SEV Biblia, Chapter 18:30
Y los hijos de Dan se levantaron imagen de talla; y Jonatán, hijo de Gersón, hijo de Manasés, él y sus hijos fueron sacerdotes en la tribu de Dan, hasta el día de la transmigración de la tierra.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Judges 18:30
Verse 30. The children of Dan set up the graven image] They erected a chapel, or temple, among themselves, as Micah had done before; having the same implements and the same priest. And Jonathan the son of Gershom] Either this was the name of the young Levite; or they had turned him off, and got this Jonathan in his place.
The son Manasseh] Who this Manasseh was, none can tell; nor does the reading appear to be genuine. He could not be Manasseh the son of Joseph, for he had no son called Gershom nor could it be Manasseh king of Israel, for he lived eight hundred years afterwards. Instead of hŤnm Manasseh, the word should be read hŤm Mosheh, MOSES, as it is found in some MSS., in the Vulgate, and in the concessions of the most intelligent Jews. The Jews, as R. D. Kimchi acknowledges, have suspended the letter: n nun, over the word hŤm , thus, n hŤm which, by the addition of the points, they have changed into MANASSEH, because they think it would be a great reproach to their legislator to have had a grandson who was an idolater. That Gershom the son of Moses is here intended, is very probable. See the arguments urged by Dr. Kennicott, Dissertation I., p. 55, &c.; and see the Var. Lect. of Deuteronomy Rossi on this place.
Until the day of the captivity of the land.] Calmet observes, "The posterity of this Jonathan executed the office of priest in the city of Dan, all the time that the idol of Micah (the teraphim, ephod, &c.) was there.
But this was only while the house of the Lord was at Shiloh; and, consequently, the sons of Jonathan were priests at Dan only till the time in which the ark was taken by the Philistines, which was the last year of Eli, the high priest; for after that the ark no more returned to Shiloh." This is evident; and on this very ground Houbigant contends that, instead of Ĺrah haarets, the LAND, we should read rah haaron, the ARK; for nothing is easier than the w vau and final nun to be mistaken for the Ĺ final tsade, which is the only difference between the captivity of the LAND and the captivity of the ARK. And this conjecture is the more likely, because the next verse tells us that Micah's graven image, &c., continued at Dan all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh; which was, till the ark was taken by the Philistines. Those who wish to see more on this subject may consult Calmet, and the writers in Pool's Synopsis. This chapter is an important supplement to the conclusion of the 19th chapter of Joshua, on which it casts considerable light. THE Danites were properly the first dissenters from the public established worship of the Jews; but they seem to have departed as little as possible from the Jewish forms, their worship being conducted in the same way, but not in the same place. Surely it was better to have had this, allowing it to be unconstitutional worship, than to have been wholly destitute of the ordinances of God. I think we have not sufficient ground from the text to call these persons idolaters; I believe they worshipped the true God according to their light and circumstances, from a conviction that they could not prosper without his approbation, and that they could not expect that approbation if they did not offer to him a religious worship. They endeavoured to please him, though the means they adopted were not the most proper.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 30. And the children of Dan set up the graven image , etc.] In their new city Dan, and very probably had a house built for it, peculiar to it, in the same place where Jeroboam, in later times, set up one of his golden calves. The Danites having succeeded, according to the oracle in Micah’s house, they had a very great veneration for the images they brought away with them from thence, and set them up for religious worship in a proper place; for though only mention is made of the graven image, yet no doubt the molten image, and the teraphim, with the ephod, were all placed together for devotion and consultation: and Jonathan the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh, he and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan : not to the whole tribe, but to that part of it which resided in this city, called Dan; and this Jonathan seems to be no other than the Levite Micah took into his house, and made a priest of; and whom the Danites took with them to Laish, to be their priest, who is said to be the son of Gershom, the son of Manasseh: now Gershom was the son of Moses, and this man is thought by some to be a grandson of his; and with this agrees the time in which he lived, for as Phinehas the grandson of Aaron was now living, ( Judges 20:28) so might a grandson of Moses; and though he is called a young man, he might be a younger son of Gershom’s; nor is his being a Levite any objection, since it is a clear case that Moses made no provision for his family, so disinterested was he, which may be observed against the deists: and it is remarkable that the “nun”, or “N” in Manasseh, is suspended over the other letters in our printed copies of the Hebrew Bible, and so without it may be read, Moses; and the Jews have a notion, that this was done for the honour of Moses, and to observe that he was more like a son of Manasseh than of Moses; though rather this being the first letter of hçn , “to forget”, may suggest, as Alting observes, that he had forgot the virtues of his grandfather; and the Vulgate Latin version reads, the son of Moses; and some are of opinion that this is the true reading of the text; though it may be that another Gershom than the son of Moses, and another Manasseh we know nothing of, are here intended, so Marcus Marinus f388 : however, this man, and his sons in succession after him, were priests in Dan, until the day of the captivity of the land ; not till the captivity of Sennacherib or Salmaneser, when Dan, with the rest of the ten tribes, were carried captives, as Jarchi; for this idolatry, and these idolatrous priests, can hardly be thought to be continued here through the times of Samuel, David, and Solomon: nor is it to be understood of the captivity of Israel by Jabin king of Canaan, as Ben Gersom; for as the other is too long a time, this is too short, since it is clear, by the next verse, that this idolatry continued all the time the house of God was at Shiloh; and which directs us to the captivity here spoken of, when the ark was carried captive by the Philistines, and the house of Shiloh was forsaken; which is the sense of Kimchi, R. Isaiah, and Abarbinel; and may be illustrated and confirmed by some passages in ( Psalm 78:58-61).
Matthew Henry Commentary
The Danites seek to enlarge their inheritance, and rob Micah.
--The Danites determined to take Micah's gods with them. Oh the foll of these Danites! How could they imagine those gods should protec them, that could not keep themselves from being stolen! To take the for their own use, was a double crime; it showed they neither feare God, nor regarded man, but were lost both to godliness and honesty What a folly was it for Micah to call those his gods, which he ha made, when He only is to be worshipped by us as God, that made us! Tha is put in God's place, which we are concerned about, as if our all wer bound up in it. If people will walk in the name of their false gods much more should we love and serve the true God __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ויקימו 6965 להם בני 1121 דן 1835 את 853 הפסל 6459 ויהונתן 3129 בן 1121 גרשׁם 1647 בן 1121 מנשׁה 4519 הוא 1931 ובניו 1121 היו 1961 כהנים 3548 לשׁבט 7626 הדני 1839 עד 5704 יום 3117 גלות 1540 הארץ׃ 776
