Judges 17:6

6 In those days there was no king in Israel; each one did that which was right in his own eyes.

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 After the money was restored unto her, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave them to the founder, who made thereof a graven image and a molten image, which was set up in the house of Micah.

5 And the man Micah had a brothel of idolatry, {Heb. house of gods}, and made an ephod and teraphim {the vessels, clothing and instruments pertaining to idol worship} and consecrated one of his sons, who became his priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel; each one did that which was right in his own eyes.

7 And there was a young man out of Bethlehem of Judah of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there.

8 And the man had departed out of the city from Bethlehem of Judah to sojourn where he could find a place, and he came to Mount Ephraim to the house of Micah as he journeyed.