Synopsis of the Chapter
The Danites steal the idols of Micah and take away Jonathan the priest; then, attacking the city of Laish unexpectedly, they capture and burn it; there they establish their settlement, calling it by their own name Dan, and set up idols in it.
Verse 1: The Tribe of Dan Seeking a Possession ¶
The tribe of Dan, like the others, had received its possession by lot from Joshua, chapter XIX, verse 40, toward the sea and the Philistines; but since these resisted fiercely, and the Amorites pressed them from the other side, as was said at chapter I, 34, the Danites could not occupy the whole lot assigned to them by Joshua. Therefore, seeing that they were living too cramped in it, they sought new territory and led a colony to Laish; this is what is said here: "Had not received its lot" — that is, had not been able to capture and occupy it by arms.
Verse 6: The Lord Looks upon Your Way ¶
He calls his idol, or teraphim, "the Lord," for he was its priest; and consulting it, he received this response from it, or at least pretended to have received it.
Verse 7: They Came to Laish ¶
Which at Joshua XIX, 49 (where this history is narrated by prolepsis or anticipation, since it occurred later) is called Leshem, elsewhere Laisha; afterwards it was called Dan by the Danites, and became the capital of the tribe of Dan. With both names joined it was called Leshem-Dan; then it was called Paneas from the spring of Paneas that flows through it. Finally, restored and adorned by Philip the Tetrarch in honor of the emperor Tiberius, it was called Caesarea Philippi, where Christ said to Peter when he confessed Him to be the Son of God: "You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My Church," Matthew XVI. This city was situated in a most pleasant location between two streams, Jor and Dan, almost at the foot of Mount Lebanon. Hence Jeroboam placed his golden calves there as well as in Bethel. For it was itself the northern boundary of the land of Israel, just as Beersheba was the southern; hence the expression "from Dan to Beersheba" — that is, through all Israel. Here the Jordan River rises, so called because it is formed from the confluence of two streams, Jor and Dan, or as if "descending from Dan." From this city came the woman suffering from a flow of blood, whom Christ healed by the touch of His garment, Matthew IX, 20; she accordingly erected a statue to Christ there, at the base of which a certain herb grew, which gradually increasing, when it touched the hem of Christ's garment, would cure any disease — as Eusebius attests, Book VII of the History, chapter XIV. Thus Christ made the city of Dan, which had been the seat of such great abominations and manifold idolatry, into the chair and throne, as it were, of faith.
AND THEY SAW THE PEOPLE DWELLING THERE WITHOUT ANY FEAR.
Three enticements and reasons are given here for why the Danites invaded Laish: first, because the citizens lived there in security and were therefore unarmed; second, because they were wealthy; third, because they were separated from all other people who could have helped them.
AND FAR FROM SIDON — at a distance of one day's journey, says Josephus.
Tropology: The Danger of Excessive Security
Tropologically, learn here how dangerous excessive security is: for it was this that enticed the Hebrews to destroy Laish. Again, one must keep watch especially at night against enemies. Hence the Greeks captured Troy by night. Hear Virgil, Book II of the Aeneid:
"They invade the city buried in sleep and wine."
So Cyrus attacked and killed the Babylonians and their king Belshazzar by night, Daniel V, 30; so Abraham fell upon the enemy by night and struck them, Genesis chapter XIV, 15; so Nisus, invading the enemy camp by night with Euryalus, says in Virgil, Aeneid IX:
"Euryalus, we must dare with our right hand: now the occasion itself calls."
So too the Romans once, as Athenaeus relates in Book V, watching for a moonless night, invaded and slaughtered the drunken and slumbering Athenians. So finally Gracchus, as Livy records in Book XXIII, setting out with a silent column, invaded the Campanian camp — neglected as if during an all-night vigil — through all its gates at once, plundered and destroyed it.
Verse 12: They Encamped at Kiriath-jearim ¶
This city was therefore not in the tribe of Judah, but on the border of the tribes of Dan and Benjamin. Adrichomius is therefore not quite correct in placing it in the tribe of Dan.
Verse 14: Teraphim and a Graven Image ¶
For "Teraphim" were idols carved or cast from gold, silver, or bronze. "Teraphim" — that is, idols — were not only carved or cast, but also painted, hammered out with a mallet, fashioned from clay by a potter, or shaped and formed by some other art and method. In other words: there were in the house of Micah "Teraphim," that is, various idols made in various ways, but especially cast by the art of smelting and carved by the art of sculpture. For this seems to be required by verse 18, where it says: "They took the graven image, the ephod, the idols, and the molten image." And verse 20: "the idols and the graven image." Finally, "Teraphim" were properly idols from which divination was sought, as I said above.
SEE WHAT PLEASES YOU — that is, on this matter: whether you wish to take these idols of Micah or leave them safe with him.
Verse 19: Put Your Finger on Your Lips ¶
Meaning "restrain your lips with your finger" — be silent: for the symbol of silence is a finger placed on the lips. Hence Harpocrates, the god of silence, was depicted as a naked, beardless boy, placing the index finger of his right hand on his mouth, holding in his left hand a horn of plenty, crowned with a myrtle wreath. See Pierius.
Verse 30: Jonathan the Son of Gershom, Son of Moses ¶
"Son of Moses." So the Roman and other Latin versions consistently read. But the Septuagint, the Chaldean, and the modern Hebrew read: son of Manasseh.
But the genuine reading is "son of Moses," and so the ancient Hebrew texts have it, as the Rabbis, Cajetan, and Vatablus have noted. For "Gershom" was a son of Moses, as is clear from Exodus II, 22. However, the Hebrews of old, to protect the honor of Moses lest so grave an infamy from his grandson Jonathan, as a priest of idols, be branded upon him as if upon his grandfather, placed "Manasseh" in the margin instead of "Moses" — converting the letter nun into the neighboring letter mem and changing the vowel points. And so they began to read "son of Manasseh," as if to signify that Jonathan, who by nature was a son (that is, grandson) of Moses, unworthy of so great and holy a father (that is, grandfather), should rather be called a son of Manasseh the idolatrous king — a son, I say, not by nature but by imitation, or rather by similarity of impiety. For in fact this Jonathan preceded Manasseh by several centuries. This marginal reading eventually crept into the Hebrew text, but in such a way that it is marked with a circle and the letter nun raised and suspended — clearly to indicate that the other ancient reading, which has "Moses," is the true and genuine one. From this it is clear that these events occurred not long after the death of Joshua; for the priest of this idol was Jonathan, grandson of Moses, who was then a young man. So Josephus and others cited at chapter XVII, verse 1.
See here how "the sons of heroes are harmful," how they degenerate from the virtue of their parents and become utterly depraved — so that parents might rightly wish to die childless rather than leave behind such infamous children. Behold Moses, the lawgiver, leader, and prophet of the people, the founder of the Synagogue and the ancestral faith — he left behind him a grandson Jonathan who became the first priest of idols and the chief of the many others who afterward followed him in Israel. Behold such a sacrilegious grandson of so holy a grandfather. So pious Adam begot after him the parricide Cain; Hezekiah begot Manasseh, Josiah begot Jehoiakim, Solomon begot Rehoboam, Abraham begot Ishmael, Eli begot Hophni and Phinehas, Samuel begot degenerate sons — on account of whom the people asked for a king, and God through Samuel gave them Saul.
Until the Day of Their Captivity
In Hebrew: until the day of the migration of the land. So also the Septuagint.
One may ask: what was this captivity of the Danites in which their idolatry ended? There are three opinions. The first takes it as the Assyrian captivity, in which the ten tribes — among which Dan was one — were carried off to Assyria by Shalmaneser in the sixth year of King Hezekiah, IV Kings XVII, 2. So Seder Olam and Rashi.
The second thinks this was a particular captivity of the tribe of Dan, which Scripture does not narrate elsewhere. So Cajetan.
The third asserts that it was the time when the Ark of God was captured under Eli the High Priest, and the Hebrews were cut down in a great slaughter and struck with a severe disaster by the Philistines (for then many were captured in war and carried into captivity), from the tribe of Dan as well as from the other tribes. So Lyranus, Abulensis, Vatablus, Arias, Serarius, Genebrard in the Chronology, Ribera on Hosea chapter X. This is proved, first, because the following words indicate it, where it says: "And the idol of Micah remained among them all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh." And this was in Shiloh until the time of Eli and Samuel. Note that Joshua placed the Ark with the Tabernacle in Shiloh because Shiloh was in the tribe of Ephraim, from which Joshua also came, so that more easily, being present in his own tribe, Joshua might preserve the pure worship of God. Josephus adds, Book V of Antiquities, chapter X, that this was done because of the beauty of the place. The Ark remained in Shiloh from the sixth year of Joshua to the last year of Eli — a period of 350 years.
Second, because this idol was not in the tribe of Dan until the time of Shalmaneser. For how would David, the most pious and powerful king, have permitted this public idolatry in his kingdom? How would Samuel? How would Jehoshaphat, Asa, or Hezekiah?
Third, if the idol of Micah had been in Dan, Jeroboam would not have placed his golden calves there as idols; for the idol of Micah would have sufficed to draw the people from Jerusalem to Dan. Moreover, his golden calves were substituted for this idol of Micah, so that they might be more easily received by the people, since they had long since worshipped the idol of Micah in that place, strengthened by the authority of Jonathan the priest, who was the grandson of Moses, and of his descendants.
Cajetan is therefore not quite correct in thinking that two time periods are mentioned here: one, during which the descendants of Jonathan the priest continued, which he says was until the Danite captivity mentioned above; the other, during which the idol of Micah stood, which he says was until the Philistine captivity of the Ark and the death of Eli. For that one and the same period is indicated here is sufficiently shown by the very words of the text, especially the Hebrew, which reads: And the sons of Dan set up for themselves the graven image, and Jehonathan the son of Gershom, son of Moses — he (Jehonathan) and his sons were priests of the tribe of Dan until the migration of the land.
Therefore the same was the terminus and end of the Danites and of the priest and the idolatrous priesthood, and consequently of the idolatry among the same Danites — namely, the disaster of Israel and the captivity of the Ark under Eli; for then very many of the Danites and other tribes were carried off into captivity by the Philistines, and among other things these idols of Micah with their priest — as can be sufficiently gathered from I Samuel IV, 10, and Psalm LXXVII, verse 64, where speaking of this slaughter he says: "He delivered their strength into captivity, and their beauty (the Ark) into the hand of the enemy."
Verse 31: In Those Days There Was No King in Israel ¶
Who by his authority and power could have punished and destroyed this idolatry. It therefore raged unpunished and lasted through the times of the Judges until Eli, because the Judges did not have enough authority and power such as was required to remove this evil. Hence it appears that Samuel, the most holy and zealous prophet, after creating Saul as king, pressed upon him by every means to remove the remnants of idolatry from the house of Micah and from all Israel along with its priests; and there is no doubt that he did so, as Scripture sufficiently indicates at I Samuel XXVIII, 9.
No opinion of opposing interpreters proves that this Book of Judges was not written by Samuel.