Fell down at the door - She had strength to reach the door, but not to knock for admittance: when she reached the door she fell down dead! The reason of this abominable and horrid catastrophe is strongly signified by the original words, Judges 19:25 : וידעו אותה ויתעללו בה כל הלילה vaiyedu othah, vaiyithallelu bah col hallailah, which we modestly translate, and they knew her, and they abused her all the night. More literally, but still not fully: Illi cum ea rem habuerunt, et alternatim in eam tota nocte ascenderunt. The hithpahel used here in the verb עלל greatly increases the sense: Conjugatio hithpahel frequentiam actus et immanem libidinem designat. The Arabic is not too strong; the following is its meaning: Exercuerunt in ea cupiditates suas, et maechati, sunt in ea ad matutinum usque.

Then came the woman in the dawning of the day,.... When those wicked wretches who had abused her had left her, having had her from place to place, at some distance from the house out of which she was put, and to which she got again, as well as she could:

and fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was; her husband, so called, not because she had been his servant, but because she was his wife; and at the door of the old man's house, where he was, which she knew, and had found out by one means or another; she fell down, either purposely for her ease, and to lie and wait there, until the time of opening the door in the morning; or rather through weakness, not being able to stand, nor so much as to knock at the door to get admittance: and there she lay

till it was light; broad daylight.

When the morning drew on (i.e., at the first dawn of day), the woman fell down before the door of the house in which אדוניה, "her lord," i.e., her husband, was, and lay there till it was light, i.e., till sunrise.

Then came the woman in the dawning of the day, and {i} fell down at the door of the man's house where her lord was, till it was light.

(i) She fell down dead, as in Jud 19:27.

19:26 Fell down - Namely, dead; killed partly with grief of heart, and partly with excessive abuse. Thus the sin she formerly chose, ver.2, is now her destruction; and though her husband pardoned her, God would punish her, at least as to this life.

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.