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Juízes 17

BLIVRE · Chapter 17/21

1Houve um homem do monte de Efraim, que se chamava Mica.

2O qual disse à sua mãe: Os mil e cem siclos de prata que te foram furtados, pelo que tu amaldiçoavas ouvindo-o eu, eis que eu tenho este dinheiro: eu o havia tomado. Então a mãe disse: Bendito sejas do SENHOR, filho meu.

3E logo que ele devolveu à sua mãe os mil e cem siclos de prata, sua mãe disse: Eu dediquei este dinheiro ao SENHOR de minha mão para ti, filho meu, para que faças uma imagem de escultura e de fundição: agora, pois, eu o devolvo a ti.

4Mas voltando ele à sua mãe o dinheiro, tomou sua mãe duzentos siclos de prata, e deu-os ao fundidor: e ele lhe fez deles uma imagem de escultura e de fundição, a qual foi posta em casa de Mica.

5E teve este homem Mica casa de deuses, e fez-se fazer éfode e ídolos, e consagrou um de seus filhos; e foi-lhe por sacerdote.

6Nestes dias não havia rei em Israel: cada um fazia como melhor lhe parecia.

7E havia um jovem de Belém de Judá, da tribo de Judá, o qual era levita; e peregrinava ali.

8Este homem se havia partido da cidade de Belém de Judá, para ir a viver de onde achasse; e chegando ao monte de Efraim, veio à casa de Mica, para dali fazer seu caminho.

9E Mica lhe disse: De onde vens? E o levita lhe respondeu: Sou de Belém de Judá, e vou a viver de onde achar.

10Então Mica lhe disse: Fica-te em minha casa, e me serás em lugar de pai e sacerdote; e eu te darei dez siclos de prata por ano, e o ordinário de vestimentas, e tua comida. E o levita ficou.

11Acordou, pois, o levita em morar com aquele homem, e ele o tinha como a um de seus filhos.

12E Mica consagrou ao levita, e aquele jovem lhe servia de sacerdote, e estava em casa de Mica.

13E Mica disse: Agora sei que o SENHOR me fará bem, pois que o levita é feito meu sacerdote.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

A man named Micah steals and returns silver to his mother, who uses part of it to make idols. He hires a wandering Levite to be his personal priest, in an Israel without a king where 'every man did that which was right in his own eyes.'

Explanation

This chapter begins the final section of Judges, which no longer speaks of external wars but of widespread internal religious decay - showing that Israel's true crisis was not only military but spiritual. The irony is evident: Micah and his mother bless the LORD with their mouths while crafting carved idols with their hands, mixing genuine faith with idolatrous practice without perceiving the contradiction. The repeated phrase 'there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes' functions as a refrain that explains all the moral and religious chaos reported in these final chapters - without a central authority to ensure faithfulness to God's law, each family created its own version of religion according to personal convenience.

Fun facts

  • The amount of silver mentioned (1,100 pieces) is exactly the same sum that the Philistine lords promised Delilah for each of them to betray Samson in chapter 16, a possible literary connection between the two accounts of corruption.
  • Having a Levite as a personal priest was illegal under Mosaic law, which established a single central sanctuary of worship - Micah's practice reflects the religious fragmentation typical of this period.

Verse-by-verse explanation

  1. Juízes 17:1The chapter introduces a man named Micah, from the hill country of Ephraim, whose story opens the final part of the book, with no judge leading the people.
  2. Juízes 17:2Micah confesses to his own mother that it was he who stole the eleven hundred pieces of silver over which she had cursed the thief out loud; his mother, relieved, blesses him instead of punishing him.
  3. Juízes 17:3Micah gives the money back, and his mother announces she had already dedicated that silver to the Lord for the very purpose of making a carved and molten image for her son.
  4. Juízes 17:4His mother uses two hundred pieces of silver to have a silversmith make the image, which ends up kept in Micah's own house.
  5. Juízes 17:5Micah sets up his own private house of gods, with an ephod and household idols, and even consecrates one of his own sons as priest. It is a mixture of worship of the Lord with forbidden practices that shows how Israel's religion had fragmented without central leadership.
  6. Juízes 17:6The remark that there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in his own eyes appears several times toward the end of the book, as an explanation for the moral and religious chaos of the final stories. It is not necessarily a defense of monarchy, but a picture of the lack of central authority.
  7. Juízes 17:7A young Levite from Bethlehem-judah then appears, who was living there as a sojourner, with no fixed place of his own.
  8. Juízes 17:8This Levite leaves Bethlehem in search of a better place to live and, along the way, arrives at Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.
  9. Juízes 17:9Micah asks him where he is from, and the Levite explains that he is from Bethlehem-judah and is looking for a place to settle.
  10. Juízes 17:10Micah proposes that the Levite stay with him as a kind of father and personal priest, offering yearly pay, clothing, and food; the Levite accepts.
  11. Juízes 17:11The Levite agrees to live there, and comes to be treated almost like a son of Micah's household.
  12. Juízes 17:12Micah consecrates the Levite as his personal priest, and the young man officially comes to live in his house in that role.
  13. Juízes 17:13Micah feels secure, thinking that now the Lord will bless him for having gotten a real Levite as his personal priest, even though this whole arrangement is irregular.

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