Judges 17 - Introduction
_A.M. 2598. B.C. 1406._ Micah setteth up an image in his house in Ephraim, and makes an ephod, Judges 17:1. He gets a Levite to be his priest, Judges 17:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
_A.M. 2598. B.C. 1406._ Micah setteth up an image in his house in Ephraim, and makes an ephod, Judges 17:1. He gets a Levite to be his priest, Judges 17:7.... [ Continue Reading ]
Here begins what may be called a supplement to the book of Judges; which gives an account of several memorable transactions, in or about the time of the judges: whose history the author would not interrupt, by intermixing these matters with it, but reserved them to be related apart by themselves, in... [ Continue Reading ]
_About which thou cursedst_ That is, didst curse the person who had taken it away. The mother seems to have uttered this curse in the hearing of her son; who, being struck therewith, confessed that he had taken the money; upon which his mother wishes that her curses may be turned into blessings upon... [ Continue Reading ]
_I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord_ The meaning seems to be, that when she had lost the money, she vowed, that if she recovered it, she would dedicate it to the Lord, and her superstitious ignorance made her conceive that she could do this in no better way than in laying it out in imag... [ Continue Reading ]
_Yet he restored the money to his mother_ Though she allowed him to keep it, he persisted in his resolution to restore it, that she might dispose of it as she pleased. _His mother took two hundred shekels_ Reserving nine hundred either for the ephod, or teraphim, or other things relating to this wor... [ Continue Reading ]
_The man Micah had a house of gods_ The Hebrew בית אלהים, _Beth Elohim_, may more properly be translated _a house of God;_ that is, he had made, or at least intended to make, in his own dwelling, an imitation of the house of God in Shiloh. _And teraphim_ A sort of images so called. _And consecrated... [ Continue Reading ]
_There was no king in Israel_ No judge to govern and control them; the word _king_ being used largely for a supreme magistrate. God raised up judges to rule and deliver the people when he saw fit; and at other times for their sins he suffered them to be without them, and such a time this was; and th... [ Continue Reading ]
_Beth-lehem-judah_ So called here, as Matthew 2:1; Matthew 2:5, to distinguish it from Bethlehem in Zebulun. There he was born and bred. _Of Judah_ That is, of or belonging to the tribe of Judah; not by birth, for he was a Levite; but by his habitation and ministration. For the Levites were disperse... [ Continue Reading ]
_To sojourn where he could find a place_ For employment and a livelihood; for the tithes and offerings, which were their maintenance, not being brought unto the house of God, the Levites and priests were reduced to difficulties.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Be unto me a father_ That is, a priest, a spiritual father, a teacher or instructer. He pretends reverence and submission to him; and what is wanting in his wages, he pays him in titles.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Levite was content_ Being infected with the common superstition and idolatry of the times. _As one of his sons_ That is, treated with the same degree of kindness and affection. _Micah consecrated the Levite_ To be a priest, for which he thought a consecration necessary, as knowing the Levites w... [ Continue Reading ]
_Do me good_ I am assured God will bless me. So blind and grossly partial he was in his judgment, to think that one right circumstance would answer for all his substantial errors, in making and worshipping images against God's express command, in worshipping God in a forbidden place, by a priest ill... [ Continue Reading ]