Judges 17:6

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, and each one did what was right in his own eyes.

Judges 17:6 Meaning and Commentary

Judges 17:6

In those days there was no king in Israel
That is, no supreme magistrate, judge, or ruler, Joshua being dead and Caleb also, and the elders contemporary with them; for what the Samaritan Chronicle says ^F12 is without foundation, that Joshua a little before his death cast a lot in the presence of the congregation, to know who should govern after him, and the lot came to one Abel, of the tribe of Judah:

[but] every man did that which was right in his own eyes;
which accounts for the idolatry of Micah, there being no supreme magistrate to take cognizance of his sin, and restrain him from it, or punish him for it according to the law of God.

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FOOTNOTES:

F12 Apud Hottinger. Smegma Orient. p. 522.

Judges 17:6 In-Context

4 When he returned the pieces of silver to his mother, his mother took two hundred pieces of silver, and she gave it to the smith, and he made it [into] an idol of cast metal; and it was in the house of Micah.

5 The man Micah had for himself {a shrine}, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and {he appointed one of his sons} who became a priest for him.

6 In those days there was no king in Israel, and each one did what was right in his own eyes.

7 There was a young man from Bethlehem in Judah, from the clan of Judah; he [was] a Levite and [was] dwelling as a foreigner there.

8 And the man went from the town of Bethlehem in Judah to live as a foreigner wherever he could find [a place]. And he came [to] the hill country of Ephraim, to the house of Micah, to continue his journey.