Unintentionally Humorous Texts: Micah’s Misfortunes: "What Aileth Thee?”

Introduction: Micah of Ephraim is one of the more unusual characters in Scripture. We’ve seen a couple of his misfortunes, but now, in another unintentionally humorous text, we’ll see he faced a problem he couldn’t possibly solve.

Text: Judges 18:18-26, KJV: 18 And these went into Micah's house, and fetched the carved image, the ephod, and the teraphim, and the molten image. Then said the priest unto them, What do ye? 19 And they said unto him, Hold thy peace, lay thine hand upon thy mouth, and go with us, and be to us a father and a priest: is it better for thee to be a priest unto the house of one man, or that thou be a priest unto a tribe and a family in Israel? 20 And the priest's heart was glad, and he took the ephod, and the teraphim, and the graven image, and went in the midst of the people.

21So they turned and departed, and put the little ones and the cattle and the carriage before them. 22 And when they were a good way from the house of Micah, the men that were in the houses near to Micah's house were gathered together, and overtook the children of Dan. 23 And they cried unto the children of Dan. And they turned their faces, and said unto Micah, What aileth thee, that thou comest with such a company? 24 And he said, Ye have taken away my gods which I made, and the priest, and ye are gone away: and what have I more? and what is this that ye say unto me, What aileth thee? 25 And the children of Dan said unto him, Let not thy voice be heard among us, lest angry fellows run upon thee, and thou lose thy life, with the lives of thy household. 26 And the children of Dan went their way: and when Micah saw that they were too strong for him, he turned and went back unto his house.

1 The history

Judges 17 records the story of the Danites, the children of Dan, one of Jacob’s sons. In the first part of chapter 17, these Danites had not yet received their inheritance in Canaan. Joshua promptly took corrective action (Joshua 18-19) and gave the Danites their territory. All Dan had to do was settle there, drive out the pagans remaining, and they’d be set.

But, again, this event seems to take place before Joshua “deeded” them their land. So, five select men, call them scouts or spies, were told, “Go, search the land”. Not very patient, were they? And when they came to Mount Ephraim, guess what they found.

Verses 7 and following describe how the Five Danites met Micah of Ephraim’s Levite-priest who gave them a blessing, so to speak. Then these five went on to Laish, which was far to the north of Israel, These men seemed to think, “This is it!”

And sure enough, 600 Danite soldiers went their way to Laish but first, you guessed it, they stopped at Micah’s place. This time, though, they had more than prayer on their minds.

The original five had noted Micah’s collection of “gods” and then passed this news on to the Six Hundred. When they arrived near Micah’s house, the Five quickly stole Micah’s idols!

The Levite-priest asked a question, “What do ye?” or “What’s going on here?” but I doubt he expected the answer he got. This will lead on to the humor aspect in this story.

2 The Humor

First is one man standing up against five, the same five, in fact, who had approached this priest at an earlier time. But now, these five give this priest an offer he didn’t refuse. They offered him the chance to be a priest to an entire tribe (Dan’s population was 64,400 men able to go to war at the last census, Numbers 26:43)!

Needless to say, the priest had to have been happy, from being a “family chaplain”, so to speak, to serving as priest to a rather large tribe! No doubt he expected better pay and maybe better benefits, so to speak—I mean, who could really live on just one set of clothes per year?

As if this wasn’t humorous enough—a “faithful” priest that wasn’t—Micah’s neighbors and probably Micah himself made a mad dash towards the Danites. But when they “cried unto the children of Dan”, they got a very rude reply.

This, too, I find somewhat humorous. As if the Danites didn’t know that theft was a violation of Commandment 8 (Exodus 20:15), they asked the group approaching them, “What aileth thee?” or “What’s this all about?”

And now, to almost quote Laban from many years before, Micah cries out, “You took my gods, which I made (!), and you took my priest (whom I recruited), you’re going away (with my stuff), and you ask me, ‘What’s the matter with you?”

Honest, nearly every time I read this, it almost makes me laugh! Micah had made various forms of idols, worshiped these things, still believing the LORD would do him good, but now he loses all of it! Those metal or wood or whatever they were made of figurines didn’t have the power to stop being carried away, so how could these no-gods ever answer any prayers?

They couldn’t, they didn’t, and they went on their way with the Danites to their new home. There’s no record Micah ever saw any of them ever again. Micah started off with some, maybe, good intentions, but allowed himself to become corrupted. Only the True and the Living God could and would protect him.

So don’t get yourself in a predicament like Micah. No need for anyone to become an object of “Don’t do this” such as what he provides for us even today.

Idols won’t help you.

But the God of the Bible surely will!

Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV).