Judges 18:18

_AND THEY WENT UP, AND PITCHED IN KIRJATH-JE'ARIM, IN JUDAH: WHEREFORE THEY CALLED THAT PLACE MAHANEHDAN UNTO THIS DAY: BEHOLD, IT IS BEHIND KIRJATH-JE'ARIM._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

Verse Judges 18:18. _THESE WENT UNTO MICAH'S HOUSE_] The five men went in, while the six hundred armed men stood at the gate....

EXPOSITION JUDGES 18:1 IN THOSE DAYS, etc. See Judges 17:6. THE TRIBE OF THE DANITES SOUGHT THEM AN INHERITANCE, etc. This does not mean that the whole tribe of Dan were still seeking their inheritance. The bulk of the tribe, as we read in Joshua 19:40-6, did receive their inheritance by lot before the death of Joshua (Joshua 19:49) and Eleazar (Joshua 19:51). But as long as any part of the tribe was not settled, the tribe as such, in its unity, was still seeking a settlement. The land for

AND THESE WENT INTO MICAH'S HOUSE,.... Into that part of it where his gods were; not the six hundred men last mentioned, but the five men who knew the house, and the chapel where the things were: AND FETCHED THE CARVED IMAGE, THE EPHOD, AND THE TERAPHIM, AND THE MOLTEN IMAGE; and brought them away in their hands to their brethren at the gate, where the priest also was: and when he saw them, THEN SAID THE PRIEST TO THEM, WHAT DO YE? what do you mean by this? is this your kindness to me, to take away what are my care and charge, and on which my livelihood depends? and do you consider the wickedness, the sin of sacrilege you are guilty of, to take away these sacred things, these objects of religious devotion?...

CHAPTER 18 THE DANITE IDOLATRY _ 1. The Danites seek an inheritance (Judges 18:1)_ 2. Their robbery (Judges 18:13) 3. Laish taken and idolatry consummated (Judges 18:27) The history of this chapter is closely linked with the preceding. The tribe of Dan had failed to take the God-given inheritance (Joshua 19:40). “The Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer them to come down to the valley” (Judges 1:34). Then in self-will, entirely disregarding the will of God, they sent out spies to

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)....

THE EPHOD. Septuagint reads "and the ephod". Compare Judges 18:17. The Hebrew text has "the carved image of the ephod"....

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 Levite_in Judges 18:15 and _the priest_in 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 spies_etc. Thus Judges 18:16 seems to be wholly an addition; in Judges 18:17 _came in thither … molten image_is simply a doub

_Micah and the Danites Judges 18:1-31_ In those days there was no king in Israel: and in those days the tribe of the Danites sought them an inheritance to dwell in; for unto that day all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of Israel. 2 And the children of Dan sent of their family five men from their coasts, men of valor, from Zorah, and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land, and to search it; and they said unto them, Go, search the land: who when they came to mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, they lodged there, 3 When they were by the house of Micah, they knew the voice of the young man the Levite: and they turned in thither, and said unto him, Who brought thee hither? and what makest thou in this place? and what hast thou here? 4 And he said unto them, Thus and thus dealeth Micah with me, and hath hired me, and I am his priest. 5 And they said un

THE DANITES GO IN QUEST OF AN INHERITANCE. THEY ROB MICAH OF HIS IMAGES, CAPTURE AND SETTLE IN LAISH, AND SET UP IDOL-WORSHIP THERE 1-10. The Danite Spies....