And there was a man of mount Ephraim, whose name was Micah.
The verse introduces Micah of Mount Ephraim as the principal figure of the account that follows. It sets up the story in which he returns silver he had stolen from his mother, after which she uses part of it to make two images for his house of gods. The verse belongs to and opens the closing section of Judges, chapters 17-21, which follows the continuous story ending with chapter 16.
That closing section records events from the early part of the judges period and is placed out of chronological order. That section comes chronologically before chapters 11-16. Read with Judges 18:1 and 18:31, the verse points to the book of Judges having been written about the time there was a king in Israel, with Samuel or Nathan as the writer. The final chapters to which the verse belongs show Dan as the first tribe to depart from God and turn to idolatry.
The verse is part of one composite record from Judges 3 to 17 in which backsliding from God brings suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, and returning to God brings forgiveness and deliverance, showing the perversity and unbelief of the people and the long-suffering and goodness of God. It must be understood in light of the awful moral surroundings of Israel and the demoralizing influences of the tribes Israel allowed to remain in the land of promise. The closing chapters the verse introduces are a record of backsliding and its resulting disgrace and punishment, showing that social customs and tribal loyalty can be wrongly put above virtue and justice, while neither custom nor group loyalty excuses sin. The verse begins one of two stories of awful idolatry in the latter part of Judges, giving a sad record of transgressions and constant lapsing into idolatry and of the great Father's effort to restore His people from it. In the fuller account of Judges 17:1-13, Micah's obtaining a Levite as priest for his molten images treats religious offices and ordinances as if they could make idolatry acceptable to God, exposing the evasive human tendency to excuse wrongdoing by dressing it in religion.
The verse introduces Micah of Mount Ephraim as the principal figure of the account that follows. It sets up the story in which he returns silver he had stolen from his mother, after which she uses part of it to make two images for his house of gods. The verse belongs to and opens the closing section of Judges, chapters 17-21, which follows the continuous story ending with chapter 16.
That closing section records events from the early part of the judges period and is placed out of chronological order. That section comes chronologically before chapters 11-16. Read with Judges 18:1 and 18:31, the verse points to the book of Judges having been written about the time there was a king in Israel, with Samuel or Nathan as the writer. The final chapters to which the verse belongs show Dan as the first tribe to depart from God and turn to idolatry.
The verse is part of one composite record from Judges 3 to 17 in which backsliding from God brings suffering, oppression, captivity and servitude, and returning to God brings forgiveness and deliverance, showing the perversity and unbelief of the people and the long-suffering and goodness of God. It must be understood in light of the awful moral surroundings of Israel and the demoralizing influences of the tribes Israel allowed to remain in the land of promise. The closing chapters the verse introduces are a record of backsliding and its resulting disgrace and punishment, showing that social customs and tribal loyalty can be wrongly put above virtue and justice, while neither custom nor group loyalty excuses sin. The verse begins one of two stories of awful idolatry in the latter part of Judges, giving a sad record of transgressions and constant lapsing into idolatry and of the great Father's effort to restore His people from it. In the fuller account of Judges 17:1-13, Micah's obtaining a Levite as priest for his molten images treats religious offices and ordinances as if they could make idolatry acceptable to God, exposing the evasive human tendency to excuse wrongdoing by dressing it in religion.