Many versions take this verse to be the conclusion of the first appendix. However, verse 19.1a Revised Standard Version can also serve as a conclusion. The first half of this verse repeats part of verse 18.30, which shows that the story of Micah and the Danites is drawing to a close, all the while putting emphasis on the sad spiritual state of the people of Dan. Their first act of worship was unholy. This is part of the downward spiral that characterizes Israel’s story as told in the appendices of this book.

So they set up Micah’s graven image which he made: See verse 18.30. The repetition here is purposeful and should not be removed. The Hebrew waw conjunction rendered So may be omitted here, as in Good News Translation and New International Version. The pronoun they refers to the Danites, which may be made explicit. Set up renders a different Hebrew verb than the one translated “set up” in verse 18.30. The verb here means “put” or “place.” In this conclusion it can be rendered “maintained” (New Revised Standard Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) or “continued to use” (New International Version). For Micah’s graven image which he made, see verse 17.3. It is important to keep the name Micah here, since like Hebrew, many languages make overt reference to the main characters in the concluding remarks of a literary unit.

As long as the house of God was at Shiloh is literally “all the days [that] the house of God was in Shiloh.” Like the clause at the end of 18.30, this one indicates that the Danites carried out their idolatrous worship for a very long time. The house of God refers to a “place of worship” (Contemporary English Version) or “sanctuary.” New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh capitalizes the word house to indicate this. Good News Translation has “the Tent where God was worshiped” (see verse 18.1), since during this time period there was no Temple. However, the text does not specify this, and in most languages a literal rendering of the house of God will be easily understood. Keeping the house of God preserves the literary flavor of the text as well as the irony expressed here. The Hebrew term for God (ʾelohim) instead of “Yahweh” conveys irony, since this word is elsewhere used in this book by non-Israelites (verse 1.7) or when speaking to non-Israelites (verse 3.20). Though it certainly can refer to Yahweh (see, for example, verse 3.7; verse 6.8), it is also often used to refer to pagan gods (verse 2.3, 12, 17, 19; verse 3.6). The use of this word here may imply that the people were in fact no longer worshiping Yahweh. Shiloh was an important town between Bethel and Shechem, and served over a long period of time as a center of Israelite worship. We might say “as long as the worship place was in Shiloh” or “the whole time the worship center was at Shiloh.” The text does not say exactly how long this time period was, though it seems to have been quite long (see verse 1 Sam 1.3).

Possible translation models for this verse are:

• Thus the Danites set up the carved image that Micah had made and worshiped it. It remained there throughout the time there was a house of God in Shiloh.

• Thus the Danites continued to worship Micah’s idol during the entire time the worship place was at Shiloh.

Quoted with permission from Zogbo, Lynell and Ogden, Graham S. A Handbook on Judges. (UBS Helps for Translators). Miami: UBS, 2019. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .