Shofetim 17:6

6 In those yamim there was no melech in Yisroel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

Shofetim 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.

Shofetim 17:6 In-Context

4 So he restored the kesef unto his em; and his em took two hundred pieces of kesef and gave them to the tzoref (goldsmith), who made thereof a pesel and a masekhah; and they were in the bais Mikhay’hu.

5 And the ish Mikhay’hu had a bais elohim, and made an ephod, and teraphim, and ordained one of his banim, who became his kohen.

6 In those yamim there was no melech in Yisroel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

7 Meanwhile there was a na’ar from Beit-Lechem Yehudah of the mishpakhat Yehudah, who was a Levi, and he sojourned there.

8 And the ish departed out of the Ir from Beit-Lechem Yehudah to sojourn where he could find a place; and he came to har Ephrayim to the bais Mikhay’hu, as he made his derech.