There was. — The Vulg. 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 (“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; 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.