Micah's Idol

The narrative of Micah's Idol, recounted in Judges (chapters 17 and 18) concerns the Tribe of Dan, their conquest of Laish, and the sanctuary that was subsequently created there.

Upon return to the rest of the tribe of Dan, the scouts told them about Laish, an unmilitarised town in fertile land that was similar to the Sidonians', but was unallied as Sidon was far away.

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.

[5] The text has many doublets;[3][page needed] Laish is described as peaceful, unmilitarised, and impractically allied to just the Sidonians in both and 18:7 and 18:27–28; it is stated that Israel had no king in both 17:6 and 18:1; the Levite begins to live with Micah in 17:11 and in 17:12.

Micah is variously identified in rabbinic literature; some Rabbis consider him to be identical with Sheba son of Bichri and others with Nebat, the father of Jeroboam.

[8] The rabbinical sources thus regard Micah as an appellation, and give it an etymology (not supported by modern linguists) where it means the crushed one, in reference to a haggadah narrative concerning the Biblical story of bricks without straw in the Moses cycle.

[11] There is also a tradition that it was Micah who caused the golden calf to be made; in this tradition, Moses retrieved Joseph's coffin from the Nile by throwing a splinter with the words come up ox (comparing Joseph to an ox) into the river in the wilderness, and Micah retrieved the splinter after this, and threw it into the fire which Aaron had cast the gold into, causing a golden calf to come out.

"[14]Louis Ginzberg's classic The Legends of the Jews further mentions that Micah's mother was none other than Delilah, and that the Philistines bribed her with the 1,100 shekels for Samson's secret.