Albert Barnes Commentary Judges 19:1

"And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the farther side of the hill-country of Ephraim, who took to him a concubine out of Beth-lehem-judah." — Judges 19:1 (ASV)

A concubine - See the margin. The name does not imply any moral reproach. A concubine was as much the man’s wife as the woman formally called wife, though she did not have the same rights. See (Judges 19:3–4).