Charles Ellicott Commentary Judges 18:24

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Judges 18:24

1819–1905
Anglican
Charles Ellicott
Charles Ellicott

Charles Ellicott Commentary

Judges 18:24

1819–1905
Anglican
SCRIPTURE

"And he said, ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and are gone away, and what have I more? and how then say ye unto me, What aileth thee?" — Judges 18:24 (ASV)

My gods which I made. —He does not hesitate to call the pesel and teraphim “gods” (his Elohim), just as the idolater Laban had done (Genesis 30:31). The expression seems intended to show scorn for Micah. Perhaps, because this element was overlooked, the Septuagint softens it to “my graven image,” and the Chaldee to “my fear.”

My gods which I made would be a very ordinary expression for the Greeks, who called a sculptor a “god-maker” (theopoios), but it was startling from an Israelite. Micah pitifully asks, What have I more? Yet we may well hope that his present loss was his ultimate gain, and that he found the true God in place of the lost gods he had made.