Judges 17:11

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וַיּ֥וֹאֶל

yâʼal

H2974

“and · to be willing”

Conjunction + Verb, Hiphil, Sequential Imperfect, 3rd Person, Masculine, Singular

Appears 19× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 18:27

Full BDB Definition

Origin: a primitive root [probably rather the same as H2973 through the idea of mental weakness]

TWOT: 831

to begin, make a beginning, show willingness, undertake to do, be pleased, be determined - (Hiphil) - to agree to, show willingness, acquiesce, accept an invitation, be willing - to undertake - to resolve, be pleased, be determined

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

10: words
9: distinct lemmas
Historical: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וַיּ֥וֹאֶל to be willing H2974 — appearing just 19 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וַיּ֥וֹאֶל to be willing H2974 occurs in 19 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

3 verbs
4 nouns
1 adjective
2 prepositions

Verb forms

וַיּ֥וֹאֶל Hiphil · Sequential Imperfect
לָשֶׁ֣בֶת Qal · Infinitive Construct
וַיְהִ֤י Qal · Sequential Imperfect

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 21 words from the Hebrew and 23 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

In the original languages it is 10 Hebrew tokens and 17 Greek tokens — but the two are counted differently (Hebrew bundles its prefixes and suffixes into one token; the Greek is in lemma form), so that isn’t a like-for-like length.

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Judges 17:11 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וַיּ֥וֹאֶל הַלֵּוִ֖י לָשֶׁ֣בֶת אֶת הָאִ֑ישׁ וַיְהִ֤י הַנַּ֨עַר֙ ל֔וֹ כְּאַחַ֖ד מִבָּנָֽיו

The Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Judges 17:11 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ἄρχω παραοἰκέω παρά ὁ ἀνήρ καί γίγνομαι ὁ νεανίας παρά αὐτός ὡς εἷς ἀπό υἱός αὐτός

And the Levite went and began to dwell with the man; and the young man was to him as one of his sons.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּצְבִי לֵיוָאָה לְמִיתַּב עִם גַבְרָא וַהֲוָה עוּלֵימָא לֵיהּ כְּחַד מִבְּנוֹהִי:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Judges 17:11 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Jdg 17:11 And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.

Ver. 11. Was unto him as one of his sons.] For good usage, good will, and good cheap titles, it was better with this Levite than with him in Plautus, who said, - and so may many ministers now-a-days, - Ego non servio libenter, herus meus me non habet libenter: tamen utitur me, ut lippus oculis.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Joseph Benson's Commentary

Jdg 17:11-12. The Levite was content — Being infected with the common superstition and idolatry of the times. As one of his sons — That is, treated with the same degree of kindness and affection. Micah consecrated the Levite — To be a priest, for which he thought a consecration necessary, as knowing the Levites were no less excluded from the priest’s office than the people. The young man — Instead of his son, whom he had consecrated, but now it seems restrained from the exercise of that office, devolving it wholly upon the Levite, who was nearer akin to it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Geneva Bible (1599)

Geneva Bible translators

Not considering that he forsook the true worshipping of God for to maintain his own belly.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 11. The Levite was content] He thought the place a good one, and the wages respectable.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(11) Was unto him as one of his sons.—The words are added by way of reflection on his subsequent ingratitude.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John Gill's Exposition

And the Levite was content to dwell with the man,.... To continue with him; after he had made trial for some time, he liked his service, and his wages, and way of living; it was all agreeable to him:

and the young man was unto him as one of his sons; as dearly beloved by him, and used as kindly and tenderly, as if he had been one of his own children; so strong were the affections of Micah to him, and so well pleased was he with his service.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The Levite was content; being constrained by necessity, and infected with the common contagion of the superstition and idolatry of the times.

Was unto him as one of his sons, i.e. treated with the same degree of kindness and affection.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

John Wesley's Explanatory Notes

Content - Being infected with the common superstition and idolatry of the times. His sons - That is, treated with the same degree of kindness and affection.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Judges, in the Historical, opens this verse with 10 words (9 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yâʼal (“to be willing”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

The word yâʼal carries the sense “to be willing.” How does it shape the verse?
Genesis 18:27 shares the word «to be willing» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
The translations on this page render this verse differently — a whole-verse word diff, not a word-by-word alignment. What might account for the different wordings?
The verb «וַיּ֥וֹאֶל» is Hiphil Sequential Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Joseph Benson's Commentary read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

This verse counts 10 Hebrew ↔ 17 Greek words.
These translations choose different wording for 6 words in this verse.
9 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 10 words in this verse.