Judges 17:6

6 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

Judges 17:6 Meaning and 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 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 right in his own eyes;
which accounts for the idolatry of Micah, there being no supreme magistrate to take cognizance of his sin, and restrain him from it, or punish him for it according to the law of God.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Apud Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 522.

Judges 17:6 In-Context

4 But he returned the money to his mother, and she took 200 pieces of silver and gave them to the metalworker, who made a carved image overlaid with silver which was put in Mikhay'hu's house.

5 This man Mikhah owned a house of God; so he made a ritual vest and household gods and consecrated one of his sons, who became his cohen.

6 At that time there was no king in Isra'el; a man simply did whatever he thought was right.

7 There was a young man from Beit-Lechem in Y'hudah, from the family of Y'hudah, who was a Levi. He had been staying

8 in Beit-Lechem, but he left there to find another place to live and came to the hills of Efrayim, where eventually he made his way to the house of Mikhah.