Text: Judges 17:6
OT Text Referred to: Deuteronomy 12:8
Subject: Doing what is right in one's own eyes
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Allusion
Connection Method(s): None
Significance: Judges 17:6 declares "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה, ish hayashar be'einav ya'aseh), employing the exact phrase Moses used in Deuteronomy 12:8, where he commanded Israel: "You shall not do according to all that we are doing here today, everyone doing what is right in his own eyes." What Moses anticipated as a danger to be overcome upon entering the land has become Israel's defining condition in Judges. The allusion transforms Moses' prohibition into a diagnostic statement: without a king, Israel has reverted to the very worship anarchy that centralized worship at "the place the LORD will choose" was designed to prevent.
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Text: Deuteronomy 12:8
OT Text Referred to: Judges 17:6
Subject: moral relativism
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Contrast
Significance: Moses warns Israel that in the land they must cease doing "what seems right in his own eyes" (הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו, hayyashar be'einav), and Judges 17:6 uses this identical phrase to characterize the chaos of the judges period: "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" (אִישׁ הַיָּשָׁר בְּעֵינָיו יַעֲשֶׂה, 'ish hayyashar be'einav ya'aseh). The verbal quotation is exact, creating a devastating irony: what Moses described as the pre-settlement condition that must end becomes the defining feature of Israel's life in the land. The author of Judges uses this Deuteronomic phrase as a refrain (also 21:25) to indict Israel's covenant failure—they reverted to the very autonomy Moses prohibited, resulting in idolatry, social disorder, and moral collapse.