Judges 19:1

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of mount Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Bethlehemjudah.

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Word by word — the Hebrew

Word	Hebrew	Strong’s	Meaning
days	בַּיָּמִ֣ים bai.ya.Mim	H3117	a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
king	וּמֶ֖לֶךְ u.Me.lekh	H4428	a king · conjunction + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Israel	בְּיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל be.Yis.ra.'El	H3478	Jisrael · preposition + proper noun, a place name
certain	אִ֣ישׁ 'ish	H376	a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
Levite	לֵוִ֗י le.Vi	H3881	a Levite or descendant of Levi · noun, gentilic masculine singular absolute
sojourning	גָּ֚ר gar	H1481	properly · verb, qal active participle, masculine singular absolute
side	בְּיַרְכְּתֵ֣י be.yar.ke.Tei	H3411	properly · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct
mount	הַר har-	H2022	a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · noun, common masculine singular construct
Ephraim	אֶפְרַ֔יִם 'ef.Ra.yim	H669	Ephrajim · proper noun, a man's name
took	וַיִּֽקַּֽח vai.yi.kach-	H3947	to take (in the widest variety of applications) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
concubine	אִשָּׁ֣ה 'i.Shah	H802	a woman · noun, common feminine singular absolute
Beth-lehem-judah	מִבֵּ֥ית mi.Beit	H1035	Beth-Lechem · preposition + proper noun, a place name

Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Cross-references

Judges 18:1 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that…
Judges 17:8 And the man departed out of the city from Beth-lehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house…
Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Matthew 2:6 And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule…
Joshua 24:30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash.
Joshua 24:33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in mount Ephraim.
Judges 17:6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Malachi 2:15 And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to yo…

Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).

Commentary

Matthew Henry on Judges 19:1-15

The domestic affairs of this Levite would not have been related thus largely but to make way for the following story of the injuries done him, in which the whole nation interested themselves. Bishop Hall's first remark upon this story is, That there is no complain of a public ordered state but there is a Levite at one end of it, either as an agent or as a patient. In Micah's idolatry a Levite was active; in the wickedness of Gibeah a Levite was passive; no tribe shall sooner feel the want of government than that of Levi; and, in all the book of Judges, no mention is made of any of that tribe, but of these two. This Levite was of Mount Ephraim, Jdg 19:1. He married a wife of Bethlehem-Judah.…

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John Gill on Judges 19:1

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel,.... The same is observed in Judges 17:6 and refers to the same times, the times before the judges, between them and the death of Joshua, during which time there was no supreme magistrate or ruler in Israel, which is meant; and this is observed, as before, to account for wickedness being committed with impunity, such as adultery, sodomy, murder, &c. afterwards related: that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim; in a city that was on one side of that mountain; it seems not to have been a Levitical city, because he was only a sojourner in it; perhaps he chose to reside there, as being near to the…

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Keil & Delitzsch on Judges 19:1-2

Infamous Crime of the Inhabitants of Gibeah. - Jdg 19:1-14. At the time when there was no king in Israel, a Levite, who sojourned (i.e., lived outside a Levitical town) in the more remote parts of the mountains of Ephraim, took to himself a concubine out of Bethlehem in Judah, who proved unfaithful to him, and then returned to her father's house. הר־אפרים ירכּתי, the hinder or outermost parts of the mountains of Ephraim, are the northern extremity of these mountains; according to Jdg 19:18, probably the neighbourhood of Shiloh. עליו תּזנה, "she played the harlot out beyond him," i.e., was unfaithful to her husband, and then went away from him," back to her father's house.

The Church Fathers

How full of pitiful traits is this story! A man, it says, a Levite, had taken to himself a wife, who I suppose was called a concubine from the word concubitus. She some time afterwards, as is likely to happen, offended at certain things, returned to her father and was with him four months.
— Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 3.19.111-12

A Levite, more courageous than wealthy, lived in the region of Mount Ephrem, for his tribe was allotted a landed possession far removed in place of the right of inheritance. He took a wife from the tribe of Bethlehem of Judah. While they felt the first attraction of their love deeply and equally, he continued to burn with unbounded desire for his wife. Yet her ways were different. His passion for her intensified until he inwardly seethed with desire. Yet, because there was a difference in their ages, and because he felt—either because she seemed to love him less or due to the violence of his pain—that she didn't consider him her equal, he used to criticize her. Frequently quarreling followed, and the offended wife gave back the keys of the house and went home.
— Ambrose of Milan, LETTER 33

The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).

Dictionary and topics

Benjamin, The Tribe Of — The contrast between the warlike character of the tribe and the peaceful image of its progenitor comes out in many scattered notices. Benjamin was the only tribe which seems to have pursued archery…
Gibeah — A hill or hill-town, “of Benjamin” (1 Sam. 13:15), better known as “Gibeah of Saul” (11:4; Isa. 10:29). It was here that the terrible outrage was committed on the Levite’s concubine which led to the…
Judges, Book of — Is so called because it contains the history of the deliverance and government of Israel by the men who bore the title of the “judges.” The book of Ruth originally formed part of this book, but about…
Micah — A shortened form of Micaiah, who is like Jehovah? (1.) A man of Mount Ephraim, whose history so far is introduced in Judg. 17, apparently for the purpose of leading to an account of the settlement of…
Wolf — Heb. zeeb, frequently referred to in Scripture as an emblem of treachery and cruelty. Jacob’s prophecy, “Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf” (Gen. 49:27), represents the warlike character of that tribe…
Adultery · FORGIVENESS OF. INSTANCES OF — FORGIVENESS OF. INSTANCES OF
Bethlehem · .And BETH-LEHEM- — .And BETH-LEHEM-
Concubinage · A Levite — A Levite
Friends · .The Ephraimite’s wife — .The Ephraimite’s wife
Judges, Extraordinary · Not without intermission — Not without intermission

Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).