John Gill Commentary Judges 17

And there was a man of Mount Ephraim
This and the four following chapters contain a history of facts, which were done not after the death of Samson, as some have thought, and as they may seem at first sight, by the order in which they are laid; but long before his time, and indeed before any of the judges in Israel, when there was no king, judge, or supreme governor among them, as appears from (Judges 17:6) (19:1) (21:25) even between the death of Joshua and the elders, and the first judge of Israel, Othniel; and so Josephus ^F5 places them in his history, and the connection of them is with (Judges 2:10) and so accounts for the rise of idolatry in Israel, how it got into the tribe of Dan, and spread itself over all the tribes of Israel, (Judges 2:11) which brought on their servitude to Cushanrishathaim, in which time the Jewish chronology ^F6 places those events; but they were certainly before that, for the idolatry they fell into was the cause of it; yet could not be so early as the times of Joshua, and before his death; because in his days, and the days of the elders, Israel served the Lord; the reasons why they are postponed to the end of this book, and the account of them given here, are, according to Dr. Lightfoot ^F7 , that the reader observing how their state policy failed in the death of Samson, who was a Danite, might presently be showed God's justice in it, because their religion had first failed among the Danites; that when he observes that 1100 pieces of silver were given by every Philistine prince for the ruin of Samson, (Judges 16:5) he might presently observe the 1100 pieces of silver that were given by Micah's mother for the making of an idol, which ruined religion in Samson's tribe; that the story of Micah, of the hill country of Ephraim, the first destroyer of religion, and the story of Samuel, of the hill country of Ephraim, the first reformer of religion, might be laid together somewhat near.

That the facts after related were so early done as has been observed, appears from the following things; the priest of the idol Micah made was a grandson of Moses, (Judges 18:30) , the Danites' seeking to enlarge their possessions, related in the same chapter, was most probably as soon as they were driven into the mountains by the Amorites, (Judges 1:34) . Mahanah Dan, from where they marched, and had its name from their expedition, (Judges 18:12) is mentioned before in the history of Samson, (Judges 13:25) and therefore the expedition must be before his time. Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, was alive at the battle of Gibeah, (Judges 20:28) and Deborah speaks of the 40,000 Israelites slain by Benjamin at it, (Judges 5:8) . This man with whom the idolatry began was of the tribe of Ephraim, and dwelt in the mountainous part of it:

whose name was Micah ;
in the original it is Micajehu, with part of the name Jehovah affixed to it, as Dr. Lightfoot ^F8 remarks, till he set up his image, and thenceforward was called Micah; but, according to Abarbinel, the former was his name while he was a child, and in his youth, and with his mother, being a diminutive term, and when he became a man he was called Micah, (Judges 17:5) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F5: Antiqu. l. 5. c. 2. sect. 8
• F6: Seder Olam Rabba, c. 12. p. 33.
• F7: Works, vol. 1. p. 46.
• F8: Works, vol. 1. p. 45.

And he said to his mother
Who seems to have been a widow, and an ancient woman since Micah had sons, and one of them at age to become a priest:

the eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from you :
which were taken away by stealth from her, though it may be rendered "taken to you" ^F9 ; which she had taken to herself out of the rest of her substance, and had separated and devoted it to religious uses; but Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it as we do, and which seems to be the best sense; of the value of this sum, (See Gill on Judges 16:5)

And because the like sum is there offered, and was given to Delilah, hence some have thought, as Jarchi relates, that this woman was Delilah; but, as he observes, it is a mistake; for this woman lived long before the times of Samson and Delilah:

about which you cursed ;
which when she perceived was stolen from her, she fell into a passion, and cursed and swore, cursed the thief that took it, whether of her own family or another; or adjured her son to declare it if he knew anything of it, suspecting him of the robbery; some think this refers to the oath she had made, that she would devote the silver to a religious use:

and spoke of also in my ears ;
of the sum how much it was, and of the use she had designed it for; or rather the curse was delivered in his hearing, and cut him to the heart, and wrought that conviction in him, that he could not retain the money any longer, not being able to bear his mother's curse;

Though Abarbinel connects this with the following clause, "behold, the silver is with me"; as if the sense was, that she spoke in his ears, and charged him with the theft to his face; saying, verily the silver is with you, you have certainly taken it; upon which he confessed it, "I took it"; but the former sense seems best, that not being willing to lie under his mother's curse, he owned that the money was in his hands, and he had taken it from her:

and his mother said, blessed be you of the Lord, my son ;
she reversed the curse, and pronounced a blessing on him, or wished one to him, and that without reproving him for his sin, rejoicing to hear of her money again.

FOOTNOTES:

• F9: (Kl xql) "captum est tibi", Montanus, Junius & Tremellius.

And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver
to his mother
The whole sum, having embezzled none of it:

his mother said, I had wholly dedicated the silver unto the Lord from
my hand, for my son to make a graven image and a molten image ;
this she had done either before it was stolen, and it troubled her the more, and caused her the rather to curse the man that had taken it; or after it was stolen, that if it should be recovered again she would appropriate it to such an use; so Abarbinel; and by the Lord, or Jehovah, she doubtless meant the true God; for she had no intention to forsake him, but to worship him in and by these images, and which she designed for the use of her son and his family, that they might not go so far as Shiloh to worship at the tabernacle there:

therefore I will restore it unto thee ;
for that use, and so gave him the money again, to be laid out in images, or to make images of it.

Yet he restored the money to his mother
Gave it to her a second tithe, not as disapproving her idolatrous intention, as the sequel shows, but being desirous to be entirely free of it, and not have his mind disturbed with it as it had been, and that she might do with it as she thought fit:

and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the
founder, who made of it a graven image, and a molten image ;
the other nine hundred pieces she kept to herself, repenting of her vow, and being unwilling to part with so much money for such a use; or else they were laid out in an ephod, and teraphim, and what else were thought necessary for the idolatrous worship they were about to set up; though Kimchi is of the opinion that the two hundred shekels were what she gave the founder for making the images, and of the nine hundred the images were made; and indeed the images must be very small ones, if made out of two hundred shekels of silver only;

some have thought there was but one image, called both molten and graven; because after the silver was melted, and cast into a mould, it was fashioned with a graving tool, as the golden calf was by Aaron; but they are manifestly distinguished and represented as two, (Judges 18:17Judges 18:18) and they were in the house of Micah; in an apartment in his house, peculiar to them, as appears by the next verse; here they were put and continued.

And the man Micah has an house of gods
Having two images in it, besides teraphim, which were a sort of idols; and the Targum is, an house of images, or idols; though it may be rendered "an house of God"; a temple, a place for religious worship:

and made an ephod ;
a priestly garment, a linen one very probably, not so rich an one with a breastplate to it as the high priest had, which was very costly. Ben Melech interprets it a girdle, and there was a curious girdle of the ephod, with which it was girt; this may be here put for the rest of the priestly garments which Micah provided:

and teraphim ;
which were a sort of household gods, like the Lares and Penates of the Romans, and by which consultations were made; (See Gill on Hosea 3:3) (See Gill on Hosea 3:4) (See Gill on Zechariah 10:2) Micah proposed to have an oracle in his house, whereby he might consult the Lord about future things, and not be at the trouble of going to the tabernacle, and consult there by Urim and Thummim; and the same some take the teraphim to be:

and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest ;
or, "filled the hand" ^F11 of one of them; that is, with offerings, as Ben Melech interprets it; in which way priests were initiated, and consecrated to their office; see (Exodus 28:41) (Exodus 29:9Exodus 29:24) or, as Kimchi expresses it, he offered his offerings by the hand of one of his sons, and appointed him to be a priest, very probably his eldest son.

FOOTNOTES:

• F11: (dy ta almyw) "et implevit manum", Montanus, V. L.