171 There was a man from the hill country of Ephraim named Micah. 2 He said to his mother, "Remember that 1,100 pieces of silver that were taken from you? I overheard you when you pronounced your curse. Well, I have the money; I stole it. But now I've brought it back to you." His mother said, "God bless you, my son!" 3 As he returned the 1,100 silver pieces to his mother, she said, "I had totally consecrated this money to God for my son to make a statue, a cast god." 4 Then she took 200 pieces of the silver and gave it to a sculptor and he cast them into the form of a god. 5 This man, Micah, had a private chapel. He had made an ephod and some teraphim-idols and had ordained one of his sons to be his priest. 6 In those days there was no king in Israel. People did whatever they felt like doing.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Judges 17:1-6
Commentary on Judges 17:1-6
(Read Judges 17:1-6)
What is related in this, and the rest of the chapters to the end of this book, was done soon after the death of Joshua: see Judges 20:28. That it might appear how happy the nation was under the Judges, here is showed how unhappy they were when there was no Judge. The love of money made Micah so undutiful to his mother as to rob her, and made her so unkind to her son, as to curse him. Outward losses drive good people to their prayers, but bad people to their curses. This woman's silver was her god, before it was made into a graven or a molten image. Micah and his mother agreed to turn their money into a god, and set up idol worship in their family. See the cause of this corruption. Every man did that which was right in his own eyes, and then they soon did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord.