Judges 18:31

• The tribe of Dan continued its religious unfaithfulness at least through the time of the judges. It is not clear if Samuel, Saul, or David corrected this.

• Joshua used Shiloh, a town in the hill country of Ephraim, as his command post and main shrine (Joshua 18:1) during the conquest and distribution of the land (Joshua 18–22). The priest Eli and his sons served the Lord at Shiloh (1 Samuel 1:3). The Philistines likely destroyed the town and sanctuary around 1050 BC (see 1 Samuel 4:1–11). Later, people remembered Shiloh as an example of God's judgment on false worship done in his name (see Jeremiah 7:12–14; 26:6; compare Psalm 78:60).

The city of Dan became the northernmost point of Israel's territory (for example, Judges 20:1; 2 Samuel 3:10; 1 Kings 4:25; 2 Chronicles 30:5). It remained a center of idol worship throughout its history (see 1 Kings 12:28–30; Amos 8:14).

The migration of the Danites (compare Joshua 19:40–48) shows the tribe's failure to follow God's covenant and reflects Israel's decline. Micah's personal heresy (Judges 17:4–5) grew into the apostasy of the entire tribe (18:30–31). The initial covenant failure (Judges 17:19–36) led to social breakdown during the time of Jephthah and Samson (Judges 11–16). Eventually, law and order gave way to banditry and pillaging (Judges 18:27–28).

These two epilogues (Judges 17–18 and 19–21) show that inspired but unstructured leadership cannot last. As society moved toward chaos and civil war, the phrase, In those days there was no king in Israel appears four times. The phrase, everyone did what was right in his own eyes is added twice (Judges 17:6; 18:1; 19:1; 21:25). The era of inspired leadership declined and ended in disorder. Something important was missing.