1. Judges 17:12 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is noteworthy about the term “ordain”?

Judges 17:12 (ESV)

12 And Micah ordained the Levite, and the young man became his priest, and was in the house of Micah.

When it says that Micah ordained the Levite, it literally reads that he filled the hands of the Levite. This is the same idiom as used in Judges 17:5. In this context it may carry a double meaning: he installs the man in office, but his filling the hands of the Levite may also refer to the silver wages with which Micah filled the Levite’s hands.1 From here forward, everything is going to get worse for Micah.