The Idol of Micah

Stories

The idol of Micah refers to a story from the book of Judges, chapters 17 and 18, involving a statue and accompanying temple of a man named Micah, and the tribe of Dan's conquest of the city of Laish.

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An Unruly Time

TANAKH

The morally ambiguous, unsettling story of Micah's idols presents the period of Israelite history before the coronation of the first king as libertine and lacking in leadership or guidance. This episode in the Book of Judges opens with the mother of a man named Micah (not to be confused with the prophet) consecrating silver to create an idol, leading Micah to establish a private shrine and appoint a wandering Levite as a priest.

He returned the eleven hundred shekels of silver to his mother; but his mother said, “I herewith consecrate the silver to GOD, transferring it to my son to make a sculptured image and a molten image. I now return it to you.” So when he gave the silver back to his mother, his mother took two hundred shekels of silver and gave it to a smith. He made of it a sculptured image and a molten image, which were kept in the house of Micah. Now this man Micah had a house of God; he had made an ephod and oracle idols and he had inducted one of his sons to be his priest.

Judges 17:3-5

Praise in a Time of Profanation?

TALMUD

A verse in Judges suggests that the idol of Micah stood among the Danites a long time, until they were exiled from the land, which could mean that it was still an active shrine during King David's reign. In the Talmudic tractate Pesachim, the sages debate the origins of the recitation of hallel, and the presence of idolatry in the land of Israel is presented as evidence against hallel originating in David's time.

Alternatively, is it possible that Micah’s idol stood in tears, and the Jewish people were reciting hallel before it? The reference is to the idol of Micah, which was still standing in the days of David (see Judges 17). The Gemara states that the idol was crying, as a euphemism for its laughter, to avoid shaming the Jewish people (ge’onim). The point is that the Jews would not have chanted: “They who make them shall be like them” (Psalms 115:8) at a time that they were worshipping idols…

Pesachim 117a:10

Micah in a Web of Stories

MIDRASH

The story of Micah's idols in Tanakh is brief and localized in time and space. However, Louis Ginzberg’s early 20th-century work, Legends of the Jews, expansively connects the story of Micah to several other biblical and midrashic narratives set in disparate times and places.

A part of the money which Delilah received from the Philistine lords as the price of Samson's secret, she gave to her son Micah, and he used it to make an idol for himself. This sin was the more unpardonable as Micah owed his life to a miracle performed by Moses. During the times of the Egyptian oppression, if the prescribed number of bricks was not furnished by the Israelites, their children were used as building material. Such would have been Micah's fate, if he had not been saved in a miraculous way. Moses wrote down the Name of God, and put the words on Micah's body…

Legends of the Jews 4:2:72

The Moral Struggle of Jonathan ben Gershom

TALMUD

A verse at the end of Judges Chapter 18 identifies Jonathan ben Gershom as the patriarch of an line of priestly attendants to the Danite shrine of Micah's idols. The Jerusalem Talmud, an ancient corpus of law, ethics, and stories from the land of Israel, expands on his story, drawing cues from close readings of verses in other books of Tanakh, as well as a letter in Jonathan's name that is written small and elevated.

Rebbi Ḥuna and Simeon Qamateria in the name of Rebbi Samuel ben Naḥman (Jud. 18:30): “Jonathan ben Gershom ben Manasseh,” a hanging נ. If he merits it, ben Mosheh. If he does not merit it, ben Manasseh. The colleagues asked before Rebbi Samuel bar Naḥman: He was a priest of idol worship and lived so long? He said to them, because he [Jonathan] was grudging to his idol. How was he grudging to his idol? If a man came to sacrifice an ox, a sheep…

Jerusalem Talmud Berakhot 9:2:12

The Allure of Micah's Shrine

COMMENTARY

The individuals and groups in the story of Micah's shrine are clearly identified with their tribal affiliations. Tamar Weissman's work Tribal Lands, which discusses the character and history of each of the tribes of Israel, raises the Danites' actions in the story of Judges Chapters 17-18 as an example of the tribe of Dan's cultural inclinations.

The same yearning for prognostication was conspicuous in Dan. As the Danites headed up north, seeking new frontiers, they stopped by – or, more correctly, were drawn to – the curious shrine housed by Micah the Ephramite. They inquired of the Levite who ministered to the molten images in the shrine:

Tribal Lands, Chapter 8; Dan 55

Dating Micah

COMMENTARY

The incidents involving Micah, as well as the story of the concubine at Givoh appear at the end of the Book of Judges. Rashi, the renowned medieval French rabbi, argues that the events of both of those stories actually occurred early in the period of the Judges.

There was a man from Mount Ephraim. Although both incidents are recorded at the conclusion of this book, the episodes of Michah and the concubine at Givoh took place at the beginning of the period of Judges, during the days of Asniel ben Kenaz, as it is said, "They appointed, for themselves, the figure of Michah, etc., during the entire period of the Mishkon at Shiloh." We learn that, throughout the period of Shiloh, the graven figure of Michah was in existence. Concerning the concubine at Givoh, it is said, about Yevus of Jerusalem…

Rashi on Judges 17:1:1

The Conflict with Mikha

COMMENTARY

The confrontation between the children of Dan and Mikha highlights the tension and conflict in early Israelite society. The Book of Judges recounts the history of the Israelites after Joshua's death, marked by social and religious turmoil.

They called to the children of Dan. They, the children of Dan, turned around and saw the group led by Mikha protesting angrily, and they said to Mikha: What is it with you that you mobilized? Alternatively, they said: What is all this shouting?

Steinsaltz on Judges 18:23

Mikha's Idol and Israel's Fall

COMMENTARY

The story of Mikha in the Book of Judges illustrates the systemic religious decline in Israel, where individuals acted according to their own desires, leading to idolatry and chaos. The Book of Judges, part of the Nevi'im in the Hebrew Bible, covers the period between Joshua's leadership and the establishment of the monarchy, marked by cycles of sin and deliverance.

The final section of Judges begins with a brand- new story (“There was a man …”). A family crime, a son’s theft of a large sum of money from his mother, leads ultimately to another one, idolatry, with implications for all Israel. The text demonstrates not only the defective leadership we have traced over the past chapters, but a systemic religious decline that will be confirmed in subsequent chapters. Mikha gives living proof of the refrain that will resound so often throughout this final section—“each one would do what was right in his eyes”—by making an idol and appointing a Levite as his…

The Early Prophets, by Everett Fox, Judges, Part III; Closing the Bracket, Mikha and the Levite 2

The Shame of Micah's Idol

LITURGY

The shame and transgression associated with Micah's idol are a poignant reminder of the consequences of idolatry. This elegy, part of the Kinnot recited on Tisha B'Av, reflects on historical sins and tragedies, including idolatry, contributing to the collective mourning and repentance.

and ours is the shamefacedness because of Micah's idol through which we transgressed.

Kinnot for Tisha B'Av (Ashkenaz), Kinot for Tisha B'Av Day 19:18

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