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Judges 17:1-18:31

A House of Gods

Lyrics · Judges

A House of Gods

Judges 17:1-18:31

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Judges collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Judges
Collection
Judges
Musical styles
World Music
[Verse 1] Silver stolen, silver returned, then shaped into an idol's face, Micah built a private shrine and called invention holy faith. With no king to judge the nation, every man approved his eyes, A wandering Levite took the wage and let the household call him priest. [Pre-Chorus] A sacred name upon a lie, A borrowed robe, a bought reply. [Chorus] A house of gods cannot hold the LORD, A hired voice cannot make false worship true. When every heart becomes its own command, The altar moves wherever power tells it to. [Verse 2] Five men came from Dan and listened to the young priest's practiced word, Then found Laish secure and distant, rich and quiet, unprepared. Six hundred marched behind the children, cattle, goods, and sharpened steel, They stole the image, ephod, teraphim, and offered wider rank to him. [Bridge] Micah chased and cried, “You took my gods and took my priest away,” But strength decided whose religion and whose city would remain. Laish burned and rose as Dan, the stolen shrine became a throne, While the tabernacle stood at Shiloh and a tribe served what it owned. [Final Chorus] A house of gods cannot hold the LORD, A hired voice cannot make false worship true. When every heart becomes its own command, The altar moves wherever power tells it to. [Outro] They carried gods they could steal, And called the theft a blessing.

Named in this songEphodTabernacleShiloh

About the passage

Judges 17: A private shrine reveals Israel’s religious confusion

Judges 17 leaves battlefield deliverance behind and enters one household, where religious confusion is almost casual. Micah admits taking his mother’s silver. She blesses him in the LORD’s name and dedicates part of the money to the LORD by making an image, joining covenant language to a forbidden practice in the same breath. Micah adds a shrine, ephod, teraphim, and first appoints his own son as priest. When a wandering Levite arrives, Micah hires him with wages, clothing, food, and the title of father and priest. The Levite is content with the arrangement, and Micah concludes that the LORD must now prosper him because he has the right kind of religious specialist in the house. The chapter’s diagnosis is blunt: everyone does what is right in his own eyes.

Study Judges 17 in depth

Judges 18: Dan seizes a city and carries Micah’s shrine with it

Judges 18 scales Micah’s private disorder up to the level of a tribe. Danite spies seeking territory stop at Micah’s shrine, recognize the hired Levite, and receive his assurance that their way is before the LORD. They then identify Laish as wealthy, quiet, secure, and isolated. Six hundred armed men return, steal Micah’s images and ephod, and offer the Levite a promotion from serving one household to serving an entire tribe. He is glad to go. Micah protests until superior force silences him. The Danites then destroy Laish, rebuild the city as Dan, and establish the stolen image with a hereditary priesthood. The chapter closes by setting this rival worship beside the house of God at Shiloh. Military success and expanded religious status never correct the compromised foundation.

Study Judges 18 in depth