Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 17

There was. —The Vulgate has, “there was at that time,” which is an error, for these events happened before the days of Samson.

A man of mount Ephraim. —The hill-district of Ephraim, as in Judges 2:9. The Talmud (Sanhedr. 103, b) says that he lived at Garab, not far from Shiloh, but the name Garab (“a blotch”) is probably a term of scorn (Deuteronomy 28:27). Similarly, we find in Perachim, 117, a, that he lived at Bochi. (See Judges 2:1-5.)

Most of the idolatrous violations of the second commandment occurred in the northern kingdom (Gideon, Judges 8:27; Micah,Judges 17:0; Jeroboam, 1 Kings 12:13). These apostasies were not a worship of other gods, but a worship of the true God under unauthorised conditions, and with forbidden images.

Whose name was Micah. —Scripture does not deem it necessary to say anything more about him. His very name—here Micayehû, “Who is like Jehovah?”—seems to show that he had been trained by pious parents. The contraction Micah is adopted throughout the rest of the story.

He said to his mother. —The story is remarkably abbreviated, and all details as to how she had acquired the money, etc., are left to conjecture.

The eleven hundred shekels of silver. —The value of eleven hundred shekels would be about £136. It is the same sum which each of the lords of the Philistines promised to give Delilah (Judges 16:5), and only six hundred shekels less than the entire mass of the earrings given to Gideon—only that those were golden shekels. It is hard to say from where this Ephraimite lady could have amassed so large a sum.

That were taken from you. —This is probably the true rendering. The Septuagint (Codex B) has “which you took for yourself,” and (Codex A) “those taken by you,” as though she had stolen them.

About which you cursed. —Literally, and you did adjure. The Septuagint (Codex B) adds, “do adjure me.” The adjuration was clearly that commanded in Leviticus 5:1: And if a soul sin, and hear the voice of swearing, and is a witness, whether he hath seen or known of it; if he do not utter it, then he shall bear his iniquity. (Compare to Ecclesiasticus 3:9: The curse of a mother rooteth out foundations.)

I took it. —Micah is terrified into confession by his mother’s adjuration. He shows throughout a remarkable mixture of superstition and ignorance.

Blessed be you of the Lord, my son. —Because of his penitence and confession.

I had wholly dedicated the silver. —Literally, Consecrating, I consecrated—either “I have now consecrated it” as a thanksgiving for its restoration, or “I had done so before it was stolen.”

For my son — i.e., for your benefit.

To make a graven image and a molten image. —We cannot tell whether, in the universal decadence of religion, the people, untaught by a careless priesthood, had become ignorant of the second commandment, or whether she justified her conduct by the same considerations that have been used even in the Christian Church in favor of image-worship.

The word used for a graven image is pesel, and for a molten image is massecah. These are the very words used in the curse against idolaters in Deuteronomy 27:15.

Some suppose the two words are used by Hendiadys (like “cups and gold” for “golden cups”) to describe one silver image adorned with sculptured ornament. All that is clear is that the pesel is the more prominent, but the details are left quite vague.

It is therefore impossible to determine whether the graven and molten image consisted of one or two silver “calves,” like that of the wilderness, and those afterwards set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel.

This, however, was a common form that the violation of the second commandment took, and it probably involved much less blame than other violations of it. This was not, as is often stated, because the Israelites had become familiar with the worship of Apis and Mnevis in Egypt, but because the calf was a recognized cherubic emblem and had consequently been deliberately sanctioned in the Temple's symbolism (Exodus 20:23; Exodus 32:4–5; 1 Kings 7:25, and others).

Some suppose that the massecah was the pedestal of the pesel, and that it was too heavy for the Danites to carry away, as it is not mentioned among the things they seized.

Now therefore I will restore it to you. —Rather, for you—in which case “I will restore it” may possibly mean “use it for its original purpose for your advantage.” If not, a slight correction would give us the much simpler reading of the Syriac, “restore it to me.”

EXCURSUS ON NOTES TO JUDGES.
EXCURSUS I.—ON Judges 17:4. (CALF-WORSHIP.)

It may be regarded as certain, from the testimony of Scripture itself, that the calf of Aaron, and those set up by the rebel king who—

“Doubled that sin in Bethel and in Dan,
Likening his Maker to the grazed ox,”

—were not idols in the ordinary sense of the word, but were intended as symbols of the one God. The calf-worship was a violation not of the first, but of the second commandment.

The main element of the fourfold cherub was certainly an ox, as is clear from the comparison of Ezekiel 10:14 with Judges 1:7-8. The knowledge of this cherubic emblem was not confined to the Jews but was spread at least through all Semitic peoples.

That the calf was intended to be an emblem of God seems to be the opinion of Josephus, who in such a matter would represent creditable Jewish traditions (Antt. viii. 8, § 4).

Aaron, in proclaiming the feast at the inauguration of his golden calf, distinctly calls it a feast to Jehovah (Exodus 32:5).

It was the well-understood purpose of Jeroboam not to introduce a new worship, but to provide a convenient modification of the old. It appears from 1 Kings 22:16 that the prophets of the calf-worship still regarded themselves, and were regarded, as the prophets of Jehovah.

However, the fate of Amos is sufficient to show that they must have sanctioned, or at least tolerated, the use of these unauthorized symbols. Against these symbols, so far as we are informed, not even Elijah or Elisha ever raised their voices, though the former was so implacable an enemy to all idolatry, and the latter lived on terms of close friendship with at least one of the northern kings.

(See the article “Calf,” by the present writer, in Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.)

Yet. —Rather, And.

Two hundred shekels of silver. —Bertheau supposes that these two hundred shekels were not a part of the eleven hundred, but the trespass-money of one-fifth, which by the law Micah had to pay for his theft (Leviticus 5:24). But apart from the sum not being exact, no such impression is given by the narrative. It is left to be understood that the remaining nine hundred shekels were spent in other parts of the idolatrous worship. (It may be mentioned, by way of passing illustration, that when Sir John Hawle was murdered in Westminster Abbey, the £200 paid in penance by his murderers seem to have been spent on the purchase of a costly image, which was placed in the Chapel of St. Erasmus.)

Gave them to the founder. —An illustration of the folly which Isaiah pursues with such a storm of irony and contempt (Isaiah 46:6–13). These pesîlîm were originally of all sorts of materials (e.g., wood, brass, stone, and clay, Daniel 2:33; Daniel 5:23; Deuteronomy 7:5; Deuteronomy 12:3, etc.), but usually of metal (Isaiah 40:19; Isaiah 44:10, etc.), adorned with plates and chains of precious metal, and embroidered robes (Jeremiah 10:9; Ezekiel 16:18, etc.). (See Excursus I.: Calf-Worship.)