Judgeschapter 17
13 verses · BSBJudges book hub →
Key verse
Now a man named Micah from the hill country of Ephraim
It stands in scene A of the chapter, verses 1 to 6.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The book's appendix turns from national to domestic ruin. Micah of the hill country of Ephraim confesses stealing eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother; she blesses him and dedicates the silver to Jehovah, to make a graven image. He fits out a house of gods with ephod and teraphim and consecrates one of his sons as priest. A young Levite from Bethlehem-judah is hired for ten pieces of silver a year, a suit of apparel, and his victuals, and Micah concludes, Now know I that Jehovah will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. Over it all stands the refrain: there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Context
History · Samuel · Judges overview
Where the chapter sits
Judges 17 falls in Appendix: diagnosis of Israel (chapters 17–21). Micah's household idolatry and the Danite migration; the Levite's concubine and the near-extinction of Benjamin. Not chronological; thematic. ‘Every man did that which was right in his own eyes.’
Before it: The twelve judges, chapters 3–16.
The whole shape of Judges→The world behind this chapter
Judges 17The history
Eleven hundred pieces of silver appear again, this time stolen by a son from his own mother. Her curse on the thief, spoken before she knows who it was, is what frightens him into confessing, a spoken curse was believed to be live and dangerous until it was lifted, which is why she immediately blesses him instead.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
What she does with the recovered silver is the point. She dedicates it to the LORD and has a silversmith make a carved image and a cast image out of it. She thinks she is being devout. She is breaking the second commandment with money she has just consecrated, and nobody in the household sees a problem.
Micah then equips a full private chapel: a shrine building, an ephod, household gods called teraphim, and one of his own sons installed as priest. Small household gods have been dug up all over the region, and family shrines were normal Canaanite practice. What is not normal in Israel is that worship was supposed to happen at one sanctuary, Shiloh was standing and functioning at this very time, a day's walk away.
Then a wandering Levite arrives looking for work, and Micah hires him at ten pieces of silver a year plus clothing and board. Levites had no tribal land and were meant to be supported by the offerings of the whole nation. This one is a freelance clergyman on a salary, and Micah's conclusion is chilling in its sincerity: now I know the LORD will prosper me, because I have a Levite as my priest.
What it meant to them
The refrain that governs the last five chapters lands here for the first time: in those days there was no king in Israel, and every man did what was right in his own eyes. The first hearers were being shown that the problem was not merely lawlessness but sincere, well-funded, self-designed religion.
Everything in the chapter is done in the name of the LORD, with his name on the lips of everyone involved. That is precisely what makes it dangerous.
Sources cited
- Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth
- Roland de Vaux, Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions
A. Stolen silver melted into a graven image
1. (vv. 1-2)
a.Micah's name is built on the divine name and means who is like the LORD, which is the first thing the chapter puts in front of a reader, before a word about his shrine. Eleven hundred occurs three times in Scripture and the other is Judges 16:5, where each lord of the Philistines promises Delilah eleven hundred pieces of silver, so the sum that bought Samson is the sum lying in this house. The mother had cursed whoever took her silver and the man who took it was her son, and when he confesses she answers the confession with a blessing.
Judges 17:1, 2 voicesWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Judges 17:1
“See the introduction to the Book of Judges. The only point of contact with the preceding history of Samson is, that we are still concerned with the tribe of Dan. See Jdg 18:1-2, note. Josephus combines in one narrative what we read here and in Jdg 1:34, and places it, with the story in Judg. 18–21, immediately after the death of Joshua.”
Judges 17:1
“There was, &c. - The things mentioned here, and in the following chapters, did not happen in the order in which they are put; but much sooner, even presently after the death of the elders that over-lived Joshua, as appears, because Phinehas the son of Eleazar was priest at this time, chap. xx, 28, who must have been about 350 years old, if this had been done after Samson's death.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 17:2, 1 voice
Judges 17:2
“About which thou cursedst - Houbigant and others understand this of putting the young man to his oath. It is likely that when the mother of Micah missed the money, she poured imprecations on the thief; and that Micah, who had secreted it, hearing this, was alarmed, and restored the money lest the curses should fall on him.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 3-4)
a.She dedicates the money unto the LORD and names in the same breath what it is for, a graven image and a molten image. Deuteronomy 27:15 lays a curse on that exact pair of words, Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, and a curse is what set this story going at verse 2. Two hundred of the eleven hundred shekels reach the founder and the text says nothing about where the other nine hundred went. Founder occurs five times in Scripture and the other four are in Jeremiah, where 10:14 reads that every founder is confounded by the graven image.
Judges 17:3, 2 voices
Judges 17:3
“Such a superstitious and unlawful mode of worshipping Yahweh is quite of a piece with Jdg 8:27; Jdg 11:31; 1Ki 12:28, etc. It argues but slight acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, which, from the ignorance of reading and writing, were probably not familiar to the Israelites in those unsettled times. The mother intimates that the consecration of the silver was for the benefit of her son and his house, not for her own selfish advantage: and that she adheres to her original design of consecrating this silver for her son’s benefit.”
Judges 17:3
“The Lord - In the Hebrew it is, Jehovah, the incommunicable name of God. Whereby it is apparent, that neither she, nor her son, intended to forsake the true God; as appears from his rejoicing when he had got a priest of the Lord's appointment, but only to worship God by an image; which also both the Israelites, Exod. xxxii, 1, &c. and Jeroboam afterwards, designed to do.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 17:4, 1 voice
Judges 17:4
“Restored - Though his mother allowed him to keep it, yet he persisted in his resolution to restore it, that she might dispose of it as she pleased. Two hundred - Reserving nine hundred shekels, either for the ephod or teraphim, or for other things relating to this worship.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3. (v. 5)
a.House of gods occurs once in the whole Bible and this verse is it. The ephod repeats Gideon at 8:27, where the ephod became a snare unto Gideon and to his house, and teraphim enters the English Bible here, with five of its six occurrences falling in this chapter and the next. He then consecrates one of his sons, which Numbers 3:10 and 18:7 both shut against any man outside Aaron's line in the same six words, the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death.
Judges 17:5, 2 voices
Judges 17:5
“And the man Micah had an house of gods,.... Having two images in it, besides teraphim, which were a sort of idols; and the Targum is, an house of images, or idols; though it may be rendered "an house of God"; a temple, a place for religious worship: and made an ephod; a priestly garment, a linen one very probably, not so rich an one with a breastplate to it as the high priest had, which was very costly.”
Judges 17:5
“The man Micah had a house of gods - בית אלהים beith Elohim should, I think, be translated house or temple of God; for it is very likely that both the mother and the son intended no more than a private or domestic chapel, in which they proposed to set up the worship of the true God.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
4. (v. 6)
a.was no king in Israel: In those days there was no king in Israel falls four times, at 17:6, 18:1, 19:1 and 21:25, and it brackets the last five chapters of the book. King in Israel occurs here for the first time in the whole Bible, inside the book that says there was none. The second clause falls twice only, here and at 21:25, which are the first and last verses of that block. Right in his own eyes is the wording of Deuteronomy 12:8, where Moses forbids that way of living in the land they were about to enter, so the verse reports the law broken in the law's own words.
Judges 17:6, 1 voice
Judges 17:6
“There was no king in Israel - The word מלך melech, which generally means king, is sometimes taken for a supreme governor, judge, magistrate, or ruler of any kind; (see Gen 36:31, and Deu 33:5); and it is likely it should be so understood here. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes - He was his own governor, and what he did he said was right; and, by his cunning and strength, defended his conduct.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
B. A wandering Levite hired as a household priest
1. (vv. 7-9)
a.Levites held no tribal land. Numbers 35 and Joshua 21 gave them cities among the other tribes, and Deuteronomy 18:6 to 18:8 gave any Levite the right to come to the place God chose and to eat like portions with his brethren there. This one looks for a place of his own instead, and the text says three times in three verses that he sojourns. Judges 18:30 gives his name as Jonathan the son of Gershom and the King James reads the son of Manasseh, where the Hebrew carries a raised letter that later scribes marked, and readers have differed since antiquity over whether the name behind it is Manasseh or Moses.
Judges 17:7, 2 voices
Judges 17:7
The Hebrew words for “he sojourned there” are, שׁם גר gêr shām, which words are used Jdg 18:30 in the genealogy of this young Levite, whose name was “Jonathan, the son of Gershom” (גרשׁם gêreshôm). Hence, some read here, “the son of Gershom.”
Judges 17:7
“Bethlehem-judah - So called here, as Matt. ii, 1, 5, to difference 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.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Judges 17:8, 1 voice
Judges 17:8
“To sojourn where he could find - He went about the country seeking for some employment, for the Levites had no inheritance: besides, no secure residence could be found where there was no civil government.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2. (vv. 10-12)
a.The wage is priced out to the shekel, ten a year with clothing and food, which is what a priest cost in this house. Micah's two words, a father and a priest, stand together twice in Scripture, here and at Judges 18:19, where the Danites use his own offer against him and add a tribe to it. Consecrated at verse 12 renders a Hebrew phrase meaning filled his hand, the wording Exodus 28:41 and Leviticus 8 use of Aaron's ordination, and here a householder performs it on a man he took in at his door.
Judges 17:10, 2 voices
Judges 17:10
“Be unto me a father and a priest - Thou shalt be master of my house, as if thou wert my father; and, as priest, thou shalt appear in the presence of God for me. The term father is often used to express honor and reverence. Ten shekels of silver - About thirty shillings per annum, with board, lodging, and clothes. Very good wages in those early times.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 17:10
“Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father--a spiritual father, to conduct the religious services of my establishment. He was to receive, in addition to his board, a salary of ten shekels of silver, equal to 25 shillings a year. a suit of apparel--not only dress for ordinary use, but vestments suitable for the discharge of his priestly functions.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Judges 17:12, 2 voices
Judges 17:12
“Micah consecrated the Levite - וימלא את יד vayemalle eth yad, he filled his hands, i.e., he gave him an offering to present before the Lord, that he might be accepted by him. He appointed him to be priest; God was to accept and consecrate him; and for this purpose he filled his hand; i.e., furnished him with the proper offering which he was to present on his inauguration.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Judges 17:12
“Consecrated - To be a priest, for which he thought a consecration necessary, as knowing the Levites were no less excluded from the priest's office than the people. The young man - Instead of his son, whom he had consecrated, but now seems to restrain him from the exercise of that office, and to devolve it wholly upon the Levite, who was nearer akin to it.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3. (v. 13)
a.Micah reads the arrival of a hired man as the sign that God is now on his side, and he says so aloud. His shrine stands in mount Ephraim, and Joshua 18:1 had set the tabernacle at Shiloh in that same hill country, near enough that Judges 18:31 can measure the one against the other: Micah's image stood all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. The chapter records the sentence and stops, with no answer from God written into it, and chapter 18 replies by carrying off the images and the priest together.
Judges 17:13, 1 voice
Judges 17:13
“This shows the ignorance as well as the superstition of the age (compare 2Ki 18:22), and gives a picture of the lawlessness of the times. The incidental testimony to the Levitical priesthood is to be noted; but the idolatrous worship in the immediate neighborhood of Shiloh is passing strange.”
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Judges 17. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Adam Clarke; Albert Barnes; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown; John Gill; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765); Keil and Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.
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