. 1: "How does
the city sit solitary that was full of people! she has become as a
widow."--The question is, whether, by the religious objects here
mentioned, such only are to be understood as belonged to the worship of
the idols, or such also as belonged to the worship of Jehovah. The
following furnishes the reply. The [Hebrew: mcbh] only [Pg 283] can be
considered as belonging exclusively to the idolatrous worship. Such
pillars always occur only as being consecrated to the idols--especially
to Baal. It cannot be proved in any way that, contrary to the express
command in Lev. xxvi. 1, Deut. xvi. 22, they were, in the kingdom of
Israel, consecrated to the Lord also; compare 2 Kings iii. 2, xvii. 10,
x. 26-28. On the other hand, among the objects mentioned, there is also
one, the [Hebrew: apvd], the mantle for the shoulders of the high
priest, on which the Urim and Thummim were placed, which must be
considered as belonging exclusively to the worship of Jehovah; at least
there is not the smallest trace to be found that it was part of any
idolatrous worship. It is true that _Gesenius_, in the _Thesaurus_, p.
135, gives _s. v._ [Hebrew: apvd], under 2, the signification _statua_,
_simulacrum idoli_, and, besides the passages under consideration,
refers to Jud. viii. 27, xvii. 5, xviii. 14, 17. But one requires only
to examine these passages a little more minutely, to be convinced that
the metamorphosis of Jehovah into an idol is as little justified as the
changing of the mantle into a statue. From the personal character of
Gideon, who was so zealous for the Lord against the idols, we cannot at
all think of idolatry in Jud. viii. 27. In the _Dissertations on the
Genuineness of the Pentateuch_, vol. ii. p. 80, it has been proved that
the Ephod of Gideon was a precious imitation of that of the high
priest. In chap. xvii. 5, we need only to consider these words: "And
the man Micah had an house of God, and made an Ephod and Teraphim, and
consecrated one of his sons, and he became a priest to him."
Afterwards, Micah took a _Levite_ for a priest. But for what reason
should he have been better suited for that purpose than any other man?
The answer is given in ver. 13: "Then said Micah, Now I know that
Jehovah will do me good, for the Levite has become a priest to me." The
ignorant man knows after all thus much, that the Levites alone are the
only legitimate servants of Jehovah, and he rejoices, therefore, that
he had now remedied the