Judges 18:30

30. Jonathan, the son of Gershom Here, at length, comes out the name of the Levite of whom already we have heard so much.

Son of Manasseh But Gershom was the son of Moses, (Exodus 2:22; Exodus 18:3; 1 Chronicles 23:15,) not of Manasseh; and son of Moses is the reading of some Hebrews MSS. of the Vulgate, and of some codices of the Septuagint. The Masoretic text has מנשׂה with a hanging נ , and one of the Rabbins says: “The prophet studiously avoided calling Gershom the son of Moses, because it would have been ignominious to Moses to have had an ungodly son; but he calls him the son of Manasseh, raising the nun, however, above the line, to show that it might either be inserted or omitted, and that he was the son of Manasseh through imitating his impiety, (2 Kings 21:1-16,) of Moses by descent.” Here, then, has doubtless been a wilful corruption of the sacred text, made with the pious design of shielding the venerable name and character of Moses. Jewish zeal thought it detrimental to Moses to have a near descendant so far gone aside from the Law as this Levite was, and therefore attempted to substitute the hated name of Manasseh, the idolatrous son of Hezekiah. As the Levite was a young man, (Judges 18:3-15,) it is probable that he was not strictly the grandson of Moses, but a near descendant, probably a great-grandson, for the word בן , son, is often used in this sense. Such a near descendant of Moses would very naturally be widely known in Israel, and hence his recognition by the Danites. Judges 18:3. But such was the looseness of the age, and the want of a powerful central government, that this descendant of the great Lawgiver was a homeless wanderer, and became one of the first ministers of an illegal sanctuary service.

The day of the captivity of the land That Philistine captivity which reached its darkest night of horror when the ark was captured, (1 Samuel 4:11,) and Jehovah “forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, and delivered his strength into captivity, and his glory into the enemies’ hand.” Psalms 78:61. Houbigant and others propose to read הארון , the ark, instead of הארצ , the land; but this is unnecessary, for we may well believe that the terrible calamity of the nation in the loss of the ark was regarded by the sacred writer as a most wretched captivity of the whole land. See note on 1 Samuel 2:32. Many interpreters have thought that the reference here was to the Assyrian captivity under Tiglath-pileser. 2 Kings 15:29. But it is hardly credible that the image worship and illegal service of these Danites were tolerated all through the reigns of David and Solomon, especially after the latter built the temple, and gathered all the tribes to Jerusalem to witness its dedication as the central seat of the national worship. Nor would Jeroboam have been likely to set up one of his golden calves at Dan (1 Kings 12:29) had this illegal worship been still existing there.