Bible Strands
Judges 19:5
On the fourth day, they got up early in the morning and prepared to depart, but the girl’s father said to his son-in-law, “Refresh your heart with a morsel of bread, and then you can go.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — On the fourth morning after a three-day stay, the Levite prepares to depart when the girl’s father interrupts to command him to eat before continuing.
The words — The verb וַיַּשְׁכִּימוּ (va/yash.ki.mu) records the group rising early, while וַיֹּאמֶר (va/i.yo.Mer) introduces the father’s direct speech urging the traveler to eat.
The thread — The father’s offer to refresh the traveler with bread parallels Genesis 18:5, and the same hospitality pattern repeats in Judges 19:8 when the father makes a similar request on the fifth day.
Why it lands — The text explicitly records a repeated insistence on physical sustenance before travel, requiring the reader to track the narrative’s escalating danger rather than impose external spiritual meanings.
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 it came to pass on the fourth day, when they arose early in the morning, that he rose up to depart: and the damsel’s father said unto his son in law, Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread, and afterward go your way.
Cross-references
- Genesis 18:5 And I will bring a bit of bread so that you may refresh yourselves. This is why you have passed your servant’s way. After that, you may continue on your way.” “Yes,” they replied, “you may do as you have said.”
- Judges 19:8 On the fifth day, he got up early in the morning to depart, but the girl’s father said, “Please refresh your heart.” So they waited until late afternoon and the two of them ate.
- John 4:34 Jesus explained, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to finish His work.
- 1 Samuel 14:27 Jonathan, however, had not heard that his father had bound the people with the oath. So he reached out the end of the staff in his hand, dipped it into the honeycomb, and put his hand to his mouth, and his eyes brightened.
- 1 Samuel 30:12 a piece of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins. So he ate and was revived, for he had not had any food or water for three days and three nights.
- 1 Kings 13:7 Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.”
- Psalms 104:15 wine that gladdens the heart of man, oil that makes his face to shine, and bread that sustains his heart.
- Acts 9:19 and after taking some food, he regained his strength. And he spent several days with the disciples in Damascus.