Judges 17:7

_AND THERE WAS A YOUNG MAN OUT OF BETHLEHEMJUDAH OF THE FAMILY OF JUDAH, WHO WAS A LEVITE, AND HE SOJOURNED THERE._ Beth-lehem-judah - so called in contradistinction to a town of the same name in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15). OF THE FAMILY (I:E., TRIBE) OF JUDAH. Men of the tribe of Levi might connect themselves, as Aaron did (Exodus 6:23), by marriage with another tribe; and this young Levite (according to Jerome, 'Quaest. Hebraicae,' on 1 Chronicles 23:15, his name was Shebuel) belonged to the tribe of Judah by his mother's side, which accounts for his being in Beth-lehem, not one of the Levitical cities....

7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them....

Verse Judges 17:7. _OF THE FAMILY OF JUDAH_] The word _family_ may be taken here for _tribe_; or the young man might have been of the tribe of _Judah_ by his _mother_, and of the tribe of _Levi_ by his _father_, for he is called here a _Levite_; and it is probable that he might have officiated at Shiloh, in the Levitical office. A Levite might marry into any other tribe, providing the woman was not an _heiress_....

The Hebrew words for “he sojourned there” are, שׁם גר _gêr_ _shām_, which words are used Judges 18:30 in the genealogy of this young Levite, whose name was “Jonathan, the son of Gershom” (גרשׁם _gêr__e__shôm_). Hence, some read here, “the son of Gershom.”...

EXPOSITION JUDGES 17:1 We here light upon quite a different kind of history from that which has preceded. We no longer have to do with judges and their mighty deeds in delivering Israel from his oppressors, but with two detached histories, which fill up the rest of the book, relating to the internal affairs of Israel. There is no note of time, except that they happened before the time of Saul the king (Judges 17:6; Judges 18:1), and. that Phinehas the son of Eleazar was alive at the time of the occurrence of the second (Judges 20:28). Both, no doubt, are long prior to Samson. The only apparent connection of the h

AND THERE WAS A YOUNG MAN OUT OF BETHLEHEMJUDAH,.... As there were two Bethlehems, one in the tribe of Zebulun, Joshua 19:15 and another in the tribe of Judah, the place here designed, Judah is added to it, to distinguish it from the other: OF THE FAMILY OF JUDAH: which refers either to the young man, who was by his father's side a Levite, and by his mother's side, as Jarchi thinks, of the tribe of Judah, which seems very probable, though the genealogies of families were not reckoned from the mother; wherefore he might be so called because he had lived chiefly in the tribe of Judah, and particularly at Bethlehem; but Kimchi, and several other Jewish commentators, refer this to the city of Bethlehem, that was of the tribe of Judah, family being put for the tribe; or belonged to the children of Judah; though one would think there was no need to have added this, since it was

III. THE APPENDIX: ISRAEL'S INTERNAL CORRUPTION 1. Micah's and Dan's Idolatry and Its Punishment CHAPTER 17 The Images Made and the Hired Priest _ 1. The stolen money restored and the images (Judges 17:1)_ 2. The Levite hired for a priest (Judges 17:7) The last five Chapter s of the book form an appendix. The events given did not occur after Samson's death, but they happened many years before. These Chapter s are not in chronological order but arranged in this way to teach the root of the evil and its results. This answers much, if not all, of the objections of the critics. These Chapter s reveal the internal corruption which existed in Israel during the different declensions. Idolatry and lawlessness are the two characteristic features. True worship and dependence on God is

JUDGES 17-18. This section is the first of two supplements. It explains the origin of the famous shrine at Dan, and the _naî veté_ of its moral and religious ideas proves how ancient it is. In not a few places the text has evidently been tampered with by scribes, who took offence at practices which were from a later point of view irregular. The events in question must have occurred before the time of Deborah (Judges 5:17)....

A YOUNG MAN. See note on Judges 18:30. BETH-LEHEM-JUDAH. To distinguish it from Beth-le-hem in Zebulun (Joshua 19:15)....

_a young man … sojourned there_ i.e. in the neighbourhood of Micah's house. Technically the word _sojourner_(Hebr. _gçr_) means one who lives under the protection of a tribe to which he does not belong by birth. This _young man_, a Levite of Judah, was settled in the place where Micah lived, became intimate with him (Judges 17:11 b), and was installed as his domestic priest (Judges 17:12 a); we hear of _the young man_again in Judges 18:3; Judges 18:15. He cannot be the same person as the wandering Levite, also of Judah, called _the man_in Judges