Bible Strands

Judges 19:26

Early that morning, the woman went back to the house where her master was staying, collapsed at the doorway, and lay there until it was light.

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The narrator reports the woman's actions immediately after the night of abuse, as she returns to the inn where her master is staying. This occurs in the early morning hours before her master opens the door to depart.

The words — The Hebrew verb וַתִּפֹּל (va.tippol) translates literally as "and she fell," paired with פֶּתַח בֵּית הָאִישׁ (petach beit ha'ish), meaning "the entrance of the man's house." These terms record her physical collapse at the threshold rather than any voluntary act of rest.

The thread — The image of a woman collapsed at a doorway reappears in Judges 19:27 when the master opens the door and finds her there, and parallels the threshold imagery in Genesis 18:12 where Sarah laughs inside her tent.

Why it lands — The text demands recognition of the woman's complete physical depletion and the stark reality of her abandonment. It requires the reader to confront the consequences of violence and the failure of hospitality without softening the narrative's brutality.

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

וַתָּבֹ֥אva./ta.Vo'and/ she cameהָאִשָּׁ֖הha./'i.Shahthe/ womanלִפְנ֣וֹתli/f.Notto/ [the] turning ofהַבֹּ֑קֶרha./Bo.kerthe/ morningוַתִּפֹּ֞לva./ti.Poland/ she fellפֶּ֧תַחPe.tach[the] entrance ofבֵּית־beit-[the] house ofהָאִ֛ישׁha./'Ishthe/ manאֲשֶׁר־'a.Sher-whereאֲדוֹנֶ֥יהָ'a.do.Nei./hamaster<s>/ herשָּׁ֖םsham[was] thereעַד־'ad-untilהָאֽוֹר׃ha./'Orthe/ light

King James Version

Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and fell down at the door of the man’s house where her lord was, till it was light.

Cross-references