Judges 17

17 1, 2 And there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou didst utter a curse, and didst also speak it in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son of the LORD. And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, I verily dedicate the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee. And when he restored the money unto his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and it was in the house of Micah. And the man Micah had an house of gods, and he made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes. And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there. And the man departed out of the city, out of Beth-lehem-judah, to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to the hill country of Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed. And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Beth-lehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten pieces of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons. And Micah consecrated the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah. Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.

18 1 In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their whole number, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: and they came to the hill country of Ephraim, unto the house of Micah, and lodged there.

Verses 3-15 These five men talk with the Levite, go on to Laish, and return with favorable report. Whereupon six hundred Danites start on their raid, but stop at the suggestion of the five spies at Micah’s house.

16. And the six hundred men girt with their weapons of war, who were of the children of Dan, stood by the entering of the gate. And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, and came in thither, and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image : and the priest stood by the entering of the gate with the six hundred men girt 18 with weapons of war. And when these went into Micah’s house, and fetched the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image, the priest said unto them, What 19 do ye? And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest : is it better for thee to be priest unto the house of 20 one man, or to be priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? And the priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the 21 people. So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the goods 22 before them. When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the 23 houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What 24 aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company? And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then 25 say ye unto me, What aileth thee? And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall upon you, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of 26 thy household. And the children of Dan went their way : and when Micah saw that they 27 were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house. And they took that which Micah had made, and the priest which he had, and came unto Laish, unto a people quiet and 28 secure, and smote them with the edge of the sword ; and they burnt the city with fire. And there was no deliverer, because it was far from Zidon, and they had no dealings with any man ; and it was in the valley that lieth by Bethrehob. And they built the city, and dwelt therein. 29 And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born 30 unto Israel : howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first. And the children of Dan set up for themselves the graven image : and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. 31 So they set them up Micah’s graven image which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.

Chapters 17-21 relate events immediately succeeding Joshua’s death, and antecedent to the appearance of the Judges. As no judge is mentioned in them, these narratives were placed at the end of the book. C. G. B.—They are a sort of appendix to the book, disconnected from the thread of its national history. All the other historic incidents were national in their character—successive chapters of national history. But these five concluding chapters are not primarily national, but rather are fragments of family history. It is generally held that their chronological place is quite early in the Book of Judges, even before the Judgeship of Othniel (3 : 9-11). It is every way probable that this migration of a part of the tribe of Dan to the extreme north of Palestine occurred soon after the allotment of the tribes, their original territory being found too limited. In the second of these narratives (20 : 28) we are told that Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, stood before the ark as high priest in those days. But this Phinehas was in the vigor of his manhood (apparently) in the scenes recorded (Nu. 25), i.e., before the death of Moses. His father’s death is noticed in close connection with the death of Joshua (Josh. 24 : 33), showing that he came into the high priesthood at least as early as Joshua’s death. The transactions of these last three chapters of Judges must, therefore, be located in time very early among the events of this book. H. C.

Ch. 17, 18. The history comprehended in these chapters is obviously connected with ch. 1 : 34, where the reasons of the emigration of a part of the tribe of Dan to the northern quarter of Canaan are stated. “The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain ; for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley.” The consequence was, they sought a more enlarged inheritance, and while in the course of possessing themselves of this, the events here related, resulting in the establishment of idolatry in that tribe, occurred. Bush.

The story of Micah illustrates the way in which irregularities in worship sprung up. Micah was a young Ephraimite who had a liking for religious ceremonies, without genuine reverence for God. He set up a small establishment in his own house, consisting of a graven and a molten image, teraphim, or small images, and an ephod ; and first consecrated one of his sons as priest, but afterward hired a Levite for that office. Soon after being set up, this establishment was violently seized by a Danite colony of emigrants, and carried to their city in the extreme north of the country. It remained there for a long time, as a sort of rival to the tabernacle-establishment at Shiloh. It was at this place that king Jeroboam afterward set up one of his calves. Among the northern tribes it was productive of a great amount of evil. W. G. B.

Micah was evidently a devout believer in Jehovah. His one anxiety is to enjoy the favor of Jehovah (17 : 13) ; the formula of blessing used by his mother and his priest invokes the same awful name (2, 18 : 6) ; and yet so completely ignorant is he of the Law of Jehovah, that the mode which he adopts of honoring Him is to make a molten and a graven image, teraphim, or images of domestic gods, and to set up an unauthorized priesthood, first in his own family, and then in the person of a Levite not of the priestly line. The story also throws a light on the condition of the Levites. Here we have a Levite belonging to Bethlehem-judah, a town not allotted to his tribe ; wandering forth to take up his abode wherever he could find a residence ; undertaking the charge of Micah’s idol-chapel ; and lastly, carrying off the property of his master and benefactor, and becoming the first priest to another system of false worship. The narrative gives us a vivid idea of the anarchy in which the country was placed, when “there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes,” and shows how urgently necessary a central authority had become. A body of six hundred men completely armed, besides the train of their families and cattle, traverses the length and breadth of the land, not on any mission for the ruler or the nation, but simply for their private ends. Entirely disregarding the rights of private property, they burst in wherever they please along their route, and plundering the valuables and carrying off persons, reply to all remonstrances by taunts and threats. Dic. B.

4. The mother of Micah seems to have been in her way a devout woman. The scraping together eleven hundred shekels was probably not effected without considerable effort and self-denial, for it was a large sum, eleven times the yearly wages of the Levite. She meant to consecrate it to Jehovah, the God of Israel. She seems too to have been a good mother, for she intended this consecration to be for her son’s benefit, and her language and conduct when her son confessed his guilt were pious and forgiving. And yet we find her disobeying the express command of God, and making a graven and a molten image to be used in his worship and service. In like manner we find Micah giving signs of a tender conscience and of the fear of God in confessing his sin when adjured according to the law ; we find him anxious for the favor of God and looking to him to do him good ; we find him liberal and large-hearted in providing at his own expense for the worship of God ; and yet with a strange inconsistency we find him doing the very things which God’s word forbade ; setting up images and teraphim and a superstitious ephod in a “house of God” of his own devising, and under a priest of his own consecration. A. C. H.

5. An house of gods. The Hebrew words should rather be translated, “a house of God ;” for his intention was to make at his own home an imitation of the house of God at Shiloh : still it is not improper to say “an house of gods,” because to worship God by images was accounted the worshipping of other gods. To increase this resemblance to the true divine service, he caused priestly garments to be made, especially an ephod like that which the high priest wore, and teraphim or images, by means of which probably he thought he might consult God and consecrated one of his sons to be priest. Bp. Patrick.

9-11. This degenerate Levite was “content to dwell with the man,” though his office was a perpetual insult to the true God, whose minister he was bound to be. His only concern was to secure for himself a transitory home. At best, he confesses, he comes but to “sojourn.” “The ministry is the best calling, but the worst trade in the world.” A. R. F.

12. Consecrated the Levite. He thought that having a Levite in the house with him would of course entitle him to the Divine favor. Carnal hearts are apt to build too much upon their external privileges, and to conclude that God will certainly do them good because they are born of godly parents, dwell in praying families, are linked in society with those that are very good, and sit under a lively ministry ; whereas all this is but like having a Levite to be their priest, which amounts to no security at all that God will do them good, unless they be good themselves and make a good use of these advantages. H.—If only men keep clear of crimes against the law of the land, and offences against the laws of society, it is commonly supposed that sins of heart and life against God’s holy law will not be strictly judged by God. As for the Christian law of loving, whole-hearted consecration to God, and crucifixion with Christ to the world, many men think as little of aiming toward such a standard as would a heathen. On the other hand, the element of Judaism largely enters into the world’s religion, in its adherence to particular forms. A. R. F.

18:1. The tribe of the Danites. Some families of it, to the number of six hundred men of war with their households. In consequence of their culpable remissness in expelling the old inhabitants, they lost the advantages they might otherwise have gained over them, and not only so, but as appears from Josh. 19:47, a part of their territories had actually been wrested out of their hands, leaving them so straitened for room that a portion of the tribe was induced to migrate to a distant section of the land in quest of ampler accommodations. Bush.

5. Ask counsel of God.** By this it appears that they were as ignorant or regardless of true religion as the Levite and Micah, in thinking that God would answer them as well there as at his own tabernacle. Wells.—Had these Danites possessed the spirit of true Israelites, they would have been indignant to learn that a rival sanctuary to that of Shiloh had been set up, and that a renegade Levite had sacrilegiously assumed the functions of the sacred office. Bush.

13-19. The spies of Dan had been courteously entertained by Micah: thus they rewarded his hospitality. There is no trusting the honesty of idolaters: if they have once cast off the true God, whom will they respect? It seems Levites did not more want maintenance than Israel wanted Levites: here was a tribe of Israel without a spiritual guide. There needed small force to draw this Levite to change his charge; “Hold thy peace, and come, and be our father and priest.” Here is no patience, but joy: he that was won with ten shekels may be lost with eleven: when maintenance and honor call him, he goes undriven; and rather steals himself away, than is stolen. Bp. H.

20. The priest’s heart was glad.** Swayed wholly by self-interest and unmindful of the claims of gratitude and of truth, he forsakes his former employer merely from the motives of covetousness and ambition. But who can be surprised to find him false to men who has been convicted of the grossest perfidy toward God? Bush.

24. It was the old doctrine of “Might against Right,” and suggests that the religion of these men was not embarrassed with ideas about rights of property, claims of justice, or bonds of social compact. Micah is stripped of both his priest and his gods; expostulates to no purpose, and is compelled to succumb before superior brute force. His expostulation is in pitiful tone, revealing a broken-hearted man: “Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away; and what have I more? And now what mean ye to say unto me, What aileth thee?” But no heart was moved to pity by this sad wail. It is plain that his religious hopes have perished. He no longer “knows that the Lord will do him good.” “Alas,” he cries, “what have I more?” He must have been a very sincere idolater. H. C.

Micah’s own words confute his folly—“My gods which I made:” “Those ‘carpenters’ chips,’ as Mrs. Cotismore called them” (Trapp). How could those be gods which he himself made, after having turned his back on the God who made him? His title to them, as having made them, was undoubtedly good; but what good could he expect from such gods? Yet he cries, “Ye have taken them away—and what have I more?” A. R. F.—That creature or object which we place our happiness in, which we set our affections inordinately upon, and which we can by no means find in our hearts to part with, of which we say, “What have we more?” that we make an idol of. That is put in God’s place and is a usurper, which we are concerned about as if our life and comfort, our hope and happiness and all, were bound up in it. H.

Henry truly says—“Their idolatry began in theft, a proper prologue for such an opera [rather tragedy]: in order to the breaking of the second commandment, they begin with the eighth, and take their neighbor’s goods, to make them their gods.” They could have made as good gods themselves; but superstition had invested Micah’s idols with a false halo, so that they preferred to steal his, without inquiring into their origin. Holy life and righteous practice never really grow out of idolatry: its natural and necessary fruits are selfishness and corruption. Practice of holiness, purity, and truth can only flow from faith in the holy, pure, and true God,—that faith working by love to God and man. A. R. F.

27-31. I read this tragedy with feelings of indignation and abhorrence. True, these Phoenician dwellers in Laish were every way ripe for destruction. They were lazy, dwelling carelessly, after the manner of the Zidonians, quiet and secure. They had nothing to do. They had no business with any one. They had no government and no moral character. There was no magistrate in the land that might put them to shame in anything. They deserve little commiseration, no doubt, but then these Danites were thieves and robbers, “bitter and angry fellows,” ready to run upon and murder poor Micah, whom they had plundered of his property. They were also traitors to their religion and the God of their fathers. Thompson.

29. Called the name of the city Dan. To be a witness for them that they were Danites by birth, though removed to so great a distance from their brethren. As this fact might possibly in after times be called in question, they would make the very name of their place a ground on which to establish their claim to relationship. It was remarkable as one of the extremities of the promised land. The extent of the Israelitish territory from its northern to its southern border was generally expressed by the phrase, “From Dan to Beersheba.” Bush.

The mound that marks the site of Dan (Laish), rising in the centre of the Huleh plain, is now called Tell el Kady (the hill of the judge), an Arabic translation of the old name Dan (the judge). The mound is an irregular cup-shaped oval, 300 yards long and 250 yards wide, elevated from twenty-five to thirty feet above the plain; the entire surface is covered with ruins, in which the plan of no single building can be traced. Wilson.—Nature’s gifts are here poured forth in lavish profusion, but man has deserted it. Yet it would be difficult to find a more lovely situation than this, where “the men of Laish dwelt quiet and secure.” Tristram.

30. The children of Dan set up the graven image. Thus was idolatry first publicly established in Israel. It began in the tribe and city of Dan, from which it gradually spread like an evil contagion, and though checked from time to time by pious rulers, yet it eventually infected nearly the whole nation. Having had the precedent now set, Jeroboam was encouraged afterward to establish the idolatrous worship of one of his golden calves at this very place. Bush.

Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh. The reading in the Vulgate, and in some ancient xss of the Septuagint, is the “son of Moses,” instead of “son of Manasseh.” This reading is confirmed by the Hebrew text itself, which has MSH., which is “Moses,” and has written above those letters an N, which would make it read, “Manasseh.” This N has been added by the Masoretes, who did not wish to have it appear that any of the descendants of Moses would act so badly. It is a lesson of sad and deep importance to see that the grandson of the marvellous “man of God” should be a leader of apostasy so soon after his grandfather had been God’s chosen instrument to give Israel a pure and holy law, confirmed by the most stupendous miracles that men ever beheld. Crosby.

Until the day of the captivity. Some have endeavored to frame an argument from this passage, that this book was written after the ten tribes were carried away by Salmaneser; but it is highly improbable that these images should have been suffered to continue so long, especially through the reign of David. It is therefore with the greatest reason concluded that by “the captivity of the land” is meant the taking of the ark by the Philistines, and the carrying of it captive into the temple of Dagon (1 S. 4:11). This is confirmed by the next verse, which says that the images remained during the continuance of the ark and sanctuary at Shiloh; which continuance ended in Eli’s time, when the ark was taken by the Philistines and never after carried back to Shiloh. Patrick.

It would not be easy to find a heathen family without a god in the household. In flight or disaster the parents and the gods are first cared for. But the trouble with very many professedly Christian homes is, there is no God anywhere about them from garret to cellar. They never recognize God in their every-day lives. No thanks are rendered, no gratitude expressed. The children are not taught to square their lives to the law of the Lord. There is nothing in the conversation that indicates that God has any place in the house. So that the house is worse than heathenish, it is godless. Children are born into such homes. Their physical and intellectual natures are cared for, but their spiritual faculties are allowed to shrivel unto death. Every earnest pastor will certainly respond that the most serious hindrance to a godly church is godless homes. It seems amazing sometimes how blank or meagre is the spiritual knowledge of the children of professed Christians. An.

Every attempt to substitute costly gifts, or gorgeous ceremonies, or showy processions, or lights, or music, or gestures, or anything bodily and sensuous, for the ritual of repentance, faith, fear, love, and self-consecration—consecration of the will and affections—to the service of Almighty God can only be made in ignorance of his character and mind as revealed to us in Holy Scripture. It is as truly superstitious as were Micah’s images, and teraphim, and ephod, and house of God. Forms which tend merely to please the senses are worthless; forms which tend to soothe the conscience of the impenitent, and to stifle its questionings by creating a feeling of duty performed and of satisfaction made to God, are pernicious; and forms which so fill the thoughts as to the manner of performing them as to leave no room for thoughts of God are injuries rather than benefits to the soul. Forms, again, which leave the soul self-satisfied, which convey a false impression of God’s favor and grace being given when he is really displeased and offended, and which comfort and encourage those who ought to be trembling for fear of God’s judgments, are manifestly destructive of the souls of those for whose benefit they purport to exist. Superstitious worship is compatible with vice, and with the dominion of sin in the heart. Superstition has no tendency to correct the principles of action, or to purify the thoughts and affections of the inner man. The sequel of Micah’s history supplies a notable instance of this. The Danites, in their superstitious desire to possess the images of Micah’s chapel, and the religious services of Micah’s priest, scrupled not to break the commandments of God by stealing, and, if need were, by committing murder. Superstition is no check upon the passions, and no bar to the reckless pursuit of what men deem to be their interests or know to be their desires. There is no gulf between superstitious worship and immoral conduct. The man who mistakes the aspect of God toward superstitious vanities is prone to mistake also his aspect toward moral disorder and sin. But he who really enters into the tabernacle of God, and communes with God in spirit, comes forth with his face shining with inward righteousness, the reflection of God’s glory in the face of Jesus Christ. His life is a continuation of his prayers, his praise culminates in good works. In the interests of moral goodness, as well as for the honor of God, it is of supreme importance that the worship of the Almighty be free from superstition. A. C. H.

THE CRIME AT GIBEAH OF BENJAMIN. THE LEVITE’S APPEAL TO THE TRIBES. GATHERING OF TRIBES IN A GENERAL COURT. HEARING OF THE CASE, AND SUMMONS TO BENJAMIN TO DELIVER UP THE MURDERERS. A SCORNFUL ANSWER, FOLLOWED BY SERIES OF CONFLICTS WITH BENJAMIN. THE TRIBE EXTERMINATED, EXCEPT SIX HUNDRED MEN. MEASURES TO SECURE WIVES FOR THIS REMNANT.