What Does Judges 19:18 Mean?
And he said to him, We are crossing over from Bethlehem-judah toward the flanks of mount Ephraim; from there I am. And I went to Bethlehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man who gathers me into the house.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And he said unto him, We are passing from Beth-lehem-judah toward the side of mount Ephraim; from thence am I: and I went to Beth-lehem-judah, but I am now going to the house of the LORD; and there is no man that receiveth me to house.THE KEY
Here, receiving someone means gathering them beneath a roof, and no one gathers him in.
THE MEANING
A sacred destination does not guarantee that you are received along the way. The traveler still needs someone to gather him under a roof, and no one does. The verse leaves that exposure in view without softening it.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Going toward the house of the LORD does not guarantee a human welcome.
THE ROOT
מְאַסֵּף
me'assef
GROWS FROM
אסף
To gather, collect, or bring together.
“gathers me into the house” in this verse is me'assef. The Hebrew word rendered “receiveth” comes from a root meaning “gather.” It pictures welcome as drawing a traveler into shelter; the painful absence here is that nobody gathers him in.
ALSO GROWS
asif: Ingathering; gathering in the harvest.
אָסִיף
The same root names the act of collecting what is scattered into one place, sharpening the verse’s image of someone left outside.
ne'esaf: Be gathered or collected.
נֶאֱסַף
This form makes clear that gathering can describe what happens to a person, too; here, the traveler waits for someone to take him in.
THE PATTERN
The presence or absence of shelter is revealed in whether the stranger is gathered inside.
Let a little water be taken, please, and wash your feet, and lean yourselves under the tree.The sojourner does not spend the night in the open; my doors I open to the wayfarer.Do not let slip the opening of your home to strangers, for by it some have sheltered messengers without knowing it.THE THREAD
And they turned aside there, to come in and to lodge in Gibeah; and when he came in, he sat down in the broad place of the city, for there was no man who gathered them into his house to lodge.This verse repeats the same Hebrew root, אסף (asaph, “gather”), for taking travelers into a house. The repeated absence makes the closed door a failure of gathering people into shelter.
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