Jonathan (I)

I. JONATHAN, a Levite, the son of Gershom, and grandson of Moses, dwelt some time at Laish in the house of Micah, and there exercised his ministry as a Levite with an Ephod, and some superstitious images, which Micah had made for his own use, and placed in a chapel belonging to his Judg. xvii. 7, 8, &c. xviii. 1, 2, & 30, 31.house. But some years after, six hundred men of the Tribe of Dan, who were looking out for a new place of settlement in the territories of the Sidonians,¹ passing by that way, ingaged Jonathan to follow them. He therefore went with them and settled at Dan, where they of this Tribe placed the images which they had taken out of Micah’s house, and appointed Jonathan their Priest, and his son to succeed him in his Office. Now their Idols remained at Dan, otherwise Laish, all the time that the Ark of the Lord was at Shiloh, and till the Captivity of Dan. The Ark was at Shiloh till the last Year of Eli the High Priest, which was that, wherein it was taken by the Philistines, in the year of the world 2888, before J. C. 1112, before the vulgar Æra 1116. The captivity of Dan may denote either the oppression of this Tribe by the Philistines, after the Ark was taken; or the more remarkable captivity of the ten Tribes, which were carried away captives beyond the Euphrates, by the Assyrian Kings. See our Comment upon Judges xviii. 31.

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