Judges 19:5

The doublets and repetitions in this and the following verses may at first sight appear to be due to the carelessness of a narrator who did not pay much attention to literary correctness; more probably, however, they are to be accounted for, as in similar cases elsewhere, by the combination of two sources. Although other parts of this chapter seem to be fairly homogeneous, yet at this point indications of fusion become apparent. Thus the same request is repeated four times Judges 19:5; Judges 19:8; father of the damsel(Judges 19:3; Judges 19:6; Judges 19:8) seems to be a duplicate of his father in law(Judges 19:7), both being combined in Judges 19:4; a similar doubling of phraseology appears in comfort thine heart(Judges 19:5; Judges 19:8) and let thine heart be merry(Judges 19:6; Judges 19:9); in they did eat and drink(Judges 19:4) and they did eat, both of them(Judges 19:8), combined in Judges 19:6; in Behold, now the day draweth toward eveningand behold, the day groweth to an endin Judges 19:9. This last verse, the text of which is open to question here and there, shews a curious alternation of singular and plural, not always apparent in English; tarry all nightis plural, lodge here, the same word in Hebrew, is singular; get you early on your wayand that thou mayest go to thy tents; the one account seems to have used singular verbs and pronouns, the other plural; similarly here, Judges 19:5, they arose earlyand he rose up. Again, it would appear that according to one version the Levite was persuaded to stay for three days (Judges 19:4) and then for a fourth (Judges 19:5), while the other version seems to imply that he intended to leave on the day of his arrival, but remained for one night as his father in law urged him (Judges 19:6 b, Judges 19:7); on the fifth day(Judges 19:8) may then be due to the editor who united the documents (Moore). Fortunately these redundancies do not obscure the purpose of this part of the story, which is to explain how it happened that the Levite and his belongings arrived at Gibeah so late in the day.

Comfort thine heart with a morsel of bread The same expressions as in Genesis 18:5 J; comfortin the old English sense of strengthen, as the verb is rendered in Psalms 104:15.