Judges 17:7

7. Of the family of Judah This does not mean that this young man was a descendant of Judah, for he is immediately called a Levite, but that he belonged to the Levites who occupied by divine appointment cities within the tribe-territory of Judah. Compare Joshua 21:8-16. In Judges 18:30, this Levite is called “Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh.” He seems from Judges 18:3, to have been a person of some distinction, known at least to leading persons in the tribe of Dan. See notes on those passages. Beth-lehem-judah was not one of those cities allotted to the Levites, and hence it is added that this young man had only sojourned there, that is, dwelt there for a time as a stranger; it was not his native city nor his permanent home.