The repetition of identical phrases leads us to suspect that the text has been encumbered by glosses. To some extent, also, the confusion may be due to the double narrative; note the young Levitein Judges 18:15 and the priestin Judges 18:17; but other criteria fail us, and any clear separation of sources is impossible. The temptation to gloss the passage was no doubt encouraged by the inevitable, but rather clumsy, repetition of defining clauses, such as an ephod and teraphim, the six hundred men, the spiesetc. Thus Judges 18:16 seems to be wholly an addition; in Judges 18:17 came in thither … molten imageis simply a doublet from Judges 18:18.

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