_THE DANITES SEEK AN INHERITANCE, AND IN THE JOURNEY ENTER INTO THE HOUSE OF MICAH, AND CARRY OFF HIS IMAGE AND HIS PRIEST: THEY TAKE THE CITY LAISH, WHICH THEY BURN, BUILD ANOTHER IN ITS PLACE, AND SET UP THERE MICAH'S GRAVEN IMAGE._ _Before Christ 1426._ _JUDGES 18:1. IN THOSE DAYS THERE WAS NO... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY SAID UNTO HIM, ASK COUNSEL, WE PRAY THEE, OF GOD— These two verses prove, what we have before observed on the 5th verse of the foregoing chapter, that this sanctuary of Micah was dedicated to the true God, and not to idols. _Before the Lord is your way_ signifies you are under the immediate _gu... [ Continue Reading ]
CAME TO LAISH— See on Judges 19:47 where this history is briefly told by way of anticipation. The Zidonians were a powerful people in a strong city; and therefore they indulged securely in peace and luxury, and in these particulars were imitated by the men of Laish, who had not the same reasons for... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID, ARISE, &C.— There cannot be a more infallible presage of the ruin of any people or nation, of the immediate destruction of a city or a kingdom, than when they _dwell quiet and secure,_ when they are _careless,_ as if nothing could befal them; when the _magistrates_ are _as careless as... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SAID UNTO HIM— _They,_ that is, the five men who had entered the house.... [ Continue Reading ]
YE HAVE TAKEN AWAY MY GODS, &C.— The word rendered _gods_ is _elohim,_ which, as in other places, would be more properly rendered, my god; and must, undoubtedly, mean the symbol of the Divine presence; as we cannot conceive that Micah, who was a worshipper of Jehovah, could have been so absurd as to... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CALLED THE NAME OF THE CITY DAN— It was situated at the extremity of the north of Judea, though the tribe of Dan had their lot in the south-west. Hence came the common saying afterwards, (when they would express the whole length of their country,) from _Dan to Beersheba._... [ Continue Reading ]
THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH— As this Manasseh certainly cannot mean him who was the head of the tribe so called; it is generally thought, that some other Manasseh of the tribe of Levi is understood. Dr. Kennicott, however, strongly contends for the reading of the Vulgate, _the son of Mos... [ Continue Reading ]