Judges 18:31

_AND THEY SET THEM UP MICAH'S GRAVEN IMAGE, WHICH HE MADE, ALL THE TIME THAT THE HOUSE OF GOD WAS IN SHILOH._ They set them up Micah's graven image ... all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh. This early apostasy to idolatry, with the infamy subsequently attached to Dan, by its being the chosen site of one of Jeroboam's calves, is supposed to be the reason why this tribe is omitted in the enumeration of the tribes in the Apocalypse (Revelation 7:1)....

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 THEY SET THEM UP MICAH'S GRAVEN IMAGE, WHICH HE MADE,.... Which is repeated for the sake of the time of its continuance next expressed: ALL THE TIME THE HOUSE OF GOD WAS IN SHILOH; which, according to some Jewish writers g, was three hundred and sixty years; that is, so long as the tabernacle was there, which was afterwards removed to Nob. g Maimon. in Misn. Zebachim, c. 14. sect. 6. Bartenora in ib. sect. 7....

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 HOUSE OF GOD: i.e. the Tabernacle of Moses, but not recognized as the house of Jehovah, the Covenant God....

This verse is clearly not by the same hand as the foregoing. _the house of God … in Shiloh_ Not a tabernacle, or moveable tent, but a temple; see 1 Samuel 1:7; 1 Samuel 1:24; 1 Samuel 3:15. We are not told when the temple in Shiloh came to an end; was it when the ark fell into the hands of the Philistines, 1 Samuel 4? In the time of Saul the descendants of Eli are found not at Shiloh, but at Nob, _ib._Judges 21:2 ff. Or was it during the Assyrian wars? The allusions in Jeremiah

_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....