They turned aside there, to go in to lodge in Gibeah: and he went in, and sat him down in the street of the city; for there was no man who took them into his house to lodge.
The writer’s mention of the hospitality of the Levite’s father-in-law (Judges 19:4-9) points out the contrast with the Gibeahites’ lack of hospitality later in the story (Judges 19:15; Judges 19:22-26). Hospitality was a sacred duty in the ancient Near East when there were few public facilities for travelers (cf. Judges 4:17-23; Genesis 18:5; Genesis 24:55). Perhaps it is significant that this man who practiced hospitality (lit. love of strangers) lived in Bethlehem, David’s hometown. Saul came from Gibeah where the residents hated strangers, as the story will show. The fact that Israel’s first king came from this city has led some scholars to conclude that by including this incident the writer may have intended to discredit Saul. [Note: See Jeremiah Unterman, "The Literary Influence of ’The Binding of Isaac’ (Genesis 22) on ’The Outrage at Gibeah’ (Judges 19)," Hebrew Annual Review 4 (1980):161-66.] 