Judges 18:31Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Every Israelite has transgressed against me (Hos. 10:9), for due to the distress of his kin, he rushed into battle (Judg. 20) and failed to seek justice for the irreverence shown to his God. He overlooked the fact that in Micah's house, the ephod and the teraphim were venerated as false gods.

From this, we can clearly trace the ancestry of this Levite. It is written, “Jonathan the son of Manasseh the son of Gershon the son of Moses, he and his sons were priests of the tribe of Dan until the day of the settlement of the earth.” They created for themselves an idol which Michah fashioned during the time when the house of God was in Shiloh. Thus, the priesthood was not legitimate; they not only served idols but also audaciously undertook the duties of a priest, despite being Levites rather than priests. The Almighty commanded that only the descendants of Aaron could serve in the priesthood.

The relationship between sin and temptation is self-evident and requires no further explanation. It is worth noting how temptation frequently accompanies sin, leading to its proliferation; a long chain and an extensive web of temptations emanate from sin itself. In the book of Judges, we read about a man named Micah who crafted an idol for his household and enlisted a Levite to offer sacrifices to it. Consequently, men from the tribe of Dan learned of this idol and took it, transforming the idolatry of a single individual into the sin of an entire city and tribe. This illustrates the typical progression of sin through temptation.