Of the family of Judah - The word family may be taken here for tribe; or the young man might have been of the tribe of Judah by his mother, and of the tribe of Levi by his father, for he is called here a Levite; and it is probable that he might have officiated at Shiloh, in the Levitical office. A Levite might marry into any other tribe, providing the woman was not an heiress.
The Hebrew words for “he sojourned there” are, שׁם גר gêr shām which words are used Judges 18:30 in the genealogy of this young Levite, whose name was “Jonathan, the son of Gershom” (גרשׁם gêreshôm ). Hence, some read here, “the son of Gershom.”