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The narrative of Micah's Idol, recounted in the Book of Judges, concerns the Tribe of Dan, their conquest of Laish, and the sanctuary that was subsequently created there.〔Judges 17 & 18〕 ==Biblical narrative== The narrative, as it stands in Judges 17, states that a man named Micah, who lived in the region of the Tribe of Ephraim, stole 1100 silver shekels from his mother, but when his mother cursed about it he returned them. The mother then consecrated the money to Yahweh for the purpose of creating a carved image and silver idol, and she gave 200 shekels to a silversmith who made them into a carved image and an idol. These were placed in a shrine in Micah's house, and he made an ephod and teraphim, and installed one of his sons as a priest. A young Levite, from Bethlehem in Judah, who lived near Micah (some translations render the underlying Hebrew term as ''sojourning'', though it literally means ''resident alien'') and was wandering the land, passed Micah's house, and so Micah responded by asking him to be his priest, in return for 10 silver shekels a year, clothes, and food, to which the Levite agreed. The Tribe of Dan, who at this time were without territory, sent five warriors from Zorah and Eshtaol, representative of their clans, to scout out the land (most Biblical scholars now believe that the Tribe of Dan originated as one of the Sea Peoples, hence ''remaining on their ships'' in the early Song of Deborah, and not having Israelite land to their name,〔''Australian Journal of Biblical Archaeology'', Yigael Yadin, ''And Dan, Why Did He Remain in Ships?'' 1968〕〔''Biblical Archaeology Review'', ''When Canaanites and Philistines Ruled Ashkelon'', March/April 1991〕 though conservative scholars argue that the Tribe of Dan were migrating due to being forced out of their original lands by the Philistines). In the text, when the scouts chanced upon Micah's house, they spent the night; when they chanced upon Micah's house, they recognised the Levite's voice (Biblical scholars believe this refers to recognition of his dialect or to priestly intonation〔''Peake's Commentary on the Bible''〕), and asked him what he was doing there, so he explained. Upon return to the rest of the tribe of Dan, the scouts told them about Laish, an unmilitarised town in fertile land that was allied with the Sidonians but was too remote for the Sidonians to be able to offer practical protection. The Tribe of Dan consequently sent 600 warriors to attack Laish, and during their journey passed Micah's house, which the five scouts then told them about. The five scouts then went into Micah's house, and stole the idol, ephod, teraphim, and carved image, and took them out of the house, while the 600 warriors were standing at the gate. The priest asked them what they were doing, but was persuaded to go with them as then he could be the priest of a whole tribe rather than just a house. When Micah discovered what had happened, he gathered his neighbours together and set off in pursuit of the warriors. When he reached them he was threatened with violence, so, realising he was outnumbered, gave up the pursuit and returned home empty-handed. The warriors eventually reached Laish, which they put to the sword and burnt to the ground. The Tribe of Dan then rebuilt the town, named it Dan, installed the idols, and made Jonathan the son of Gershom, and his descendants, the priest. This is presumably the Levite who has featured in the story, but his name had been withheld.〔Webb, Barry G. ''The Book of Judges'', p. 448.〕 Gershom and his sons were priests until ''the captivity of the land'' and the idols remained in use as long as ''the house of God was at Shiloh''. Scholars think that ''the captivity of the land'' refers to the Assyrian conquest of the Kingdom of Israel by Tiglath-pileser III in 733/732 BCE, and that ''the house of God was at Shiloh'' refers to the time of Hezekiah's religious reform;〔 an alternative possibility, however, supported by a minority of scholars, is that ''time of captivity of the land'' is a typographic error and should read ''time of captivity of the ark'', referring to the battle of Eben-Ezer, and the Philistine capture of the Ark, and that the ceasing of the ''house of God'' being in Shiloh refers to this also.〔("Judges, Book of ''Jewish Encyclopedia'' )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Micah's Idol」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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