Add parallel Print Page Options

Chapter 19

The Levite from Ephraim. In those days, when there was no king in Israel,[a](A) there was a Levite residing in remote parts of the mountain region of Ephraim(B) who had taken for himself a concubine from Bethlehem of Judah. But his concubine spurned him and left him for her father’s house in Bethlehem of Judah, where she stayed for some four months. Her husband then set out with his servant and a pair of donkeys, and went after her to soothe her and bring her back. He arrived at her father’s house, and when the young woman’s father saw him, he came out joyfully to meet him.

Read full chapter

Footnotes

  1. 19:1 No king in Israel: see note on 17:6. The violent story that follows is offered as another example of the disorder that prevailed before the inauguration of the monarchy.