar.
Pero nadie nos ha invitado a su casa para pasar la noche,

19 aunque traemos todo lo que necesitamos. Tenemos paja y forraje para nuestros burros, y bastante pan y vino para nosotros.

20 —Serán bienvenidos en mi casa —les dijo el anciano—. Yo les daré todo lo que pudiera faltarles; pero no se les ocurra pasar la noche en la plaza.