Judges 18:24

‘ And he said, “You have taken away my elohim that I made, and the priest, and you have gone away, and what have I more? And how then do you say to me, ‘What ails you?' ” '

Micah's reply was bitter. He felt that he had lost everything. ‘Elohim' probably means here ‘holy religious objects'. We remember how Laban called his teraphim ‘elohim' (Genesis 31:30), but it is doubtful if he saw them as strictly ‘gods' in the strict sense. They were probably means of divination. We must also recognise that the writer disapproved of these religious objects of Micah's, whatever they were, and would thus convey the idea of them in this way as false gods.

Micah also mentioned the priest. He felt as though he had lost a son. He probably did not know that the priest had betrayed him and left of his own accord. And he was annoyed at their provocative and nonchalant challenge.

It is clear that his house of God had been his whole life, even though he would shortly recognise that there was more to life than that. It is a warning that we should never let anything possess us but God Himself.