Judges 17:1-18:31

Outline :

Chapters 17,18 :
Apostate Levite and Moving Danites

15:1-6

Micah, an Ephraimite, Builds Some Household Idols micah, an ephraimite, steals 1100 pieces of silver from his mother; he then gives them back, after he hears her utter a curse in his presence upon whoever stole the silver. she, delighting in the flawless character of her son, says that she will return the silver to him. so...micah gives the silver back to mom, and mom takes 200 pieces of it and has it formed into various idols and an ephod. micah then takes one of his sons and designates him priest.

17:7-13

A Levite Becomes Micahs Priest a young levite leaves bethelehem to seek his fortune, and comes upon the aforementioned micah. micah recruits him to be priest, thinking that having a real levite would help him find favor with god.

18:1-31

The Danites Grab Some Territory (and a priest) since this story starts back in the early days, the danites have not yet carved out their territory. they send out spies to look for some land, and the spies find laish, an easily conquerable city; they also find micah's priest, and they ask him if they'll be successfull (he says yes, and ensures his popularity).
the spies return to dan, and the danites assemble themselves and go off to conquer their new territory. on the way, they steal micahs idols and ask the levite to come with; he does (micah gives chase, but gives up once he realizes that he can't defeat the danites). the danites then conquer the land and build the city of dan there. the levite stays with them, and his descendants are the priests to dan 'until the day of the captivity of the land'.
about the priest : v.30 says that the priest was named jonathan, and that he was 'the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh' (nasb). nasb includes a note that some ancient manuscripts have 'moses' instead of 'manasseh'; i'm going to take that interpretation. first, the 17:7 says that he was a levite, not from manasseh. also, gershom is the son of moses (ex. 2:23). finally, this detail is significant enough to warrent the surprise mention at the end...

15:1-6
Micah, an Ephraimite, Builds Some Household Idols	micah, an ephraimite, steals 1100 pieces of silver from his mother; he then gives them back, after he hears her utter a curse in his presence upon whoever stole the silver. she, delighting in the flawless character of her son, says that she will return the silver to him. so...micah gives the silver back to mom, and mom takes 200 pieces of it and has it formed into various idols and an ephod. micah then takes one of his sons and designates him priest.
17:7-13
A Levite Becomes Micahs Priest	a young levite leaves bethelehem to seek his fortune, and comes upon the aforementioned micah. micah recruits him to be priest, thinking that having a real levite would help him find favor with god.
18:1-31
The Danites Grab Some Territory (and a priest)	since this story starts back in the early days, the danites have not yet carved out their territory. they send out spies to look for some land, and the spies find laish, an easily conquerable city; they also find micah's priest, and they ask him if they'll be successfull (he says yes, and ensures his popularity). the spies return to dan, and the danites assemble themselves and go off to conquer their new territory. on the way, they steal micahs idols and ask the levite to come with; he does (micah gives chase, but gives up once he realizes that he can't defeat the danites). the danites then conquer the land and build the city of dan there. the levite stays with them, and his descendants are the priests to dan 'until the day of the captivity of the land'. about the priest : v.30 says that the priest was named jonathan, and that he was 'the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh' (nasb). nasb includes a note that some ancient manuscripts have 'moses' instead of 'manasseh'; i'm going to take that interpretation. first, the 17:7 says that he was a levite, not from manasseh. also, gershom is the son of moses (ex. 2:23). finally, this detail is significant enough to warrent the surprise mention at the end...