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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Judges 17:1-6

Here we have, I. Micah and his mother quarrelling. 1. The son robs the mother. The old woman had hoarded, with long scraping and saving, a great sum of money, 1100 pieces of silver. It is likely she intended, when she died, to leave it to her son: in the mean time it did her good to look upon it, and to count it over. The young man had a family of children grown up, for he had one of age to be a priest, Jdg. 17:5. He knows where to find his mother's cash, thinks he has more need of it than she... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 17:3

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... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 17:4

Yet he restored the money unto 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 thereof a graven image, and a molten image ; the other nine hundred pieces she kept to herself,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 17:5

And the man Micah had 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,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Judges 17:6

In those days there was no king in Israel ,.... That is, no supreme magistrate, judge, or ruler, Joshua being dead and Caleb also, and the elders contemporary with them; for what the Samaritan Chronicle says F12 Apud Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 522. is without foundation, that Joshua a little before his death cast a lot in the presence of the congregation, to know who should govern after him, and the lot came to one Abel, of the tribe of Judah: but every man did that which was... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 17:3

I had wholly dedicated - From this it appears that Micah's mother, though she made a superstitious use of the money, had no idolatrous design, for she expressly says she had dedicated it ליהוה layhovah , to Jehovah; and this appears to have been the reason why she poured imprecations on him who had taken it. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 17:4

A graven image and a molten image - What these images were, we cannot positively say; they were most probably some resemblance of matters belonging to the tabernacle. See below. read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 17:5

The man Micah had a house of gods - אלהים בית beith Elohim should, I think, be translated house or temple of God; for it is very likely that both the mother and the son intended no more than a private or domestic chapel, in which they proposed to set up the worship of the true God. Made an ephod - Perhaps the whole of this case may be stated thus: Micah built a house of God - a chapel in imitation of the sanctuary; he made a graven image representing the ark, a... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Judges 17:6

There was no king in Israel - The word מלך melech , which generally means king, is sometimes taken for a supreme governor, judge, magistrate, or ruler of any kind; (see Genesis 36:31 , and Deuteronomy 33:5 ;); and it is likely it should be so understood here. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes - He was his own governor, and what he did he said was right; and, by his cunning and strength, defended his conduct. When a man's own will,... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - Judges 17:3

Such a superstitious and unlawful mode of worshipping Yahweh is quite of a piece with Judges 8:27; Judges 11:31; 1 Kings 12:28, etc. It argues but slight acquaintance with the Ten Commandments, which, from the ignorance of reading and writing, were probably not familiar to the Israelites in those unsettled times. The mother intimates that the consecration of the silver was for the benefit of her son and his house, not for her own selfish advantage: and that she adheres to her original design of... read more

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