Judges 17:1

THE SO-CALLED "APPENDIX" OF THE BOOK OF JUDGES;

ALLEGED EXAMPLES PROVING THAT ISRAEL "NEEDED" A KING (Judges 17-21)

We reject the designation of these last five chapters of Judges as "an appendix added to Judges by a later hand." There is NO break in the text, and nothing except the theories of critics supports such a view.

The reason why some critics (as Dalglish did, for example) attempt to date these last five chapters in "a period following the fall of the Northern Israel at a time after 734 B.C.,"[1] is obviously due to their efforts to avoid the positive proof of the existence of the Pentateuch at a time long PRIOR TO the Book of Judges, as dramatically indicated by the undeniable references to the Book of Moses abounding in these chapters. Of course, the acceptance of these references as having existed when Judges was written effectively proves that the dating of the Pentateuch in the times of Josiah is nothing but a rather clumsy fairy tale.

Again, from Dalglish, these five chapters are included here because, "They illustrate the absolute need of a king in Israel."[2] It seems never to have occurred to Dalglish that if these chapters had been added for that purpose at such a date as he suggested that, at that time there was NO NEED whatever to prove that Israel needed a king. They had already had one for over three hundred years - GOD! (Nevertheless, Dalglish's statement of the purpose of these chapters is most surely correct).

On the other hand, if, as we believe, Samuel authored the Book of Judges at a time in Samuel's life when the kingship of Saul appeared to be a great success, that would have been the time when these chapters were needed, and it is the conclusion of this writer that it was precisely in those days that Samuel wrote these chapters, and that they form a vital, necessary part of the Biblical Book of Judges.

In the successive judgeships of Gideon, Jephthah and Samson, the progressive deterioration of the institution of the judgeship itself became painfully evident, and the author of Judges concluded the narrative by registering two special events, both of which occurred DURING the period of the Judges, as his concluding argument that Israel had to have a king in order to survive. Those two events were: (1) the apostasy and migration of Dan, and (2) the horrible outrage at Gibeah. Samuel wrote Judges near the end of his life in the early and popular period of King Saul's reign, because, at first, Samuel opposed the institution of the monarchy, and therefore, Judges must have been written AFTER the change had occurred and at a time when it APPEARED to be successful.

EXAMPLE I

THE MIGRATION AND APOSTASY OF THE TRIBE OF DAN (Judges 17-18);

A HOUSE OF GODS WAS ESTABLISHED IN THE TERRITORY OF EPHRAIM

This chapter (Judges 17) is actually a preliminary introduction to Judges 18, explaining the origin of that Danite shrine. It tells of the founding of an illegal center of worship in the hill-country of Ephraim. A part of God's Old Covenant with Israel was the restriction of the worship of God to the authorized tabernacle. What Micah did in this chapter was a gross violation of God's commandments.

The evil character of Micah, as well as that of his mother, contrast sharply with the righteousness of Manoah and his wife, the parents of Samson.

REGARDING THE 1,100 PIECES OF SILVER

"And there was a man of the hill-country of Ephraim, whose name was Micah. And he said unto his mother, The eleven hundred pieces of silver that were taken from thee, about which thou didst utter a curse, and didst also speak it in mine ears, behold, the silver is with me, I took it. And his mother said, Blessed be my son of Jehovah. And he restored the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother; and his mother said, I verily dedicate the silver unto Jehovah from my hand for my son, to make a graven image and a molten image: now therefore I will restore it unto thee."

Josephus placed these events shortly after the times of Joshua in the days of Othniel the Judge,[3] and Campbell pointed out that, "Many scholars agree with this, because of the mention of Jonathan the grandson of Moses (Judges 18:1) and because of the presence of Phinehas, the son of Eleazer in Judges 20:28."[4]

"Micah" (Judges 17:1). This is the short form of the name "[~Mikayehuw], with the meaning, `Who is like Yahweh.'"[5] Boling paraphrased this name as "Yahweh-the-incomparable" in order to give ironic force to the conclusion in Judges 17:4."[6]

"Thou didst utter a curse" (Judges 17:2). The marginal reading indicates that the Hebrew here is "an adjuration" instead of "a curse." This is a direct reference to Leviticus 5:1 which lays down God's law that anyone under such an adjuration shall respond with the truth under the penalty of God's judgment, if he should fail to do so. Both Micah and his mother were aware of this Mosaic teaching, and Micah immediately confessed to his sin. Significantly, Jesus Christ himself responded to such an adjuration in Mark 14:61-62.

"Blessed be my son of Jehovah" (Judges 17:2). "This is the formula used by Melchizedek in his blessing of Abraham (Genesis 14:19)."[7]

The mother's prompt pronouncement of a blessing upon her son reflects another passage from the Pentateuch, namely Exodus 12:32. "The adjuration could not be removed, but it could be counteracted by a blessing (see Exodus 12:32)."[8]

It appears that the purpose of the narrator here is to expose the wretched, sinful history of that despised sanctuary constructed by Micah. "Its venerated image was made of silver stolen from his mother, and when the money was recovered and dedicated to Jehovah, the greater part of it was kept back by fraud."[9]

"A graven image and a molten image" (Judges 17:3). "A graven image was something carved or hewn; a molten image was cast in a mold."[10] This, of course, speaks of "two images," but, since it is spoken of with a singular pronoun in the following verse, it appears that ONLY ONE IMAGE was made. What was apparently intended, as indicated by Yates was "actually one image consisting of carved wood overlaid with silver."[11]

With regard to what that image actually was, Keil stated that, "There can hardly be any doubt that it was a representation of Jehovah as a bull, like the golden calf that Aaron made at Sinai (Exodus 32:4), and the golden calves that Jeroboam set up in Northern Israel, and one of which was set up at Dan (1 Kings 12:29)."[12]