The Pulpit Commentary — Judges — Section 175

slew the one and burnt the other (cf. Numb. it, as is the obvious meaning of the worrls, xxi. 3; Josh. viii. 19; xi. 11, &c.); or the of .~he Assyrian captivity (2 Kings xv. 29; Imming of the city may have been one of xvu. 6). But some of the best ~ommentators tho means by which they destroyed the as Kimchi among the Jews, and many people. modems, think it refers to the taking Ver. 28.-Eeoauso it was far, &c. He captive of the ark by the Philistines in tha reverts again to the description given in ver. days of Eli, because this is the time indicated 7. That lieth by Eeth-Behob. It is liter- in the next verse bv the mention of the. ally, which belongeth to Beth-Rehob, i. e. the house of God in Shiloh. The ark of God valley here spoken of was part of the terri- never returned to Shiloh after it was tnk,,n tory of the Syrians of Beth-Rehab in the thence (1 Sam. iv. 3, 4) and captured by the time of David (and very likely earlier), as we Philistines (ibid. ver. 11). It is also noticed read in 2 Sam. x. 6. It seems to have taken that the expression, The ark of God is r;one its name, House of Rehob, from Rehab the into captivity (is taken, A. V.), occurs in father of Hadadezer, king of Zobnh (2 Sam. 1 Sam. iv. 21, 22. Itcertainlywoulcl be strange viii. 12), and to have been called Beth-Rehob that one verse (30) should speak of the wor- very much as Micah's settlement was called ship of the graven image lasting till the Beth-Micah. It was also called for shortness Assyrian conquest of the land, and the next Rehob, as Numb. xiii. 21; Judg. i. 31; 2 Sam. verse (31) limit it to the time that the house x. 8. It was situated, as we learn from eh. i. of God was in Shiloh, some 300 years earlier. 31, in the bounds of the tribe •Of Asher, in At the same time it should be noticed that the extreme north of the Holy Land, near ver. 30 speaks of the time that J onathan's the entering in of Hamath, the site of which, sons were priests to the tribe of Dan, and however, is unknown (see Numb. xiii. 21). ver. 31 of the worship of Micah's image. It The valley is that through which the Leddan is quite possible that the descendants of fountain flows (ver. 7, note), and is the up- Jonathan may have been appointed priests per part of the plain called el-Hulleh, which at Dan to Jeroboam's golden-calf worship, is the northern continuation of the Jordan though the original graven image of Micah valley. They built a city. Rather, they re- may have been destroyed by Saul or David ; built the city. and in the in terve.l between such destruction Ver. 29.-Howbeit !.a.ieh was the name, of Micah's image and the setting up of &c. The strange form here given in the Jeroboam's calves they may have been the Septuagint, Oulamai.s, arises from their priests of an irregular worship on a high having taken the Hebrew word for howbeit place at Tell-el-Kady. And this would en- (oulam) as :eart of the name, and left out the able us to give what is certainly its natural L of Laish (see ver. 7, note). meaning to the words, "the captivity of the Vers. 30, 31.-And the children of Dan, land." But no certainty can be arrivetl at &c. It was probably the long existence of this without more actual knowledge. Many semi-idolatrous worship of the graven image commentators adopt Houbigant's conjecture at Dnn that induced King Jeroboam to set to read ark for land at the end of ver. 30 up one of his golden ce.lves at Dan, as we (ar6n for aretz). Others think that some read 1 Kings xii. 28-30. And Jona.than, deportation of the Danites by the Syrians or the eon of Gerehom, the son of Manasseh. other neighbouring people not recorded in The Hebrew text really has the son of Moses. history is here spoken of. All the time the But a little n is written above the line be- house of God, &c. This must have been tween the M and the S of Moses (Mosheh), written not earlier than the time of Samuel, and possibly much later. The house of so as to be read Manasseh, !IS thus: MSH; God, i. e. the tabernacle, was in Shiloh from so that they avoided the pain of reading the days of Joshua (J ash. xviii. 1) till the nloud thnt the grandson or descendant of days of Eli (1 Sam. i. 3), after which we have Moses was an idolatrous priest, without no account of where the house of God was actually altering the written text. It is till the ark was brought up to Jerusalem by mdeed most sad that it should have been so, King David from the house of Obed-edom though like examples are not wanting, as, the Gittite (2 Sam. vi. 12), and placed iu e. g., the sons of Eli and of Samuel. For the tabernacle that David had pitched for i~ Gershom the son of Moses see Exod. ii. 22 ; {2 Sam. vi. 17); but whether this was the xviii. 3; 1 Chron. xxiii. 14-16. It does tabernacle that had been pitched at Shiloh not follow that Jonathan, the priest of the or a new one does not appear. It is not Danites, was literally the son of Gershom. improbable that Samuel may have moved It may merely mean that he was of the the tabernacle from Shiloh to Ramah (1 Sam. family of which Gershom wns the head. vii. 17). The ark had rested in the housa Until the day of the captivity of the land. of Abino.dab at Baaleh or Kirjath-jearim for 'l'here is great diversity of opinion as to the twenty years {l Sam. vii. 2) prnviou~ to its meaning of this phrase. Many understand removal by David.  188 THE BOOK OF JUDGES.' [cu. X\'IIJ. 1--31,