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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Judges 17:7 - 17:13
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A Levite Made the Idol's Priest
v. 7. And there was a young man out of Bethlehem-judah, later the birthplace of the Savior, of the family of Judah, who was a Levite, and he sojourned there, he lived there for a while as a stranger.
v. 8. And the man departed out of the city from Bethlehem-judah to sojourn where he could find a place. Many of the cities which had been allotted to the Levites being still in the hands of the Canaanites, this man had no real home, and so traveled from the territory of Judah toward the north, in the hope of finding some place that would please him. And he came to Mount Ephraim, to the house of Micah, as he journeyed, the place evidently being on the main highway between the northern and southern parts of the country.
v. 9. And Micah said unto him, Whence comest thou? And he said unto him, I am a Levite of Bethlehem-judah, and I go to sojourn where I may find a place.
v. 10. And Micah said unto him, Dwell with me, and be unto me a father and a priest, to be treated with all reverence and honor, and I will give thee ten shekels of silver by the year (about $6. 40 cash) and a suit of apparel, the necessary clothing, and thy victuals, his board was thus also included. So the Levite went in, forgetting entirely that he was consecrated to the service of Jehovah alone.
v. 11. And the Levite was content to dwell with the man, he made up his mind to stay;and the young man was unto him as one of his sons, he took care of him in the same manner as he did his sons.
v. 12. And Micah consecrated the Levite, filled his hand, the standing expression for ordaining a priest, for inducting him into office, taken from the ceremony of laying the offerings required at the consecration of a priest upon his hands; and the young man became his priest and was in the house of Micah.
v. 13. Then said Micah, Now know I that the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest. It was a peculiar blindness which caused Micah to look for blessings to Jehovah against whom he was sinning with his image worship. The mere fact that the man belonged to the tribe of Levi and was really under obligation to serve at the altar of Jehovah only could never change the fact of the mortal sin which was being committed in his house day by day, for the Levite himself did wrong in permitting himself to be hired. When men who have been called to be preachers of the Gospel become chaplains in antichristian societies, in which the honor of the Savior is set aside, they are committing the same sin as the Levite of Micah.