Study Desk

Now Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel after him.

Then Ibzan died and was buried in Bethlehem.

Now there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite; and he was staying there.

Then the man left the city, Bethlehem in Judah, to stay wherever he would find a place; and as he made his journey, he came to the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah.

Micah said to him, "Where do you come from?" And he said to him, "I am a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, and I am going to stay wherever I may find a place."

Now it came about in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite staying in the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, who took a concubine for himself from Bethlehem in Judah.

But his concubine found him repugnant, and she left him and went to her father's house in Bethlehem in Judah, and remained there for a period of four months.

And he said to him, "We are passing from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote part of the hill country of Ephraim, for I am from there, and I went to Bethlehem in Judah. But I am now going to my house, and no one will take me into his house.