Judges 18 · a question people ask
The Danites took Micah's gods and his priest by force. Is the chapter telling it as a wrong, or as Micah losing what he trusted?
The five spies went in and took the images (18:17), while "The six hundred men armed with their weapons of war" stood at the gate (18:16). They told the priest, "Hold your peace, put your hand on your mouth, and go with us" (18:19). When Micah followed, they warned him, "lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household" (18:25), and "when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house" (18:26). The chapter gives no verdict on the taking in its own words. Both readings below agree on those verses, and that the Danites then set up the image for themselves (18:30-31). Christians read the taking in two main ways.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
Another wrong in days with no king
Those who hold this view start from how the chapter opens, "In those days there was no king in Israel" (18:1), the words chapter 17 joined to "Everyone did that which was right in his own eyes" (17:6). They set the taking beside the Law, "You shall not steal" (Exodus 20:15), and note the threat against Micah's life (18:25). They read the chapter as telling what the tribe did, not commending it, and note that what the Danites took, they set up for themselves (18:30-31).
Judges 18:1 · Judges 17:6 · Exodus 20:15 · Judges 18:25 · Judges 18:30-31
Micah's gods couldn't keep themselves
Those who hold this view note that Micah's story began with silver he had taken himself, "the silver is with me. I took it" (17:2), and that he had said, "Now I know that the LORD will do good to me, since I have a Levite as my priest" (17:13). Here both are gone: "You have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest" (18:24). They read the chapter's weight as falling on what Micah trusted: gods he made were carried off by stronger men (18:26-27), as Isaiah says of a made god, "It cannot save him out of his trouble" (Isaiah 46:7). They don't read this as approving the Danites.
Judges 17:2 · Judges 17:13 · Judges 18:24 · Judges 18:26-27 · Isaiah 46:7
The verses
“The children of Dan said to him, “Don’t let your voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows fall on you, and you lose your life, with the lives of your household.” The children of Dan went their way; and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back to his house.”
“The children of Dan set up for themselves the engraved image; and Jonathan, the son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests to the tribe of the Danites until the day of the captivity of the land. So they set up for themselves Micah’s engraved image which he made, and it remained all the time that God’s house was in Shiloh.”