Judges 17:7

17:7-13 Micah thought it was a sign of God's favour to him and his images, that a Levite should come to his door. Thus those who please themselves with their own delusions, if Providence unexpectedly bring any thing to their hands that further them in their evil way, are apt from thence to think that God is pleased with them.

And there was a young man out of Bethlehemjudah,.... As there were two Bethlehems, one in the tribe of Zebulun, Joshua 19:15 and another in the tribe of Judah, the place here designed, Judah is added to it, to distinguish it from the other: of the family of Judah: which refers either to the young man, who was by his father's side a Levite, and by his mother's side, as Jarchi thinks, of the tribe of Judah, which seems very probable, though the genealogies of families were not reckoned from the mother; wherefore he might be so called because he had lived chiefly in the tribe of Judah, and particularly at Bethlehem; but Kimchi, and several other Jewish commentators, refer this to the city of Bethlehem, that was of the tribe of Judah, family being put for the tribe; or belonged to the children of Judah; though one would think there was no need to have added this, since it was fully expressed before by calling it Bethlehemjudah; the former sense therefore seems best: who was a Levite; his father being, as before observed, of that tribe, though his mother might be of the tribe of Judah: and he sojourned there; that is, at Bethlehem; he was not a native, nor an inhabitant there, but a sojourner, it not being a Levitical city.

Jdg 17:7. Beth-lehem-judah — So called here, as Matthew 2:1 ; Matthew 2:5 , to distinguish it from Bethlehem in Zebulun. There he was born and bred. Of Judah — That is, of or belonging to the tribe of Judah; not by birth, for he was a Levite; but by his habitation and ministration. For the Levites were dispersed among all the tribes: and this man’s lot fell into the tribe of Judah. Sojourned — So he expresseth it, because this was not the proper place of his abode, this being no Levitical city.

Verse 7. - Of the family of Judah . These words are difficult to explain. If the man was a Levite he could not be of the family or tribe of Judah. Some explain the words to be merely a more accurate definition of Bethlehem-judah, as if he would say, I mean Bethlehem in the tribe of Judah. Others explain them to mean that he was one of a family of Levites who had settled in Bethlehem, and so came to be reckoned in civil matters as belonging to Judah. Others, that he was of the family of Judah on his mother s side, which might be the cause of his settling at Bethlehem. But many commentators think them spurious, as they are not found in the Septuagint (Cod. Vat.), nor in the Peschito, nor in No. 440 of De Rossi's MSS. The Septuagint has Bethlehem of the family of Judah. Judges 17:7

7 . a young man … sojourned there ] i.e. in the neighbourhood of Micah’s house. Technically the word sojourner (Hebr. gçr ) means one who lives under the protection of a tribe to which he does not belong by birth. This young man , a Levite of Judah, was settled in the place where Micah lived, became intimate with him ( Jdg 17:11 b), and was installed as his domestic priest ( Jdg 17:12 a); we hear of the young man again in Jdg 18:3 ; Jdg 18:15 . He cannot be the same person as the wandering Levite, also of Judah, called the man in Jdg 17:8 , who, in the course of his journey in search of employment, happened to arrive at Micah’s house, and for a fixed stipend agreed to take up his abode there ( Jdg 17:8-11 a, 12b–13); his subsequent history is given in Jdg 18:4-6 ; Jdg 18:18-30 . It is evident that two parallel narratives are interwoven here without altogether losing their distinctive features. of Beth-lehem-judah, of the family of Judah … a Levite ] Beth-lehem was a centre for Levites at this time, cf. Jdg 17:8 , Jdg 19:1 ; Jdg 19:18 . The memory of a connexion between certain Levitical families and the southern clans has been preserved by the genealogies: thus among the Levitical families mentioned in Numbers 26:58 , the Libnites, Hebronites, Korahites are named after places in the territory of Judah ( Joshua 15:42 ; Joshua 21:13 ; 1 Chronicles 2:43 ). How could the young man have belonged to the family of Judah and at the same time have been a Levite?

( a ) Wellhausen and Moore think that at this period Levite was the designation not of a tribe, but of a priestly caste open to any one1[61] [61] So Driver, Exodus , p. 29, in agreement with McNeile, Exodus , p. lxvi. f. . The young man is described as a Judaean by birth and a Levite by profession; for ‘in early times it was not the pedigree, but the art, that was the essential thing’ (Moore). The old tribe of Levi had been broken up (see Genesis 34; Genesis 49:5-7 ); the scattered members of it followed the priestly calling; out of this nucleus a priestly ‘tribe’ of Levi was created by a genealogical fiction. ( b ) There may be some error in the text. The LXX. cod. B omits the first Judah ; the Peshitto omits of the family of Judah , merely, no doubt, because the description seemed unintelligible Budde, however, suggests that the text has deliberately been altered: originally it ran of the family of Moses , and this was afterwards modified out of respect for the traditional founder of the priesthood. A certain amount of support for such an alteration is given by Jdg 18:30 ; but Judah is hardly the name which would obviously occur as a substitute for Moses . It seems best after all to take the text as it stands, and to suppose that there was a time when ‘Levite’ was the official title of one who had received the training of a priest, regardless of the tribe to which he belonged by birth (McNeile).

Out of Beth-lehem-judah, or, of Beth-lehem-judah ; so called here, as Matthew 2:1,5 , to difference it from Bethlehem in Zebulun, Joshua 19:15 . There he was born and bred. Of the family of Judah, i.e. of or belonging to the tribe of Judah; not by birth, for he was a Levite; nor by his mother, for though that might be true, the mother’s side is not regarded in genealogies; but by his habitation and ministration. For the Levites, especially in times of confusion and irreligion, were dispersed among all the tribes; and this man’s lot fell into the tribe of Judah; which seems to be here noted by way of reflection upon that tribe, and as an evidence of the general defection, that a Levite could not find entertainment in that great and famous tribe, which God had put so much honour upon, Genesis 49:8-11 , and therefore was forced to wander and seek for subsistence elsewhere. He sojourned there; so he expresseth it, because this was not the proper nor usual place of his abode, this being no Levitical city.

7. Beth-lehem-judah—so called in contradistinction to a town of the same name in Zebulun (Jos 19:15). of the family—that is, tribe. of Judah—Men of the tribe of Levi might connect themselves, as Aaron did (Ex 6:23), by marriage with another tribe; and this young Levite belonged to the tribe of Judah, by his mother's side, which accounts for his being in Beth-lehem, not one of the Levitical cities.

(7) A young man. —Later on in the story we, as it were incidentally, make the astonishing discovery that this young man was no other than a grandson of Moses. Out of Beth-lehem-judah.—So called to distinguish it from the Bethlehem in Zebulon (Joshua 19:15). (See Note on Judges 12:8.) In later times, when Bethlehem was famous as David’s birthplace, and the other Bethlehem had sunk into insignificance, the descriptive addition is often dropped. Of the family of Judah.—It may be doubted whether this refers to the “young man” or to Bethlehem, or whether it ought not, as in some MSS. and versions (LXX., Cod. B, and Syriac), to be omitted. If it applies to the young Levite, it must mean that he did not live in one of the Levitic cities, which belonged to his own family (the family of Gershom), which were in the northern and eastern tribes (Joshua 21:6), but in Judah, and therefore was ranked in civil matters as belonging to that tribe. Homes in the tribe of Judah were assigned to the priests alone (Joshua 21:9-42). He sojourned there.—Comp. Judges 19:1. The curse had been pronounced on the tribe of Levi: “I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:7).