Judges 18:17

and came in … molten image Again, the clumsy and irregular construction as well as the contents of the clause shew that it is not original; a doublet from Judges 18:18; lit. they came in thither, they took; the RV. inserts andtwice.

and the priest … with the six hundred The text seems to say that, while the spies went up to Micah's house, the priest and the 600 armed men stood at the entrance of the village. In Judges 18:18, however, the priest is not at the entrance of the village, but at the door of the house; with the six hundredetc. should rather be and the six hundred men girt with weapons of war…, an unfinished sentence without a verb. It is impossible to recover the original form of the text here. The general sense intended may be this: while the 600 warriors stood at the entrance of the village, the five spies went up to Micah's house, were confronted by the priest, and, silencing his expostulations, plundered the sanctuary.

by the entering of the gate Always of the gate of a city (e.g. Judges 9:35; Judges 9:44; Joshua 8:29; Joshua 20:4 etc.), not the door of a house. The use of the expression here implies at least a group of houses, such as a farm, or a village.

The LXX. cod. B has a brief equivalent for Judges 18:17, -and the five men who went to spy out the land went up, (Judges 18:18) and entered into Micaiah's house, and the priest was standing [there]; and they fetched" etc. It is doubtful, however, whether this can be taken to represent the original text.