Bible Strands
Judges 17:6
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator states this observation during the period of the judges, immediately after describing Micah’s unauthorized shrine and before introducing the wandering Levite.
The words — אֵ֥ין ('ein) means "there is not," and מֶ֖לֶךְ (Me.lekh) means "king." Together they form the clause "there was no king."
The thread — The narrator repeats the phrase "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" in Deuteronomy 12:8, while Proverbs 12:15 and 14:12 track the same concept using different phrasing about self-directed judgment.
Why it lands — The text states that Israel lacked a monarch and each person followed his own judgment. Readers must confront how the absence of a unifying authority leads to fragmented moral action.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 12:8 You are not to do as we are doing here today, where everyone does what seems right in his own eyes.
- Proverbs 12:15 The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, but a wise man listens to counsel.
- Proverbs 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
- Judges 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
- Judges 18:1 In those days there was no king in Israel, and the tribe of the Danites was looking for territory to occupy. For up to that time they had not come into an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
- Judges 19:1 Now in those days, when there was no king in Israel, a Levite who lived in the remote hill country of Ephraim took for himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah.
- Proverbs 16:2 All a man’s ways are pure in his own eyes, but his motives are weighed out by the LORD.
- Psalms 12:4 They say, “With our tongues we will prevail. We own our lips—who can be our master?”
- Ecclesiastes 11:9 Rejoice, O young man, while you are young, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth. Walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes, but know that for all these things God will bring you to judgment.
- Genesis 36:31 These are the kings who reigned in the land of Edom before any king reigned over the Israelites: