Bible Strands
Judges 19:2
But she was unfaithful to him and left him to return to her father’s house in Bethlehem in Judah. After she had been there four months,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator reports the concubine’s departure from her Levite husband at the precise moment she has already resided with her father in Bethlehem for four months, immediately preceding his decision to travel after her.
The words — וַ/תִּזְנֶ֤ה (va./tiz.Neh) literally means “and she was unfaithful” or “played the harlot,” coupled with וַ/תֵּ֤לֶךְ (va./Te.lekh) meaning “and she went,” which together state her physical exit from the marital relationship.
The thread — This description of female infidelity aligns with scriptural treatments of sexual immorality found in Leviticus 21:9, Deuteronomy 22:21, and Ezekiel 16:28.
Why it lands — The passage documents the concrete breakdown of the union that initiates the husband’s journey, requiring the reader to track how a single relational rupture triggers the subsequent narrative crisis.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And his concubine played the whore against him, and went away from him unto her father’s house to Beth–lehem–judah, and was there four whole months.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 16:28 Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied.
- Leviticus 21:9 If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire.
- Deuteronomy 22:21 she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house, and there the men of her city will stone her to death. For she has committed an outrage in Israel by being promiscuous in her father’s house. So you must purge the evil from among you.