set up: Exodus 20:4; Leviticus 26:1; Deuteronomy 17:2-7, Deuteronomy 27:15, Deuteronomy 31:16, Deuteronomy 31:29; Joshua 19:40-48; Psalms 78:58-61; God had graciously performed his promise, in putting these Danites in possession of that which fell to their lot, obliging them thereby to be faithful to him who had been so to them; they inherited the labour of the people, that they might observe his statues. Psalms 105:44-45. But the first thing they do after they are settled is to break his laws, by setting up the graven image, attributing their success to that idol, which, if God had not been infinitely patient, would have been their ruin. Thus a prosperous idolater goes on to offend, imputing this his power unto his God. Instead of Manasseh, some would read Moses; as it is found in some manuscripts, in the Vulgate and in the concessions of the most intelligent Jews. But Bp. Patrick takes this to be an idle conceit of the Rabbins, and supposes this Jonathan to be of some other family of the Levites. Yet Kimchi acknowledges, that the Jews, deeply concerned for the honour of their lawgiver, to whom they thought it would be a great dishonour to have a grandson who was an idolater, suspended the letter, π:, noon:, over the word ξωΡ: strong:H4872, strong:H4873, Moses, thus ξπωΡδ: strong:H4519, as it is found in the Hebrew Bibles; which, by means of the points, they have changed into Manasseh.
the land: Houbigant contends, that, instead of haaretz:, "the land," we should read haaron:, "the ark;" for the ε:, wav:, and ο:, noon final:, might easily be mistaken for υ:, tzadday final:; which is the only difference between the two words. This conjecture is the more likely, as the next verse tells us, that Micah's graven image continued at Dan "all the time that the house of God was at Shiloh;" which was till the ark was taken by the Philistines.