King James Version
Judges 17
13 verses with commentary
Micah's Idols
And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.</strong> This seemingly innocuous introduction opens one of Scripture's darkest narratives about syncretistic worship and spiritual corruption. The name Micah (Hebrew <em>Mikhayehu</em>, מִיכָיְהוּ) means "Who is like Yahweh?"—profoundly ironic given that this man will create idols in direct violation of the second commandment. Th...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(1) **There was.**—The Vulg. has, “there was *at that time” *which is an error, for these events happened before the days of Samson.
**A man of mount Ephraim.**—The hill-district of Ephraim, as in Judges 2:9. The Talmud (*Sanhedr. *103, *b*) says that he lived at Garab, not far from Shiloh, but the name (“a blotch”) is probably a term of scorn (Deuteronomy 28:27). Similarly, we find in *Perachim, ...
Read full commentary →And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.</strong> This verse reveals profound spiritual confusion. Micah confesses theft from his own mother—violating the eighth and fifth command...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(2) **He said unto his mother.**—The story is singularly abbreviated, and all details as to how she had acquired the money, &c., are left to conjecture.
**The eleven hundred shekels of silver.**—The value of eleven hundred skekels would be about £136. It is the same sum which each of the lords of the Philistines promised to give Delilah (Judges 16:5), and only six hundred shekels less than the ent...
Read full commentary →And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated 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.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image.</strong> This verse presents stunning theological contradiction—"dedicating" silver to Yahweh for creating idols He explicitly forbids. The second commandment states: "Thou shalt not...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(3) **I had wholly dedicated the silver.**—Literally, *Consecrating, I consecrated*—either, “I have *now *consecrated it” as a thanksgiving for its restoration, or “I had done so before it was stolen.”
**For my son**—*i.e., *for your benefit.
**To make a graven image and a molten image.**—Whether in the universal decadence of religion, the people, untaught by a careless priesthood, had become igno...
Read full commentary →Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder.</strong> This verse reveals dishonesty and half-hearted devotion. The mother claimed to dedicate all 1,100 shekels to Yahweh (verse 3), yet only gives 200 shekels (less than 20%) to actually create the idols—keeping 900 shekels for herself. Her "dedication" was mere r...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(4) **Yet.**—Rather, *And.*
**Two hundred shekels of silver.**—Bertheau supposes that these two hundred shekels were not *apart of the eleven hundred, *but the trespass-money of one-fifth, which by the law Micah had to pay for his theft (Lev. 5:24). But apart from the sum not being exact, no such impression is given by the narrative. It is left to be understood that the remaining nine hundred shek...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
CHAPTER 9 Jud 9:1-6. Abimelech Is Made King by the Shechemites.
**1. Abimelech the son of Jerubbaal went to Shechem--**The idolatry which had been stealthily creeping into Israel during the latter years of Gideon was now openly professed; Shechem was wholly inhabited by its adherents; at least, idolaters had the ascendency. Abimelech, one of Gideon's numerous sons, was connected with that place. ...
Read full commentary →And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest. consecrated: Heb. filled the hand
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.</strong> This verse describes complete worship corruption. The "ephod" (<em>efod</em>, אֵפוֹד) was the ornate garment worn by Israel's high priest containing the Urim and Thummim for divine guidance (Exodus 28:6-30). For Micah to manufacture his own ephod represe...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(5) **Had an house of gods.**—The Hebrew is *Beth Elohim, *which may mean equally well “a house of God” (Vulg., *œdiculam Deo, *and so too the LXX.). It is quite clear that Micah did not abandon the worship of God under the names of Jehovah and Elohim, by which He was known to the Israelites. How he coordinated this worship with his grossly idolatrous symbols, or whom those symbols were intended t...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**2. Whether is better for you, either that all the sons of Jerubbaal, ... or that one reign over you--**a false insinuation, artfully contrived to stir up jealousy and alarm. Gideon had rejected, with abhorrence, the proposal to make himself or any of his family king, and there is no evidence that any of his other sons coveted the title.
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.</strong> This verse provides the theological diagnosis for all corruption in chapters 17-21. The phrase "no king in Israel" appears four times in Judges (17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25), functioning as historical observation and theological indictment. Israel's true King was Yahweh (Exodus 15:18), y...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(6) **In those days there was no king.**—This shows that these narratives were written, or more probably edited, in the days of the monarchy. (See Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1; Judges 21:25.)
**Did that which was right in his own eyes.**—The notice is added to show why there was no authoritative interference of prince or ruler to prevent idolatrous or lawless proceedings. (Deuteronomy 12:8 : “Ye shall...
Read full commentary →The Levite Becomes Micah's Priest
And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And there was a young man out of Beth-lehem-judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.</strong> This verse introduces a wandering Levite who will become Micah's hired priest, further corrupting Israel's worship. The phrase "Beth-lehem-judah" (literally "house of bread") is ironic—this town would later be David's birthplace and ultimately the Messiah's (Micah 5:...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(7) **A young man.**—Later on in the story we, as it were incidentally, make the astonishing discovery that this young man was no other than a grandson of Moses.
**Out of Beth-lehem-judah.**—So called to distinguish it from the Bethlehem in Zebulon (Joshua 19:15). (See Note on Judges 12:8.) In later times, when Bethlehem was famous as David’s birthplace, and the other Bethlehem had sunk into insig...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**4. the house of Baal-berith--**either the temple, or the place where this idol was worshipped; Baal-berith, "god of the covenant," by invocation of whom the league of cities was formed.
**Abimelech hired vain and light persons, which followed him--**idle, worthless vagabonds, the scum of society, who had nothing to lose, but much to gain from the success of a revolutionary movement.
And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehemjudah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed . as he: Heb. in making his way
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And the man departed out of the city from Beth-lehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place: and he came to mount Ephraim to the house of Micah, as he journeyed.</strong> This verse describes the Levite's aimless wandering, seeking employment rather than fulfilling his divinely appointed role. The phrase "to sojourn where he could find a place" (<em>lagur ba'asher yimtsa</em>) reveal...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(8) **To sojourn where he could find.**—Or, as we should say, *to get his living. *It may easily be supposed that in the disorganisation of these days, the due support of the Levites would be much neglected. The same neglect occurred in the troubled days of Nehemiah: “I *perceived that the portions of the Levites had not been given them: *for the Levites and the singers, that did the work, were fl...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**5. went unto ... Ophrah, and slew his brethren i. e., upon one stone--**This is the first mention of a barbarous atrocity which has, with appalling frequency, been perpetrated in the despotic countries of the East--that of one son of the deceased monarch usurping the throne and hastening to confirm himself in the possession by the massacre of all the natural or legitimate competitors. Abimelech ...
Read full commentary →And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehemjudah , and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>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.</strong> This exchange reveals both parties' spiritual condition. Micah's question "Whence comest thou?" (<em>me'ayin tavo</em>) is surface-level curiosity, not theological inquiry. He doesn't ask about the man's relationship with God, his fitn...
Read full commentary →Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary
**6. all the men of Shechem ..., and all the house of Millo--**that is, a mound or rampart, so that the meaning is, all the men in the house or temple; namely, the priests of Baal.
**made Abimelech king, by the plain of the pillar--**rather, "by the oak near a raised mound"--so that the ceremony of coronation might be conspicuous to a crowd.
And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals. So the Levite went in. a suit: or, a double suit, etc: Heb. an order of garments
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year, and a suit of apparel, and thy victuals.</strong> This verse reveals the complete commercialization of sacred office. Micah's offer—"Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest"—inverts the proper order. The Levite should serve God and minister to Go...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(10) **Be unto me a father and a priest.**—The title “father” is here ecclesiastical, like “papa,” “pope,” &c, and this title was given to spiritual directors, as we find in several other passages in the Bible (2Kings 2:12; 2Kings 5:13; 2Kings 6:21; Isaiah 22:21, &c.). Micah knew enough of the law to be aware of the extreme irregularity of his conduct in making one of his own sons his priest.
**Te...
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Jud 9:7-21. Jotham by a Parable Reproaches Them.
**7. he ... stood in the top of mount Gerizim and lifted up his voice--**The spot he chose was, like the housetops, the public place of Shechem; and the parable [Jud 9:8-15] drawn from the rivalry of the various trees was appropriate to the diversified foliage of the valley below. Eastern people are exceedingly fond of parables and use them for con...
Read full commentary →And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And the Levite was content to dwell with the man; and the young man was unto him as one of his sons.</strong> The Hebrew phrase "the Levite was content" (<em>vayoel haLevi</em>, וַיּוֹאֶל הַלֵּוִי) literally means "the Levite agreed" or "was willing," emphasizing his voluntary acceptance of this corrupt arrangement. His contentment with unauthorized ministry reveals a seared conscience. A ...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(11) **Was unto him as one of his sons.**—The words are added by way of reflection on his subsequent ingratitude.
And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>And Micah consecrated the Levite; and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.</strong> This verse describes the culmination of unauthorized ministry. The phrase "Micah consecrated the Levite" (<em>vayemalle Mikhah et-yad haLevi</em>, וַיְמַלֵּא מִיכָה אֶת־יַד הַלֵּוִי) uses the technical terminology for priestly ordination—literally "filled the hand of the Levite." ...
Read full commentary →Then said Micah, Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest.
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KJV Study Commentary
<strong>Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest</strong>—Micah's confident declaration drips with irony. He assumes that having a Levite (מִלְוִי, <em>mi-levi</em>) as priest for his unauthorized, idolatrous shrine will earn Yahweh's favor. The verb 'to do good' (יֵיטִיב, <em>yeitiv</em>) expresses his expectation of blessing and prosperity. Yet Micah operates...
Read full commentary →Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers
(13) **That the Lord will do me good.**—In this anticipation we find a very little further on that he was rudely undeceived, and we are hardly in a position to know whether it was due to hypocrisy or to mere ignorance. So far as Micah was devout and sincere, we must feel that the Lord did him good by stripping him of his gorgeous instruments of superstition and humbling his pride.
**I have a Levit...
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