Judges 17:1-6 - Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible - Bible Study & Commentary

Verses 1-6

Judges 17:1-Joshua : . Micah’ s Graven Image.— The dread of a curse, uttered by an indignant mother against the unknown thief of her money, made the culprit, her own son, confess his guilt. At a certain stage of religious development, blessings and curses are supposed to have supernatural potency (p. 143). In this instance the mother made her curse still more effective by “ devoting” the lost money to Yahweh.

Judges 17:2 f. Change the order: “ I took it; now therefore I restore it to thee. And his mother said,” etc.

Judges 17:4 . Comparing “ a graven image and a molten image” with “ it was in the house” and “ the graven image” in Judges 18:30 f., we conclude that “ a molten image” is throughout a later addition.

Judges 17:5 . Read “ house of God” (Beth-elohim), Micah being a worshipper of Yahweh. As a wealthy man he had his own shrine. On ephod see Judges 8:27 *. Teraphim were also images, but for private, domestic use (p. 101). Micah consecrated, lit. “ filled the hand of” (Leviticus 8*. Numbers 3:3 *, 1 Chronicles 29:5 *), one of his sons, as priest.

Judges 17:6 . This is the apology of a later writer for proceedings of which his age could not approve.

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

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Arthur Peake

Arthur Peake's Commentary on the Bible

Arthur Samuel Peake (1865-1929) was an English biblical scholar, born at Leek, Staffordshire, and educated at St John's College, Oxford. He was the first holder of the Rylands Chair of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the University of Manchester, from its establishment as an independent institution in 1904. He was thus the first non-Anglican to become a professor of divinity in an English university.In 1890-92 he was a lecturer at Mansfield College, Oxford, and from 1890 to 1897 held a fellowship at Merton College.In 1892, however, he was invited to become tutor at the Primitive Methodist Theological Institute in Manchester, which was renamed Hartley College in 1906. He was largely responsible for broadening the curriculum which intending Primitive Methodist ministers were required to follow, and for raising the standards of the training.In 1895-1912 he served as lecturer in the Lancashire Independent College, from 1904 to 1912 also in the United Methodist College at Manchester. In 1904 he was appointed Professor of Biblical Criticism and Exegesis in the (Victoria) University of Manchester. (This chair was in the Faculty of Theology established in that year; it was renamed "Rylands Professor, etc." in 1909.)Peake was also active as a layman in wider Methodist circles, and did a great deal to further the reunion of Methodism which took effect in 1932, three years after his death. In the wider ecumenical sphere Peake worked for the National Council of Evangelical Free Churches, serving as president in 1928, and was a member of the World Conference on Faith and Order held in Lausanne in 1927. He published and lectured extensively, but is best remembered for his one-volume commentary on the Bible (1919), which, in its revised form, is still in use.The University of Aberdeen made him an honorary D. D. in 1907. He was a governor of the John Rylands Library.... Show more

First published in 1919, Peake's commentary of the bible was a one-volume commentary that gave special attention to Biblical archaeology and the then-recent discoveries of biblical manuscripts. Biblical quotations in this edition were from the Revised Version of the Bible.... Show more

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