Deeper Commentary
Jdg 18:1 In those days there was no king in Israel-
This implies that the book of Judges as we have it was edited, under
Divine inspiration, some time after Israel began to have kings. Perhaps
during the exile, when again they had no king; and therefore the book
becomes a warning to the exiles about likely apostacy. The lament may be
that there was no authority, no teacher, no modelling of Godly living;
because every man did what was right in his own eyes, rather than doing
what was right in the eyes of Yahweh. For so often we read of Israel being
condemned for doing what was wrong in His eyes. This is clear enough
evidence that 'just follow your heart' is poor advice. For what is right
in our own eyes results in the Godless confusion of what we find now at
the time of the Judges. However it could be argued that having no human
king was a good thing; for God didn't want them to have one. And therefore
a situation where everyone judges things by their own judgment is in fact
good; the problem was that the people didn't base their view upon God's
word, His "eyes" or perspective, but solely upon their own unenlightened
opinions.
And at that
time the tribe of the Danites looked for a place to live in, because up
until then they had not come into their inheritance among the tribes of
Israel-
Even when God punished Israel, He seems to later almost take the
blame for their judgments; thus He says that He left some of the Canaanite
nations in the land to teach Israel battle experience (Jud. 3:2 NIV). His
grace is so positive about them in the way He writes about them. Yet
elsewhere the presence of those remaining nations is clearly linked to
Israel's faithlessness, and their survival in the land was actually part
of God's punishment of Israel. Likewise "the coast of the children of Dan went out
too little for them" (Josh. 19:47), although actually "The Amorites
forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they would not suffer
them to come down to the valley" (Jud. 1:34). When Dan fought against
Leshem, this one act of obedience is so magnified in Josh. 19:47 to sound
as if in their zeal to inherit their territory they actually found they
had too little land and therefore attacked Leshem. But actually it was
already part of their allotted inheritance. Yet God graciously comments:
"all their inheritance had not fallen unto them among the tribes of
Israel" (Jud. 18:1). In similar vein, He almost excuses Israel's apostasy
by saying that they had not seen the great miracles of the Exodus (Jud.
2:7). "The portion of the children of Judah was too much for them" (Josh.
19:9) almost implies God made an error in allocating them too much; when
actually the problem was that they lacked the faith to drive out the
tribes living there.
I suggested on Jud. 17:1 that the story line continues directly from the death of Samson to Delilah and her son making an idol. We note that the camp of Dan, Zorah and Eshtaol are mentioned in Jud. 18:2,8,11,12, just as they are in Jud. 13. The Spirit of God had moved Samson to deliver his tribe Dan from the Philistines in that very area (Jud. 13:25), but he hadn't lived up to that potential. In Samson's time, the tribe of Dan had not possessed the land given to them (Josh. 19:47,48). In Jud. 18 we read of how they gave up, and went up north to drive the people of Laish out of their territory, rather than dealing with the Philistines and having their intended tribal allotment. Samson was their potential means for inheriting the land they were supposed to. The Spirit moved him to be sensitive to this. Yet as we see in Jud. 15, they were prepared to live with the Philistines reigning over them. Samson perceived the potential and wanted to realize it; but his people didn't. And he himself failed to realize his own personal potential. Had he liberated Dan from the Philistines as God potentially enabled, the whole miserable story of Jud. 17-21 need never have happened. Yet he still will be saved, according to Hebrews 11.
Jdg 18:2 The children of Dan sent five men of their family, men of valour,
from Zorah and from Eshtaol, to spy out the land and to search it, and
they said to them, Go, explore the land! They came to the hill country of
Ephraim, to the house of Micah, and lodged there-
Zorah was Samson's hometown, and I suggested on Jud. 17:1
that Jud. 17-21 is further background about Samson. We see then that
Samson's people had not inherited the land intended because they had not
driven out the local inhabitants as God intended, and as was therefore
potentially possible. And therefore they were looking to get more living
space by settling another area which was easier to take over, taking a
short cut to the Kingdom. The invasion of Laish (:7) was because "The
children of Dan did not drive out the Amorite who afflicted them in the
mountain; and the Amorite would not suffer them to come down into the
valley, but they forcibly took from them the border of their portion"
(Josh. 19:47 LXX).
Jdg 18:3 When they were near the house of Micah they recognized the voice
of the young Levite, so they went in there and said to him, Who brought
you here? What are you doing in this place? Why are you here?-
"Regarded the voice" may mean they noted that he had a different
accent, and this corroborates with the way Ephraimites had a different
accent to other Israelites (Jud. 12:6). Such internal harmony within the
Biblical records is to me the clearest evidence of Divine inspiration.
We note the surprise of the Danites when they learn he is a Levite: "Who led you here? What are you doing in this place? What do you have here?” (Jud. 18:3). They are surprised to find a Levite not in a Levitical city nor at a sanctuary. See on Jud. 17:7
Jdg 18:4 He said to them, This is what Micah has done with me, and he has
hired me to be his priest-
This presumably implies that he showed them the ephod and other
imitations of the tabernacle which Micah had made. The reference
to the priest as a hireling is negative; for the Lord speaks of false
shepherds as hirelings in Jn. 10. The way he quits Micah for the Danites
presents him as a mercenary with no real care for his flock, and certainly
not the spiritual 'father' that Micah hired him as. One cannot buy such
relationships.
Jdg 18:5 They said to him, Please enquire of God to find out whether our
journey will be successful-
We see again the deep religious conscience within these men of Dan,
although it was so misplaced and mixed with idolatry.
Jdg 18:6 The priest said to them, Go in peace. Your way has the approval
of Yahweh-
We get the impression that he just said this without making any
semblance of looking at the mock ephod and urim and thummim which Micah
had made. To claim to give Yahweh's approval in such an arbitrary way was
really quite blasphemous. We think of how Nathan too quickly
assumed God wanted to approve David's plan to build a temple; and how
Micah initially told the king "Go up and prosper; and Yahweh will deliver
it into the hand of the king" (1 Kings 22:15) when in fact this was not
God's word. We too can assume we know God's will when in fact we don't.
"Your way is before Yahweh" could be read as the Levite saying
that Yahweh and not the elohim / idol gods could know their way. He uses a
Hebrew word which can mean "in front of" or “opposite”. He is hedging his
bets and being purposefully ambiguous. He does not in fact have a
prophetic word from God. Priests were consulted before warfare (1 Sam.
14:41; 23:9–13; 30:7,8; 2 Sam. 2:1; 5:19). They were intended to give
inspired oracles from God, but using the urim and thummim: "Of Levi He
said, Your Thummim and your Urim are with Your holy one" (Dt. 33:8). But
here this Levite, who is not a priest, apparently gives God's word of
blessing for warfare against their own brethren; and he does so without
Urim and Thummim, the stones which were attached to the breastplate. Again
we see how form has eclipsed content.
Jdg 18:7 Then the five men departed and came to Laish. They saw that the
people there lived in security like the Sidonians, quiet and unsuspecting,
and they were prosperous, lacking nothing-
See on :2. 2 Chron. 2:14 says "Hiram" was "son of a woman of the daughters of
Dan", whereas 1 King 7:14 says he was "the son of a widow of the tribe of
Naphtali". Dan may refer to the town called Dan or Laish which was in the
territory of Naphtali, but inhabited by Danites (Josh. 18:27; 19:47; Jud.
18:7). Here we see how an apparent discrepancy on a surface level reveals
a deep evidence of the way the records do not contradict but dovetail
perfectly, as we would expect of a Divinely inspired writing. But this is
only apparent to those who respectfully search the entire scriptures,
rather than bandying around a surface level contradiction with an
eagerness which speaks more of their own fears the Bible is inspired than
of deep factual persuasion.
Also they were far from the
Sidonians and had no dealings with anyone else-
"With anyone else" could be "with Syria", reading 'Aram'
instead of 'Adam' ['with no man']. They were on the very
border of Syria. The idea would be that they were too far from Sidon to be
helped by them, and had nothing to do with Syria over the border. This
change to "Syria" requires only a 'daleph' and 'resh' to be confused in
the Hebrew alphabet; and these letters have only a miniscule difference
which in early printed form is often obscure. This would be an example of
the Divinely inspired Bible being infallible apart from having some errors
caused by copyists.
"Had no dealings with any man" could be rendered "There was a dearth of heirs", and therefore nobody to dispute the theft of their inheritance.
Jdg 18:8 The men returned to their brothers to Zorah and Eshtaol, and
their brothers asked them, What did you find?-
The business of sending out spies, who return with a good report
which is eagerly believed by their brethren, all has a kind of similarity
to the spying out of the land of Canaan at the conquest. LXX "what did ye
bring back?" recalls the fruit of the land being brought back to show the
Israelites by Joshua and Caleb. And so is developed the theme of misplaced
idealism. For they ought to have taken the land allotment which God gave
them. But they didn't and sought an easier way, by attacking softer
targets elsewhere. Samson himself had shown this mixture of spirituality
and human thinking.
Jdg 18:9 They said, Come on, let us go up against them, because we have
seen the land, and it is very good. Do you doubt? Don’t hesitate; go in to
take possession of the land-
As discussed on :2,8, they are mixing the flesh and the Spirit. They
quote the words of Moses and Joshua about the land of Israel being a good
land, and urge each other to take possess "of the land". But they had
ignored that commandment and had not taken possession of "the land".
Instead they were using those words to encourage themselves to massacre a
group of unsuspecting people in a very limited "land".
Jdg 18:10 When you get there, you will find an unsuspecting people, and
the land is large. God has given it to you, a place where there is no lack
of anything that is in the earth-
The men of Dan here quote the words of Dt. 8:9, but out of context.
Those words were true of the entire land promised to Abraham. But the men
of Dan didn't drive out the tribes from the land. Instead, they applied
these words to a tiny, remote part of it in Laish, and encouraged
themselves on the basis of these words to go and massacre a group of
unsuspecting people and take their land- with the blessing of Micah's
false gods.
We note that the Danites are wrongly confident of God's
blessing; just as Micah was, when he says he is sure Yahweh will bless him
because he has a Levite as a priest for his shrine of idols (Jud. 17:13).
Jdg 18:11 Six hundred armed men of the family of the Danites set out from
there, out of Zorah and out of Eshtaol-
I have noted on previous verses that the Danites were liking to
imagine that they were as Israel going up from Egypt to inherit the land
of Canaan. In fact, they were leaving the area in the land they had been
faithless to inherit, and were going to inherit just a tiny area where the
people were weak. But they encourage themselves by alluding to the words
of Joshua and Moses about inheriting the entire land. We therefore note
that the 600 men "armed" or 'in ranks' may be seen as intended to imitate
the six hundred thousand 'men in ranks' of Israel as they marched toward
Canaan (Num. 11:21). However, a group of "six hundred men" is found so
often in the records that we suspect that it may not be literal, but
rather refer to a military unit or subdivision (Jud. 3:31; 18:11; 20:47; 1
Sam. 13:15; 14:2; 23:13; 27:2;30:9; 2 Sam. 15:18).
Jdg 18:12 They went up and encamped in Kiriath Jearim in Judah. That is
why they called that place The Camp of Dan, to this day; it is behind
Kiriath Jearim-
I would consider the book of Joshua to have largely been written by
Joshua, under Divine inspiration, although edited [again under Divine
inspiration] for the exiles. And the book of Judges likewise. For the
exiles too were set to reestablish God's Kingdom in the land and to
inherit it again as the Israelites first did. The phrase "to this day"
occurs several times in Joshua / Judges, and appears to have different
points of historical reference (Josh. 4:9; 5:9; 6:25; 7:26; 8:28,29; 9:27;
10:27; 13:13; 14:14; 15:63; 16:10; 22:3; 23:8,9; Jud. 1:26; 6:24; 10:4;
15:19; 18:12). I would explain this by saying that the book was edited a
number of times and the remains of those edits remain in the text. For
God's word is living and made relevant by Him to every generation.
Jdg 18:13 They went from there to the hill country of Ephraim, and came to
the house of Micah-
For 600 men to visit Micah would suggest that he was a well known
leader in the area. We noted earlier that his mother gave him 1100 shekels
of silver at a time when a good salary was 10 shekels / year.
Jdg 18:14 Then the five men who went to spy out the country of Laish said
to their brothers, Do you know that there is in these houses an ephod and
household gods, an engraved image and a molten image? Now therefore
consider what you have to do-
The five spies had come to Micah for blessing on their journey, and
obviously thought that Micah's set up of false gods modelled around
imitations of Yahweh's sanctuary, along with a Levite for a priest, was
all pretty cool. And they coveted it all for themselves. As in :25, they
speak of their criminal and violent intents in an indirect way.
Jdg 18:15 They turned in there and came to the house of the young Levite,
to the house of Micah, and asked him how he was-
They focus upon the Levite; he was clearly aware of their intentions,
and was eventually not against them, as he saw he would get more income
from being a spiritual father to a larger group. The landless Levite
labourer who had come looking for work with Micah... became covetous and
ended up with an excellent income.
Jdg 18:16 The six hundred armed men of Dan stood by the entrance of the
gate-
They clearly so coveted Yahweh's supposed presence and help through
the idols that they were willing to steal and kidnap to get it. They show
the mixture of flesh and Spirit, of misplaced ideals, which were so
typical of Samson their judge.
Jdg 18:17 The five men who had gone to spy out the land went in there and
took the engraved image, the ephod, the household gods and the molten
image; and the priest stood by the entrance of the gate with the six
hundred armed men-
The idol paraphernalia required five men to carry it. It was not
therefore huge.
Jdg 18:18 When these men went into Micah’s house and fetched the engraved
image, the ephod, the household gods and the molten image-
The ephod was an imitation of the high priestly breastplate. The
Hebrew reads strangely, as if the engraved image was the ephod, or closely
associated with it. We fear that they had actually made an idolatrous
image of Yahweh, exactly what he had forbidden. And they were worshipping
the Baals in the name of Yahweh worship.
The priest said
to them, What are you doing?-
The Levite was initially shocked, but soon went along with their evil
plans. Although effectively they kidnapped him (:19).
Jdg 18:19 They said to him, Keep quiet, put your hand on your mouth and go
with us, and be unto us a father and a priest. Is it better for you to be
priest to the house of one man, or to be priest to a tribe and a family in
Israel-
See on Jud. 17:11.
Micah had asked the young Levite, who was “unto him as one of his sons”, to
“be unto me a father and a priest” (Jud. 17:10,11- note the paradox),
resulting in others likewise asking him to “be unto us a father and a
priest” (Jud. 18:19). The point is, no matter how unqualified a person may
be for the job, they may be pressed into being leaders because that’s what
nominally religious people so desperately need. They need someone to call
'father'; and it seems Pharaoh treated Joseph in the same way (Gen. 45:8).
It is very noticeable amongst those who are themselves senior or heads of
some kind of group, be it domestically or in the workplace. The way the
Lord forbad this (Mt. 23:9) was therefore tantamount to disallowing any
merely 'religious' approach to God. He personally was to be understood as
Father, and a personal relationship developed with Him.
Jdg 18:20 The priest’s heart was glad, and he took the ephod, the
household gods and the engraved image, and went with the people-
Why was he glad? Probably his motives were mixed, for that is the
theme of this history of the tribe of Dan at this time. He was glad he
could 'serve' more people, in his mixed up way, even though he was an
idolater; and also glad at the offer, presumably, of more money than he
was previously earning.
The ephod was only worn by the High Priest and had the urim and thummim within it to give answers. The priest gave a supposed answer from Yahweh to the Danites, using an ephod without the urim and thummim. The hollowness of spirituality is apparent.
"With the people" is literally “went in the midst of the people” - perhaps for his personal security; but more probably in imitation of the place appointed for the priests and the ark, in the middle of the congregated tribes, on the marches through the wilderness. Again we see the theme of surface level spirituality and allusion to Biblical ideas, but out of context and in fact as a front for sinful behaviour.
Jdg 18:21 So they turned and departed, putting the little ones, the
livestock and the goods in front of them-
Fearful that Micah would chase after them and attack them from the
rear. Although Micah was outnumbered, he was so passionate about his idols
and his priest that he was deemed capable of a very vicious attack upon
them. Again we see the mixed motives of men at this time, burning down one
side for Yahweh, and down the other for the flesh and idolatry.
Jdg 18:22 When they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men who
were in the houses near to Micah’s house were gathered together and
overtook the Danites-
Not only Micah but the folks in his village were passionately devoted
to those idols. It wasn't a case of just making some more, but rather were
they very deeply devoted to them. Again we see the mixed motives in them
all. Chasing after those who had stolen teraphim is an exact
repeat of Laban's behaviour against Jacob. But whilst Micah was open to
vague Biblical allusions to support his apostasy, he failed to see the
more pointed personal parallels between himself and the unspiritual Laban.
We note the positioning of the "little ones" and goods (:21), recalling
Jacob's great "company", the word used in :23. Clearly Jacob and Laban are
in view here, but Micah doesn't get it.
Jdg 18:23 They shouted after the Danites, who turned round and said to
Micah, What is the matter with you that you come with such a company?-
Although they were just presumably a few houses,
all the men must
have armed themselves and charged out against this far superior force. As
noted on :22, they were so passionate about their idols.
Jdg 18:24 He said, You have taken away my gods which I made, and the
priest, and have gone away, and what else do I have? How then can you say
to me, ‘What is the matter with you?’-
Despite his wealth and position within society, Micah told the truth
when he said that his own little religion, paganic and perverting of
Yahweh worship as it was, was everything to him. "What else do I have?" he
dolefully and truthfully lamented. And we see this attitude in so many
people. Their religion is by far the most powerful passion in their lives.
But this doesn't thereby justify them as true believers, for Micah was far
away from true worship of Yahweh.
Jdg 18:25 The Danites said to him, Don’t argue with us, or angry fellows
might attack you, and you will lose your life, with the lives of your
household-
As in :14, they speak of their criminal and violent intents in an
indirect way. They speak as typical criminals. 'You might just get
attacked by a bunch of angry yobbos around here, you know. Best to go
home, or else such a gang might not only kill you, but go to your houses
and then murder all your families'. And yet they made this threat because
they were so desperate to have those idols, which they thought meant
Yahweh's blessing upon them. Again, we see how hopelessly mixed were their
motives.
Jdg 18:26 The Danites went on their way, and when Micah saw that they were
too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house-
Micah was willing to fight for his idols, such was his passion. But
he realized he was outnumbered. A true believer in Yahweh would have
believed that one in covenant with Yahweh could chase a thousand; and
Judges has several examples of small groups defeating much larger armies.
But Micah, for all his professed belief in Yahweh, was not a true
believer, and assessed things in purely secular terms.
Jdg 18:27 They took what Micah had made and his priest and came to Laish,
to a people unsuspecting and secure, and attacked them with the sword, and
they burnt the city with fire-
Although Micah had paid for some of his idol paraphernalia to be made
by others, he was ultimately the maker of it. The stress is that these
things were what his hand had made. And there is an intended juxtaposition
between their having the idols and the priest with them, and then
slaying
unsuspecting people without giving them the chance to first make peace and
accept the God of Israel, as required in the law of Moses. They burnt the
city with fire as if they were replicating Joshua's conquest of the land,
again reflecting their terrible mixture of motives and desire to just take
bits and pieces from Yahweh's ways and ignore the rest. Just as many do
today. See on :28.
Jdg 18:28 There was no deliverer, because it was far from Sidon and they
had no dealings with anyone else-
See on :7, probably "with Syria", the neighbouring power just over
the border.
It was in the valley that lies by Beth Rehob. They built the city
and lived there-
If they intended to live there, we enquire why
they first burnt the
city and then rebuilt it- when they could have lived in the houses already
standing. I suggest that they burnt it because they wanted to appear to be
following the law about devoting a city to Yahweh, and copying Joshua's
example of burning some of the cities he took. But as explained in :27,
they were utterly oblivious to whole masses of basic Mosaic teaching. Like
many today, they thought that just obeying a few out of context Biblical
principles would justify them living like any other unbeliever.
Jdg 18:29 They called the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father,
who was born to Israel, but the name of the city before was Laish-
Unlike
how Israel very often did, they didn't allow the old names to
remain, but renamed this after their ancestor Dan, meaning 'judgment'.
Again we see an attempt to follow the culture of their Israelite religion
on a surface level, when their hearts were far from it.
Jdg 18:30 The Danites set up for themselves the engraved image, and
Jonathan the son of Gershom the son of Moses and his sons were priests to
the tribe of the Danites until the time of the captivity of the land-
Jud. 17-21 contain various pictures of and insights into the apostacy
of the tribe of Dan, providing the backdrop for a character study of
Samson. These chapters seem chronologically out of place; they belong
before the Samson story. Here, Jud. 18:30 speaks of Jonathan the grandson of Moses,
and Jud. 20:28 of Phinehas the grandson of Aaron (cp. Num. 25:11), which would
place these events at the beginning of the period of the Judges, once
Israel had first settled in the land. Dan's apostacy is suggested by the
way in which he is omitted from the tribes of the new Israel in Rev. 7.
"The land" is "the ark" in some manuscripts. See on :31. But I see no reason why the Assyrian or Babylonian captivities are not in view; for Judges was rewritten or edited under Divine inspiration during the captivity. This would mean that the Danites in this peripheral location on the very borders of the land quietly continued their apostacy all through the various reforms of the kings, as well as the time of David. And this is really what we understand from the many laments that Israel had persistently and consistently worshipped idols throughout their generations.
Jdg 18:31 So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he
had made, using it all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh-
Here and :30 emphasize the "engraved image", and I suggested on :18
that this could have been an image of Yahweh- exactly what was prohibited
so strongly. Clearly they didn't bother going to the sanctuary
because they considered that they had their own absolutely legitimate
sanctuary to Yahweh, replete with a direct descendant of Moses as priest.
Even though he would not therefore have been a Levite. And they worshipped
an image for Yahweh.
It is tempting to think that "until the captivity" in :30 is effectively parallel with 'the time God's house was in Shiloh'. I noted on :30 that the captivity in view may have been of the ark, and not of the people to Babylon or Assyria. The house or sanctuary of God was in Shiloh only until the time of Saul. When the ark went into captivity with the Philistines, and the sanctuary moved to Nob and then to Gibeon in the time of David, the time period in view may have finished. However I suggest that out of the three recorded places where the sanctuary was located (Shiloh, Nob and Gibeon), Shiloh was the nearest of them to Dan. The idea may therefore be that even when the sanctuary was relatively near them, they didn't go to it. They had their own sanctuary right in their own town. We note again the description of the sanctuary as "the house", even though no temple was then built- another reminder that these records were rewritten after the temple had been built, probably during the exile.
We must recall that Shiloh was nearby. The point is that
despite having God's house close by, Micah seeks to build his own
idolatrous house of God, and considers that he is worshipping Yahweh by so
doing. The warning is to all who have a form of Godliness but deny the
power / Spirit thereof (2 Tim. 3:5).
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