Judges 18:30

_AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SET UP THE GRAVEN IMAGE: AND JONATHAN, THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH, HE AND HIS SONS WERE PRIESTS TO THE TRIBE OF DAN UNTIL THE DAY OF THE CAPTIVITY OF THE LAND._ The children of Dan set up the graven image. Their distance secluded them from the rest of the Israelites; and doubtless this, which was their apology for not going to Shiloh, was the cause of perpetuating idolatry among them for many generations. JONATHAN, THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH. [The best MSS. universally have _ MOSHEH_ (H4872) Moses, not _ MªNASEH_ (H4519), Manasseh.] A sad proof of the degeneracy of the great law-giver's family, as well as of the religious disorders of that age. UNTIL ... THE CAPTIVITY OF THE LAND - i:e., until the overthrow of the kingdom....

Verse Judges 18:30. _THE CHILDREN OF DAN SET UP THE GRAVEN IMAGE_] They erected a chapel, or temple, among themselves, as Micah had done before; having the same implements and the same priest. _AND JONATHAN THE SON OF GERSHOM_] Either this was the name of the young _Levite_; or they had turned him off, and got this Jonathan in his place. _THE SON MANASSEH_] Who this Manasseh was, none can tell; nor does the reading appear to be genuine. He could not be Manasseh the son of _Joseph_, for he had no son called _Gershom_ nor could it be Manasseh king of _Israel_, for he lived _eight hundred_ years afterwards. Instead of מנשה _Manasseh_, the word should be read משה _Mosheh,_ MOSES, as it is found in some MSS., in the _Vulgate_, and in the _concessions_ of the most intelligen

In the Hebrew text the name here rendered Manasseh is written MN)- SH. Without the “N” (nun) suspended over the line, the word may be read: Moses, whose son was Gershom Exodus 2:22, whose son or descendant Jonathan clearly was. The Masoretes, probably grieved that a descendant of Moses should have been implicated in idolatrous worship, adopted this expedient for disguising the fact without absolutely falsifying the text. The Vulgate has “Moses”, the Septuagint “Manasses”. These verses seem to tell us that Jonathan’s descendants were priests to the tribe of Dan until the captivity 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 17:6; and that the graven image was in their custody until David’

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 THE CHILDREN OF DAN SET UP THE GRAVEN IMAGE,.... In their new city Dan, and very probably had a house built for it, peculiar to it, in the same place where Jeroboam, in later times, set up one of his golden calves. The Danites having succeeded, according to the oracle in Micah's house, they had a very great veneration for the images they brought away with them from thence, and set them up for religious worship in a proper place; for though only mention is made of the graven image, yet no doubt the molten image, and the teraphim, with the ephod, were all placed together for devotion and consultation: AND JONATHAN THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH, HE AND HIS SONS WERE PRIESTS TO THE TRIBE OF DAN: not to the whole tribe, but to that part of it which resided in this city, called Dan; and this Jonathan seems to be no other than the Levite Micah took into his house, and made a prie...

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)....

SET UP. On account of this, Dan is not named in Revelation 7, and Ephraim is there merged in Joseph. MANASSEH. This word is one of the four that has. suspended letter. Here the letter, _nun_ (n), is written partly in the line and partly above the line, to show that originally it formed no part of the word, but was put in to make it spell "Manasseh" instead of "Moses". Jonathan was the grandson of Moses (his contemporary Phinehas, the grandson of Aaron, being mentioned in Judges 20:28). This was done for two reasons: (1) to spare the honour of Moses' memory and name; (2) to put the sin upon _one_ who committed so gross. sin. The Talmud gives this latter as the reason. Jonathan's name is omitted in...

The object of the whole story has been to trace the origin of the famous sanctuary at Dan. In this and the next verse the setting up of Micah's image is told twice over, and a double note of time is given. The repetition suggests that we have here the two conclusions of the two narratives which have been woven together in the story. Moore thinks that Judges 18:30 belongs to the narrative which alludes to _the man the Levite the priest_(Judges 17:8; Judges 17:11 a, Judges 18:12 b, Judges 18:3 b,...

THE SON OF GERSHOM, THE SON OF MANASSEH— As this Manasseh certainly cannot mean him who was the head of the tribe so called; it is generally thought, that some other Manasseh of the tribe of Levi is understood. Dr. Kennicott, however, strongly contends for the reading of the Vulgate, _the son of Moses._ "We know," says he, "that Gershom was the son of Moses; and there are strong reasons for believing that the word here was _Moses,_ and not Manasseh. For, _first,_ Saint Jerome has expressed it Moses, and so has the Vulgate likewise; and farther, that the Septuagint, as well as the Vulgate, formerly read _Moses,_ we may infer from Theodoret, who reads the verse thus: 'Jonathan, the son of _Manasseh,_ the son of Gershom;' and from the existence of both these words we may infer, that some copies read the latter, and some the former; while others, that they might be sure of the right word, in...