Judges — Chapter 17

In those days there was no king in Israel; every man did that which was right in his own eyes. Lapide: this phrase, repeated four times in the appendices of Judges, is the key to the disorders narrated. Without lawful authority acknowledged, private judgment reigns, and every sort of idolatry and immorality follows. This text is a refutation of religious individualism in every age.

Micah says: \"Now I know the Lord will do me good, seeing I have a Levite for my priest.\" Lapide: the supreme irony — Micah thinks his idolatrous worship is pleasing to God because he has a proper priest. False piety that imagines God is pleased with disordered worship is more dangerous than open irreligion; it inoculates against true repentance.