Micah (Ephraimite)

Biblical Account

Micah appears only in Judges 17–18. He is a different person from the prophet Micah, who left a prophetic book. Judges 17:1 and 17:4 give his name in a longer form (Mikayehu), meaning "Who is like the LORD?", while the remaining verses use the shortened form "Micah."

The image and the shrine: Micah, who lived in the hill country of Ephraim, had taken eleven hundred pieces of silver from his mother. When he heard her pronounce a curse on the thief, he returned the silver (Judges 17:1-3). His mother declared that she had "wholly dedicated the silver unto the LORD" and gave two hundred pieces of it to a silversmith, who made a graven image and a molten image. Micah kept a house of gods, made an ephod and teraphim (household idols), and consecrated one of his sons as priest (Judges 17:4-5).

The Levite priest: A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah stopped at Micah's house. Micah engaged him as priest, promising him ten shekels of silver a year, a suit of apparel, and his food. He then said, "Now know I that the LORD will do me good, seeing I have a Levite to my priest" (Judges 17:7-13).

The seizure by the tribe of Dan: Five spies from the tribe of Dan, who were seeking an inheritance (land on which to settle), lodged at Micah's house and asked the Levite whether their way would prosper. Later, six hundred armed men came and carried off the graven image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the Levite gladly went with them, judging it better to be "a priest unto a tribe." Micah pursued them with his neighbors, but when he saw that they were too strong for him, he returned home (Judges 18:14-26). The Danites struck Laish, renamed it Dan, and set up Micah's graven image there. In Judges 18:30 this Levite is identified as Jonathan the son of Gershom.

Significance Within Scripture

The story of Micah opens the final section of Judges (chapters 17–21). This section repeats the refrain "In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Making an image forbidden by the Ten Commandments while invoking the name of the LORD, together with a private shrine and a hired priest not prescribed by the Law, is read as an illustration of the religious confusion of the period of the judges. The New Testament does not mention Micah.

Interpretations and Debates

• The text does not state when the events took place. Some place them early in the period of the judges, on the grounds that a grandson of Moses appears in the narrative.
• In Judges 18:30, the name "Moses" in the Masoretic Text (the standard Hebrew text) has one letter (nun) written above the line, so that it can also be read "Manasseh." Jewish tradition has explained this as a scribal device to protect the honor of Moses. Some translations, such as the Korean New Revised Version, render the name "Moses," while others, such as the King James Version, render it "Manasseh."
• Scholars differ over which event is meant by the statement that the Danite shrine continued "until the day of the captivity of the land" (Judges 18:30). Many take it to refer to the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel. Some scholars also read the story as background intended to criticize the sanctuary that Jeroboam later established at Dan (1 Kings 12:29).