The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 174

ver. 21), • the whole company• must have cheerfully connive at au act of theft and amotmt.ed to two or three thousand souls. sacrilege. Ver. 12.-Kirjath-jearim (city of forests), Ver. 21.-They turned, i. e.,turned their otherwise called Ki1jath-Baal and.Baalah, backs upon Beth-Micah, and ,vent on their in the hill country of Judah (Josh. xv. 60). we.y to the north. The little ones. 'l.'he It llay on the border of Benjamin (Josh. term necessarily includes the women of tha xviii. 14, 15). Its modern representative emigrant party. Compare Jncob's care for in all probability is Kurit-el-enab, nine his wives and children (Gen. xxxiii. 1-6); miles from Jerusalem, on the road to Joppa. only Jacob expected an attack from Esau The district is still very woody. Mahaneh- in frcnt, the Danites e.n attack from Micah dan, ~·. e. the camp of Dan (see eh. xiii. 25). from behind. The oarriage. It is the same Behind, i. e. to the west of. 'l.'he exact site word as is translated in Gen. xxxi. 1 gloi-y; of Jlfahaneh-dan has not been identified it might be rendered valuables. It would with certainty. Mr. Williams was shown a no doubt include the precious images and site called Beit-Mahanein in the Wady Is- ephod which they had just stolen. mail which answers well in position, but it Ver. 22.-The houses near to Mioah's has not been noticed by any other traveller house. Seever. 14, note. Near to, the same (' Dictionary of Bible'). Hebrew word as is rendered by in ver. 3, Ver. 14.-In these houses, showing that where see note. Beth-Micah, the house of Micah, was in fact Ver. 23.-That thou comest, &c.-liter- a small village (see ver. 22). ally, that thou art gathe'!"ed togethe'I", the Ver. 15. - Even 11.Uto the house, &c. same word as in ver. 22. It is the idea of Rather, at Beth-Mwah. the clan, or family, or tribe which causes Ver. 17.-Went up, viz., into the upper the phrase. Just as Israel or Judah desig- chamber, where it appears the chapel was. nates the whole nation, or the whole tribe, So we read in 2 Kings xxiii 12 that there under the name of their patriarch, so here Micah would include all the clan who dwelt were altars on the 'l"oof of the uppe'I" chambe'I" of Ahaz (cf. Jer. xix.13). And came up, and in Mieah's house ; and hence the Danites took. There is no and in the Hebrew, and speak of Micah being gathered together. the tense of the verb is changed. A fuller . Ver. 24.-My gods, or, as some render it, stop must be put after went up. And then my god. But the plural is probably right, the acconnt proceeds, with a certain solemn• as Micah was thinking of the molten and ity of diction, They came in thither; they graven images, e.nd the teraphim, and called took the graven image, and the ephod, and them gods, without perhaps meaning to im• the teraphim, and the molten image (full ply that there was any God but Jehovah. stop). The narrative goes on, Now the Ver. 25.-Rll.Il upon thee. Rather, '!"Un, O'I" priest was standing in the entering of the fall, upon you,· it is the plural pronoun, gate, &c. But these.five went into Micah's comprehending the whole party. The argu- house, &c., as just related, and of course ment of the Danite~ was the argument of brought them out to the gate where the the stronger. priest was standing with the 600 Danites. Ver. 26.-The verse tells us what the two Ver. 18.-The carved image. It should parties did, but not in the order in which be the graven image, as elsewhere. The an Eoglish writer would express it; for no Hebrew text here has the graven image of doubt the Danites, encumbered with their the ephod, as was noticed in eh. xvii. 3, women, and children, and baggage, did not note. But it is very possible that the go on theii- way till Micah e.nd his party vav, and, has fallen out of the text by had turned back, though in English the accident, and it does not seem likely that contrary order is rather implied. The He- a different phrase should be adopted in this brew merely puts the actions side by side, one place from that followed throughout in and leaves the order to be inferred. the enumeration of the articles in Micah's Ver. 27.-And they. In the Hebrew the chapel, so that the .A. V. is probably right. they is emfhatic. lt would be bett<:r ex- Then said the priest, &c. When he saw the pressed in English by repeating The childr~ idols and teraphim in the hands of the five of Dan. The repetition of the epithets quiet men be cried out in alarm. It is remarkable and secure, as aiiplied to the people of Laish, that here and in the preceding verse he is rather seems to mdicate the writer's rel?roba- styled the priest. tion of the deed as cruel, like that of Simeon Ver. 19. -Lay thine hand upon thy mouth. and -Levi in slaying Hamor aod Shechem. Cf. Job xxi 5; x.x.i.x. 9; xl. 4. A father They smote them with the edge of the ao d a priest. See eh. x vii. 1O, note. sword-a p_hrase den_oting an exte~inating Yer. 20.-The priest's heart was glad, &c. slaughter (.l!:xod. x.xx1v. 26; Josh. x1x. 47; 1 Tl1e prospect of greater dignity and greater Sam. xv. 8, &c.). And they burnt the oity, euwlumeut stifled all seotiments of grati- &c. Perhaps they had made the people and tude _aud loyalty to Micah, and made him f city a ckerem, a devoted thing, aud therefore en. xvm. 1-31.] THE BOOK OF JUDGES. 187