Judges 17:6

6 In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.

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 Then she took 200 pieces of the silver and gave it to a sculptor and he cast them into the form of a god.

5 This man, Micah, had a private chapel. He had made an ephod and some teraphim-idols and had ordained one of his sons to be his priest.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.

7 Meanwhile there was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah and from a family of Judah. He was a Levite but was a stranger there.

8 He left that town, Bethlehem in Judah, seeking his fortune. He got as far as the hill country of Ephraim and showed up at Micah's house.