Judges 18:17

17. and came in … molten image] Again, the clumsy and irregular construction as well as the contents of the clause shew that it is not original; a doublet from Jdg_18:18; lit. they came in thither, they took; the RV. inserts and twice.

and the priest … with the six hundred] The text seems to say that, while the spies went up to Micah’s house, the priest and the 600 armed men stood at the entrance of the village. In Jdg_18:18-19, however, the priest is not at the entrance of the village, but at the door of the house; with the six hundred etc. should rather be and the six hundred men girt with weapons of war …, an unfinished sentence without a verb. It is impossible to recover the original form of the text here. The general sense intended may be this: while the 600 warriors stood at the entrance of the village, the five spies went up to Micah’s house, were confronted by the priest, and, silencing his expostulations, plundered the sanctuary.

by the entering of the gate] Always of the gate of a city (e.g. Jdg_9:35; Jdg_9:44, Jos_8:29; Jos_20:4 etc.), not the door of a house. The use of the expression here implies at least a group of houses, such as a farm, or a village.

The LXX. cod. B has a brief equivalent for Jdg_18:17, ‘and the five men who went to spy out the land went up, (Jdg_18:18) and entered into Micaiah’s house, and the priest was standing [there]; and they fetched’ etc. It is doubtful, however, whether this can be taken to represent the original text.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 18:17 And the five men that went to spy out the land went up, [and] came in thither, [and] took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image: and the priest stood in the entering of the gate with the six hundred men [that were] appointed with weapons of war.

Ver. 17. And took the graven image, &c.] Not out of any hatred of idolatry - as neither did Cambyses when he destroyed the Egyptian idols, nor Dionysius when he spoiled the temple of Jupiter - but to set up those monuments elsewhere, in case they should prosper in their expedition.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Jdg 18:17-19. The five men came in thither — Into the house and that part of it where the things were. The priest stood in the gate — Whither they had drawn him forth, that they might without noise or hinderance take the things away. And these went into Micah’s house — Namely, the five men, to whom when they were fetching out the image, &c., the priest said, What do ye? And they said, Lay thy hand upon thy mouth — That is, be silent. A priest unto a tribe and a family — A tribe or family.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So superstition blinded them that they thought God’s power was in these idols, and that they should have good success by them, though by violence and robbery they did take them away.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

And the five men that went out to spy the land went up and came thither,.... They first came to Micah's house, and saluted the young man, and after that salutation told him there was such a number of their brethren at the gate of the city, very probably, who would be glad to see him; and the young man being desirous also of seeing them, and paying his respects to them, went with them thither, and after they had introduced him, left him discoursing with them, and then returned to his apartment:

and took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image; and brought them away with them; and from hence it appears plainly that there were two images, the one graven, and the other molten, since they are so manifestly distinguished, and the ephod and teraphim are spoken of between them:

and the priest stood in the entering of the gate, with the six hundred men that were appointed with the weapons of war; who kept him in talk, while the five men went and stole the above things.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The five went back to Micah’s chapel (Micah’s house, Jdg 18:18) and took the ephod, teraphim, etc., and brought them to the gate where the priest was talking to the 600 men.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They. Hebrew and Septuagint, "and the five men that went to spy out the land." (Haydock) --- Off. The Levite’s attention was drawn off for a while by the 600 men, till the five, who had formerly become acquainted with him, had ransacked his little temple. (Calmet) --- Perceiving them as they came out, he began to complain, but was soon persuaded to follow the Danites, and to abandon his former protector. So little dependence can be had on those who are faithless to their God! (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Come in thither, to wit, into the house, and that part of it where those things were.

In the entering of the gate; whither they had drawn him forth that they might without noise or hinderance take them away.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

17. Went up, and came in thither — That is, in Micah’s sanctuary. The images, etc., seem to have been kept in an upper chamber. Comp. 2Ki_23:12; Jer_19:13.

The priest stood in… the gate — Having saluted him, (Jdg_18:15,) the six hundred detained him at the door while the five spies brought out the sacred images and the ephod.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Went up, viz., into the upper chamber, where it appears the chapel wan So we read in 2Ki_23:12 that there were altars on the roof of the upper chamber of Ahaz. (cf. Jer_19:13) And came up, and took. There is no and in the Hebrew, and the tense of the verb is changed. A fuller stop must be put after went up. And then the account proceeds, with a certain solemnity of diction, They came in thither; they took the graven image, and the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image (full stop). The narrative goes on, Now the priest was standing in the entering of the gate, etc. But these five went into Micahs house , etc., as just related, and of course brought them out to the gate where the priest was standing with the 600 Danites.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thither - Into the house, and that part of it, where those things were. The gate - Whither they had drawn him forth, that they might without noise or hindrance take them away.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Then the five spies went up, sc., into Micah's house of God, which must therefore have been in an upper room of the building (see Kg2 23:12; Jer 19:13), and took the image, ephod, etc., whilst the priest stood before the door with the 600 armed men. With the words וגו בּאוּ the narrative passes from the aorist or historical tense ויּעלוּ into the perfect. "The perfects do not denote the coming and taking on the part of the five men as a continuation of the previous account, but place the coming and taking in the same sphere of time as that to which the following clause, 'and the priest stood,' etc., belongs" (Bertheau). But in order to explain what appears very surprising, viz., that the priest should have stood before the gate whilst his house of God was being robbed, the course which the affair took is explained more clearly afterwards in Jdg 18:18, Jdg 18:19, in the form of a circumstantial clause. Consequently the verbs in these verses ought to be rendered as pluperfects, and the different clauses comprised in one period, Jdg 18:18 forming the protasis, and Jdg 18:19 the apodosis. "Namely, when those (five) men had come into Micah's house, and had taken the image of the ephod, etc., and the priest had said to them, What are ye doing? they had said to him, Be silent, lay thy hand upon thy mouth and go with us, and become a father and priest to us (see Jdg 17:10). Is it better to be a priest to the house of a single man, or to a tribe and family in Israel?" The combination האפוד פּסל (the ephod-pesel), i.e., the image belonging to the ephod, may be explained on the ground, that the use of the ephod as a means of ascertaining the will of God presupposes the existence of an image of Jehovah, and does not prove that the ephod served as a covering for the Pesel. The priest put on the ephod when he was about to inquire of God. The או in the second question is different from אם, and signifies "or rather" (see Gen 24:55), indicating an improvement upon the first question (see Ewald, 352, a.). Consequently it is not a sign of a later usage of speech, as Bertheau supposes. The word וּלמשׁפּחה (unto a family) serves as a more minute definition or limitation of לשׁבט (to a tribe).

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

six hundred men

"600 men" (See: Numbers)

translationWords

ephod

false god

priest

gate

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.