XVIII. Judges 18:1. Five Danites are sent out as spies for their tribe. Judges 18:3. They are encouraged by the young Levite. Judges 18:7. They bring home a favourable report of Laish. Judges 18:11. Emigration of six hundred Danites. Judges 18:14. They rob the house of Micah of its images. Judges 18... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THOSE DAYS... — The repetition of the phrase does not necessarily prove the use of different documents. It may only emphasise the reason for the occurrence of such disorders and irregularities. THE TRIBE. — _Shebet_ sometimes means a whole tribe, and sometimes apparently the division of a tribe... [ Continue Reading ]
FROM THEIR COASTS. — Literally, _their ends_ (Genesis 19:4; 1 Kings 12:31). Some explain it to mean “from their whole number.” MEN OF VALOUR. — Literally, _sons of force_ (Judges 21:10). TO SPY OUT THE LAND. — As in Joshua 2:1. THEY CAME TO MOUNT EPHRAIM. — It would have been an easier journey to... [ Continue Reading ]
BY THE HOUSE OF MICAH. — Literally, _with_ — _i.e.,_ lodging in it, as in Genesis 27:43. They knew the voice of the young man the Levite. — Again the narrative is too much compressed to enable us to fill up its details with any certainty. The youthful Jonathan had lived in Bethlehem. The grandson of... [ Continue Reading ]
THUS AND THUS. — Literally, _according to this and according to that,_ as in 2 Samuel 11:25; 1 Kings 14:5. I AM HIS PRIEST. — See Judges 17:13. Similarly in the dearth of genuine priests Jeroboam was forced to make even Levites out of the lowest of the people (1 Kings 12:31).... [ Continue Reading ]
ASK COUNSEL... OF GOD. — Doubtless Jonathan showed them the glittering ephod. There were no prophets of whom to inquire, as in 1 Kings 22:5; but their unauthorised inquiry was liable to the strong censure expressed in Isaiah 30:1; Hosea 4:12. They might have at least consulted the high priest Phineh... [ Continue Reading ]
BEFORE THE LORD IS YOUR WAY — i.e., _Jehovah looks favourably upon it._ (Comp. Proverbs 5:21; Ezra 8:21.) The answer had, however, some of the oracular ambiguity. Jonathan did not stake his own credit or that of his ephod on any definite details, or even on any distinct promise.... [ Continue Reading ]
LAISH. — It is called _Leshem_ in Joshua 19:47, and is now called _Tel el-Kadi,_ “the mound of _the judge,”_ possibly (though not probably) with some reference to the name of Dan (Genesis 49:16). It is four miles from Paneas and Cæsarea Philippi, and was the northernmost city of Palestine (Judges 20... [ Continue Reading ]
BEHOLD, IT IS VERY GOOD. — Comp. Numbers 14:7; Joshua 2:23. The beauty of the site well bears out the description — “the rich and beautiful seclusion of that loveliest of the scenes of Palestine” (Stanley). It was by a similar statement that Anaxilaus of Rhegium persuaded the Messenians to seize Zan... [ Continue Reading ]
TO A LARGE LAND. — Literally, _wide on both hands_ (Genesis 34:11). This well describes the position of Tel el-Kadi. (See Notes on Judges 18:7; Judges 18:28.) God hath given it into your hands. — Of this they feel confident, from the interpretation which they put upon the oracular response given th... [ Continue Reading ]
APPOINTED. — Literally, _girded._ This was not a mere raid of warriors, but the migration of a section from the tribe, accompanied by their wives and children, and carrying their possessions with them (Judges 18:21). The numbers of the whole tribe at the last census had been 64,400 (Numbers 26:43).... [ Continue Reading ]
IN KIRJATH-JEARIM. — Joshua 9:17. The name means “city of forests.” The modern name is “city of grapes” (_Kuriet el Enab_). It is nine miles from Jerusalem, on the Jaffa road. Its original names were Baalah and Kirjath-Baal (Joshua 15:9; Joshua 15:60). It was here that the ark remained for twenty ye... [ Continue Reading ]
UNTO THE HOUSE OF MICAH. — Probably the precincts of the new sanctuary gave their name to a sort of village — Beth-Micah.... [ Continue Reading ]
ANSWERED. — Equivalent to _they said,_ as in Job 3:2; Zechariah 1:10. CONSIDER WHAT YE HAVE TO DO — i.e., _whether, and how, you would possess yourselves of them._ We notice in these Danite freebooters the same strange mixture of superstition and lawlessness, robbery, and devotion which has often b... [ Continue Reading ]
(15-18) In these verses we have a graphic description of the whole nefarious proceeding. The five spies, knowing Jonathan, salute him, and inveigle him to the entrance of the court to talk to their six hundred companions. While the chiefs of this little army detain him in conversation, without any s... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CARVED IMAGE, THE EPHOD. — In the Hebrew this is _pesel ha-ephod_ — _i.e.,_ the “pesel-ephod.” Very possibly, however, the ephod may, as a rule, have hung on the carved image, so that to carry off the pesel was also to carry off the ephod, which ordinarily covered it.... [ Continue Reading ]
HOLD THY PEACE, LAY THINE HAND UPON THY MOUTH. — Comp. Job 21:5; Job 29:9; Proverbs 30:32. The laying of the finger on the lip is one of the most universal of gestures. It is the attitude of Horus, the Egyptian god of silence. (See Apul. _Metamorph._ 1: _at ille digitum, a pollice proximum ori suo a... [ Continue Reading ]
THE PRIEST’S HEART WAS GLAD. — Judges 19:6; Judges 19:9; Ruth 3:7. The disgraceful alacrity with which he sanctions the theft, and abandons for self-interest the cause of Micah, is very unworthy of a grandson of Moses. Dean Stanley appositely compares the bribe offered in 1176 to the monk Roger of C... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LITTLE ONES AND THE CATTLE. — It is only in this incidental way that the fact of this being a regular migration is brought out. (Comp. Exodus 12:37.) The women are, of course, included, though not mentioned (Genesis 34:29; 2 Chronicles 20:13). AND THE CARRIAGE — i.e., “the baggage.” (Comp. Acts... [ Continue Reading ]
A GOOD WAY FROM THE HOUSE OF MICAH. — It took some time to raise the alarm and collect a sufficient force. The Beth-Micah was probably strong enough to resist any ordinary robbers, but no one could have expected a raid of 600 men. Yet they would easily overtake the Danites, because their march was d... [ Continue Reading ]
WHAT AILETH THEE? — There is again a certain grim humour in the narrative, with some sense of irony for the total discomfiture and pathetic outcries of Micah. Dan showed himself in this proceeding like “a serpent on the way, an adder in the path” (Genesis 49:17). (Comp. Deuteronomy 33:22.)... [ Continue Reading ]
MY GODS WHICH I MADE. — He does not scruple to call the pesel and teraphim “gods” (his Elohim), any more than the idolater Laban had done (Genesis 30:31). The expression seems to be intended to show scorn for Micah; and perhaps it is from missing this element that the LXX. soften it down into “my gr... [ Continue Reading ]
LEST ANGRY FELLOWS RUN UPON THEE. — Literally, _lest men bitter of soul fall upon thee._ (Comp. Judges 8:21; Judges 15:12; 2 Samuel 17:8, “chafed in their minds.”) THOU LOSE THY LIFE. — Literally, _thou gather thy life,_ as in Psalms 26:9.... [ Continue Reading ]
BURNT THE CITY WITH FIRE. — This was unusual, for we are told that Hazor was the only city which Joshua burnt (Joshua 11:13). Perhaps they had devoted the city by a ban, as Jericho was devoted (Joshua 6:24); or the burning may have been due to policy or to accident. Probably the notion that such con... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THE VALLEY THAT LIETH BY BETH-REHOB. — At the foot of the lowest range of Lebanon, and at the sources of the Jordan (Numbers 13:21), north of Lake Huleh. It is probably the Rehob of Judges 1:31; Joshua 19:30; and later it belonged to Syria (2 Samuel 10:6) The name means “house of spaciousness.” R... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY CALLED THE NAME OF THE CITY DAN. — Just as the Messenians changed the name Zankle into Messene.... [ Continue Reading ]
SET UP THE GRAVEN IMAGE. — _If_ this _pesel_ was in the form of a calf, the tradition of this cult may have given greater facility to the daring innovation of Jeroboam (1 Kings 12:30). In any case, it would make the inhabitants more ready to accept a cherubic symbol of Jehovah; for we may fairly ass... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY SET THEM UP MICAH’S GRAVEN IMAGE. — Rather, _entrusted to them, i.e.,_ to Jonathan’s descendants. The phrase “set them up” can only have been used by inadvertence by our translators in this verse, since the verb used, _yasîmo_ (LXX., _etaxan heautois;_ but Vulg., _mansitque apud eos, i.e.,_... [ Continue Reading ]