Bible Strands
Judges 18:31
So they set up for themselves Micah’s graven image, and it was there the whole time the house of God was in Shiloh.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator describes the Danites’ actions after they settle in Laish, noting that they installed Micah’s idol in their new shrine while the central worship site remained active at Shiloh.
The words — פֶּסֶל (pe'sel) refers to a carved or graven image, and יְמֵי (yemei) indicates the continuous duration of its presence.
The thread — The house of God at Shiloh appears in Joshua 18:1 as the initial location of the Tent of Meeting and in 1 Samuel 1:3 as Elkanah’s annual pilgrimage site. Judges 18:30 extends the timeline of this religious corruption until the land’s captivity.
Why it lands — The verse records a factual parallel between unauthorized idolatry and the legitimate sanctuary, requiring the reader to note the coexistence of false worship alongside the central place of worship.
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
And they set them up Micah’s graven image, which he made, all the time that the house of God was in Shiloh.
Cross-references
- Joshua 18:1 Then the whole congregation of Israel assembled at Shiloh and set up the Tent of Meeting there. And though the land was subdued before them,
- Judges 19:18 The Levite replied, “We are traveling from Bethlehem in Judah to the remote hill country of Ephraim, where I am from. I went to Bethlehem in Judah, and now I am going to the house of the LORD; but no one has taken me into his home,
- 1 Samuel 1:3 Year after year Elkanah would go up from his city to worship and sacrifice to the LORD of Hosts at Shiloh, where Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were priests to the LORD.
- Judges 21:21 and watch. When you see the daughters of Shiloh come out to perform their dances, each of you is to come out of the vineyards, catch for himself a wife from the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.
- 1 Samuel 4:4 So the people sent men to Shiloh, and they brought back the ark of the covenant of the LORD of Hosts, who sits enthroned between the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.
- Jeremiah 7:12 But go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for My Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.