Judges 17:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Bible Comments

Micah's Graven Image. The dread of a curse, uttered by an indignant mother against the unknown thief of her money, made the culprit, her own son, confess his guilt. At a certain stage of religious development, blessings and curses are supposed to have supernatural potency (p. 143). In this instance the mother made her curse still more effective by devoting the lost money to Yahweh.

Judges 17:2 f. Change the order: I took it; now therefore I restore it to thee. And his mother said, etc.

Judges 17:4. Comparing a graven image and a molten image with it was in the house and the graven image in Judges 18:30 f., we conclude that a molten image is throughout a later addition.

Judges 17:5. Read house of God (Beth-elohim), Micah being a worshipper of Yahweh. As a wealthy man he had his own shrine. On ephod see Judges 8:27 *. Teraphim were also images, but for private, domestic use (p. 101). Micah consecrated, lit. filled the hand of (Leviticus 8*. Numbers 3:3 *, 1 Chronicles 29:5 *), one of his sons, as priest.

Judges 17:6. This is the apology of a later writer for proceedings of which his age could not approve.

Related Commentaries of Judges 17:1

Judges 17:1-6

1 And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.

2 And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou cursedst, and spakest of also in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me; I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be thou of the LORD, my son.

3 And when he had restored the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother, 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: now therefore I will restore it unto thee.

4 Yet he restored the money unto his mother; and his mother took two hundred shekels of silver, and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image: and they were in the house of Micah.

5 And the man Micah had an house of gods, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and consecrateda one of his sons, who became his priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.