Judges 18:5

_AND THE CHILDREN OF DAN SENT OF THEIR FAMILY FIVE MEN FROM THEIR COASTS, MEN OF VALOUR, 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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

Verse Judges 18:5. _ASK COUNSEL - OF GOD_] As the Danites use the word אלהים _Elohim_ here for _God_, we are necessarily led to believe that they meant the true God; especially as the Levite answers, Judges 18:6, _Before the LORD_ (יהוה Yehovah) _is your way_. Though the former word may be sometimes applied to _idols_, whom their votaries clothed with the _attributes_ of God; yet the latter is never applied but to the _true God_ alone. As the Danites succeeded according to the oracle delivered by the Levite, it is a strong presumption that the _worship_ established by Micah was not of an _idolatrous_ kind. It is really begging the question to assert, as many commentators have done, that the answer was either a _trick of_ _the Levite_, or suggested by t...

The sight of the ephod and teraphim suggested the notion of inquiring of God....

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 SAID UNTO HIM, ASK COUNSEL, WE PRAY THEE, OF GOD,.... They did not reprove him for assuming the priestly office, when they knew he was a Levite, such was the corruption of those times, and the great depravity and declensions they were fallen into; nor even for the idolatry he was guilty of, but encourage him in it, and thought they had got a fine opportunity, which they readily laid hold on, to have counsel asked for them of God, about the success of the errand they were sent about; to this they were led at sight of the ephod, which was like that in the tabernacle, and of the teraphim, images which, according to a notion that prevailed, when consulted, foretold future things; whether by God they meant the true God, who they thought would give an answer by these, or Micah's gods, is not certain; according to the Targum of Jonathan, they meant the true God, which paraphrases it,...

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

THE DANITE SCOUTS AT THE HOUSE OF MICAH. This chapter is of great value as an illustration of the mode in which an Israelitish tribe found a settlement in the country. We are taken back almost to the time of the Conquest. On the difficulty which the Danites had in taking possession of the territory first allotted to them see Judges 1:34. Some of them determined to seek their fortune in fresh fields. Their five scouts passed the house of Micah on the way north. How they knew the Levite's voice we are not told. Either he was an old acquaintance, or the words mean that they heard a voice intoning, which they knew to be a Levite's. Seizing their opportunity, they bade him ask counsel of God for them, and obtained a gratifying response....

ASK COUNSEL. By the use of the ephod. See Judges 17:6. GOD. Hebrew. _Elohim._ App-4. Not Jehovah. App-4....

_Ask counsel … of God_ i.e. by means of the ephod or sacred lot. To consult the divine will in this way was one of the special functions of the priesthood; see 1 Samuel 6:2; 1 Samuel 14:18 (RVm.), 1 Samuel 22:10; 1 Samuel 23:9-12 etc. So long as sacrificial acts were freely performed by laymen, the chief distinction of the priest doubtless lay in his qualification to give an oracle: W. R Smith, _OTJC_., p. 292....

THEY SAID UNTO HIM, ASK COUNSEL, WE PRAY THEE, OF GOD— These two verses prove, what we have before observed on the 5th verse of the foregoing chapter, that this sanctuary of Micah was dedicated to the true God, and not to idols. _Before the Lord is your way_ signifies you are under the immediate _guidance_ and _protection_ of the Lord; under his eye: an answer framed, no doubt, by the Levite, as we cannot conceive that he could, in such a case, have any answer from God. Strange folly! to ask direction of idols, when Shiloh was so nigh; and prefer an intruding self-made priest to the anointed of the Lord. Thus still the blind lead the blind, and the people love to have it so....