2 And he said to his mother, The eleven hundred shekels of silver which were taken from you, about which you took an oath and said in my hearing, I have given this silver to the Lord from my hand for myself, to make a pictured image and a metal image: see, I have the silver, for I took it: so now I will give it back to you. And his mother said, May the blessing of the Lord be on my son.
And I took up the cause against them, cursing them and giving blows to some of them and pulling out their hair; and I made them take an oath by God, saying, You are not to give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons or for yourselves.
And he said, May the Lord give you his blessing, my daughter: even better than what you did at the first is this last kind act you have done, in not going after young men, with or without wealth.
Let my lord the king give ear now to the words of his servant. If it is the Lord who is moving you against me, let him take an offering: but if it is the children of men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for driving me out today and keeping me from my place in the heritage of the Lord, saying, Go, be the servant of other gods.
For he who gives him words of love has a part in his evil works.
If any man has not love for the Lord, let him be cursed. Maran atha (our Lord comes).
Then with curses and oaths he said, I have no knowledge of the man. And straight away there came the cry of a cock.
Let him be cursed who does the Lord's work half-heartedly; let him be cursed who keeps back his sword from blood.
For the evil-doer is lifted up because of the purpose of his heart, and he whose mind is fixed on wealth is turned away from the Lord, saying evil against him.
And blessing him, said, May the blessing of the Most High God, maker of heaven and earth, be on Abram:
And Samuel came to Saul; and Saul said to him, May the blessing of the Lord be with you: I have done what was ordered by the Lord.
Then one of the people said to him, Your father put the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes any food this day. And the people were feeble, needing food.
And all the people were with Saul, about twenty thousand men, and the fight was general through all the hill-country of Ephraim; but Saul made a great error that day, by putting the people under an oath, saying, Let that man be cursed who takes food before evening comes and I have given punishment to those who are against me. So the people had not a taste of food.
A curse, a curse on Meroz! said the angel of the Lord. A bitter curse on her townspeople! Because they came not to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord among the strong ones.
Cursed is he who does not give honour to his father or mother. And let all the people say, So be it.
And when he saw the nose-ring and the ornaments on his sister's hands, and when she gave him word of what the man had said to her, then he went out to the man who was waiting with the camels by the water-spring. And he said to him, Come in, you on whom is the blessing of the Lord; why are you waiting outside? for I have made the house ready for you, and a place for the camels.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Matthew Henry Commentary » Commentary on Judges 17
Commentary on Judges 17 Matthew Henry Commentary
Chapter 17
All agree that what is related in this and the rest of the chapters to the end of this book was not done, as the narrative occurs, after Samson, but long before, even soon after the death of Joshua, in the days of Phinehas the son of Eleazar, ch. 20:28. But it is cast here into the latter part of the book that it might not interrupt the history of the Judges. That it might appear how happy the nation was in the judges it is here shown how unhappy they were when there was none.
Jdg 17:1-6
Here we have,
Jdg 17:7-13
We have here an account of Micah's furnishing himself with a Levite for his chaplain, either thinking his son, because the heir of his estate, too good to officiate, or rather, because not of God's tribe, not good enough. Observe,