Judges 17:1-6

Micah's Idolatry

1 Now there was a man of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Micah.

2 He said to his mother, "The eleven * hundred pieces of silver which were taken from you, about which you uttered a curse in my hearing, behold, the silver is with me; I took it." And his mother said, "Blessed be my son by the LORD."

3 He then returned the eleven * hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and his mother said, "I wholly dedicate the silver from my hand to the LORD for my son ¹to make a graven image and a molten image; now therefore, I will return them to you."

4 So when he returned the silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver and gave them to the silversmith who made them into a graven image and a molten image, and they were in the house of Micah.

5 And the man Micah had a ²shrine * and he made an ³ephod and ⁴household idols and consecrated * one of his sons, ⁵that he might become his priest.

6 In those days ⁶there was no king in Israel; ⁷every man did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 17:1-6 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JUDGES 17

This chapter relates the first rise of idolatry in Israel after the death of Joshua, which began in Mount Ephraim, occasioned by a sum of money stolen by a man from his mother, which being restored, part was converted to an idolatrous use; two images were made of it, Jud 17:1-5 and there being no king in Israel to take cognizance of it, the idolatry took place and continued, and afterwards spread, Jud 17:6, and this idolater not only made one of his sons a priest, but took a Levite for another, whom he hired by the year to serve him, Jud 17:7-13.

Cross References

• 1. Exodus 20:4, 23; Exodus 34:17
• 2. Judges 18:24
• 3. Judges 8:27; Judges 18:14
• 4. Genesis 31:19
• 5. Numbers 3:10
• 6. Judges 18:1; Judges 19:1
• 7. Deuteronomy 12:8; Judges 21:25

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "and also spoke it in my ears"
• [b] Lit "it"
• [c] Lit "it"
• [d] Lit "it was"
• [e] Lit "house of gods"
• [f] Heb "teraphim"
• [g] Lit "filled the hand of"